|
 Shock absorbing insoles, and hormone replacement therapy for
postmenopausal women, on the other hand, did offer protection for
some, the researchers found.
"Stretching is often viewed as an empirically accepted method to
prevent sports injuries, including tendinopathy," write the authors,
led by Janne A. Peters from the University Medical Center Groningen
in the Netherlands.
"However, there is no scientific evidence that confirms this," they
point out in Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
Tendons are thick cords that connect muscles to the bones. When they
become irritated or inflamed, that is known as tendinitis.
Tendinosis, on the other hand, is when tiny tears occur in and near
the tissue of the tendon. Most experts use "tendinopathy" to
describe both inflammation and tears in tendons.
The condition can occur in all parts of the body, often around
joints, including the ankle, knee, hip, groin, shoulder and elbow.
It can be very painful, the authors note, and the chances of
recurrence are high, so it often becomes a chronic condition.
"These are injuries that affect not just elite athletes but also
adults who like to exercise, and they tend to be overuse issues,"
said Dr. David Geier, an orthopedic surgeon and former director of
sports medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was
not involved with the study.
"Achilles tendinopathy often affects running athletes, while
patellar or knee joint tendinopathy often bothers people who play
repetitive jumping sports like basketball," he told Reuters Health
in an email.
For athletes in particular, the consequences of having this type of
chronic injury can affect their career, as well as quality of life,
he said. Therefore, it is important to try to prevent injuries in
the first place.
Peters and her colleagues examined 10 articles that studied methods
of preventing tendinopathy. Of these, three found benefits from
specific interventions in preventing injuries to the Achilles
tendon, which connects the heel bones to the calf muscles.
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One study linked a specific program including soccer-specific
balance training to fewer injuries. A second study showed that using
shock absorbing insoles was also helpful, while the third found that
hormone replacement therapy seemed to lower risk for "structural
Achilles tendon changes" in women.
There was no evidence that stretching was beneficial but some that
it might increase the risk of injury in people who already had
problems with their knees or the patellar tendon. This was also true
for so-called eccentric training, a method of doing muscle
contractions.
"While I do think that there may be some role for hormone
replacement therapy or shoe inserts for active individuals in a
preventative or treatment sense for these problems, someone who is
interested in pursuing one of these treatments should consider
speaking to an orthopaedic surgeon or to his or her doctor," Geier
said. "For instance, people have different anatomy of their feet,
such as high arches or flat feet, and might benefit from shoe
inserts or orthotics, while others might not."
He noted that physicians often see patients with these problems who
have been in pain for many months.
"Often, if they had taken steps when they started having soreness
along the patella tendon or Achilles tendon, such as taking a few
days off or seeing a doctor or physical therapist, they could have
limited the issue before became a much larger and more challenging
problem," Geier said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1CQD0Ex Journal of Science and Medicine in
Sport, online March 31, 2015.
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