Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS): Episode 9

• Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS): signs, causes and tips to reduce symptoms
• Review: Kroepoek (an Indonesian shrimp cracker) by Conimex
• Trivia question of the week: What endangered animal just gave birth at the Denver zoo?

Today we are going to be discussing iliotibal band syndrome. Also know as ITBS. Not to be confused with irritable bowel syndrome. That’s an easy area to get confused with.It is the same initials. It is, and then we are going to cover Kroepoek. Which is an Indonesian shrimp cracker… cracker, chip thing. It comes in a bag, it looks like a chip, so we are going to call it a chip. Sometimes it comes if you get it in, at the restaurant, Indonesia, big sheet. Yeah, yeah, it does come in big sheets. Yeah, that is even yummier. But you can’t find those here.

We have to get them at our local Dutch store. Yes, Eff’s store, Double Dutch. It’s doubly delicious. It is yummy. We are eating it today with… pindasaus! Peanut sauce. It’s yummy. Also an Indonesian staple. You get it with your rice table. When you go out to dinner in the Netherlands, to an Indonesian restaurant, rijsttafel, rice table. It comes with all kinds of dishes including kroepoek and pindasaus. It’s delicious, highly recommended. And nutritious. I think nutritious is highly appropriate, lots of vegetables.

Iliotibial band syndrome, basically we know this as lateral knee pain. Yes, or ITB clicking syndrome, knee popping syndrome. So what’s happening here is essentially the distal portion of what we call the iliotibial band rubs over the lateral femoral condyle. It’s a big word distal, it means. The far end, away from the center. Away from the middle. So the pain is usually on the outside of the knee. It can be on the outside of the thigh. But it is usually more local to the outside of the knee. It can click or pop but it does not have to. It usually hurts when you are going down stairs or running down hill. Eccentric loading. That’s right so doing a mini squat, on the downward phase it will hurt. Sitting into a chair is worse then getting out of a chair.