Stress Fractures: Episode 43

In this episode: We cover stress fractures, or what would be called stress reactions, what they are, where they typically happen, what sports and activities most commonly cause them and some treatments.
Chip Review: Kettle – Maple Bacon (Stephanie Grover and Khem)
Trivia question of the week: In what sport would you perform the Fosbury Flop?
Follow us on Instagram: 2pts_n_a_bagofchips and/or Twitter @2PTsNaBagOChips to see photos, video and get additional episode specific information throughout the week.
Thanks for listening!!

Stress fractures not a good term. Lets start with that. It is a bit of a misnomer. It is not always a fracture. Just like people confuse fractures, breaks and cracks they are all kind of synonyms for the same word, a disruption of the bony structure.

But stress fractures are more of an irritation of the bone then an actual true fracture. Which is why they don’t tend to show up on x-rays. The more common vernacular is stress reaction.

Stress reaction is more closely associated with what is actually going on. There is a spot in the bone that is getting stressed. The body can’t quite cope with that stress and as a result you get a reaction. Pain is the main culprit that limits people. Pain, inflammation, muscle irritation, not usually a lot of swelling or visible irritation but pain is usually the first thing people notice. We discussed this a little bit when we did the shin splint episode.

Stress fractures or as we are going forward from here stress reactions are much more common in females. That is partly hormonal, partly to due with alignment, So excessive stresses and imbalances. What is interesting is there is more evidence to suggest varus malalignment (genu, tibial, subtalar and forefoot) versus valgus.

Varus meaning bow legged and valgus being knock kneed for lack of better terms.

At the Division 1 level females have a nearly 2:1 ration to have a stress reaction versus males. In the military this is almost a 3:1 ratio female to male. Running accounts for close to 50% of all case and you tend to see more stress reactions in the younger populations.

This could be due to activity but also to an immature skeleton. The most common is in the tibia (shin splint). Not as common but also seen is the femur, pelvis and the 5^th metatarsal (outside of the foot).

Shin Splint: Episode 17

- Shin Splint also known as tibial stress reaction comes in two types, muscle; which will affect the tibialis anterior or tibialis posterior and bone; which is the pre-cursor to a stress fracture
- This week we are reviewing 3 different chips from Ireland. The Irish trio consists of O’Donnells of Tipperary Irish Cider Vinegar and Sea Salt, KP Mega Meanies Pickled Onion and Tayto Smokey Bacon. Hand delivered by Mr. and Mrs. Schneider
- Trivia question of the week: What is special about the 37^th parallel in the USA?
- Follow us on Instagram: 2pts_n_a_bagofchips and/or Twitter @2PTsNaBagOChips to see photos, video and get additional information related to Shin Splints throughout the week.
- Thanks for listening!!

Three bags of chips! This is going to be a crazy episode. This is very highly specialized episode. We can’t thank Matt and his wife enough for bringing in three specific flavors. Schlepping them all the way back from Ireland. They are all in surprisingly good shape considering the state of transported chips we’ve had in the past. I’m thinking these have been in the carry on. Yeah definitely.

Today we are going to be covering shin splints, also known as tibial stress reaction and we are are going to be cover, what we are calling the Irish trio. Which is the Tayto Smokey Bacon, KP Mega Meanies, which is pickled onion flavored, and the O’Donnells of Tipperary Irish Cider Vinager and Sea Salt. Yeah, the Taytos are also known as breige pratai blaistithe, which is gaelic I am assuming for smoky bacon. That would be my guess. Maybe they are just messing with us.

Tibial stress reaction, is the more formal name for shin splint. So we kinda see a little bit of two sorta shin splints. One will be the muscle, which is tibialis anterior, which is the muscle that sits right along the front of your shin. That can get irritated, strained or bothered just like any other muscle in your body. When that is the case treatment is a little quicker then if you have a true tibial stress reaction. Which is basically the precursor to a stress fracture.

This is a very common problem with runners. It’s a very common problem with sprinters. This is something that is usually an overload or an overuse problem or a mechanical weakness is involved.

I remember a case about two years ago when Newton’s came out. Which was a running shoe in Boulder. That was more like six years ago. Yes, like I said two years ago, because I’m not that old. This was a forefoot running shoe, everybody had to go away from heal striking. So we all went to forefoot running, forefoot toe running, toe landing. The Newton shoe came out and before you knew it half of Rocky Mountain Tri Club (RMTC) came in with shin splints. So a lot of times if you have shin splints there is a mechanical component that needs to be addressed. Just fixing the inflammation, is usually not enough. We have to do a mechanical assessment a running assessment and what have you. To figure out why is my shin all of a sudden getting irritated, why is my muscle being overused so much.

Stress Fractures: Episode 43

In this episode: We cover stress fractures, or what would be called stress reactions, what they are, where they typically happen, what sports and activities most commonly cause them and some treatments.

Chip Review: Kettle – Maple Bacon (Stephanie Grover and Khem)

Trivia question of the week: In what sport would you perform the Fosbury Flop?

Follow us on Instagram: 2pts_n_a_bagofchips and/or Twitter @2PTsNaBagOChips to see photos, video and get additional episode specific information throughout the week.

Thanks for listening!!