From Deseret News archives:
Doing joint-friendly sports urged
"I think what people are realizing is that the body is a very unique organism," said Dr. Eric Heiden, surgeon at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. "Even though we can design titanium things, there is nothing that works better than what your body has already designed."
Heiden has been a surgeon for more than 10 years, although he is perhaps best known as a five-time Olympic gold medalist. He and his colleague, internationally renowned sports-medicine researcher Dr. Max Testa, will be featured on Saturday's Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline, where they'll take phoned-in questions about orthopedic injuries, injury prevention and how the body responds to exercise and training. They'll take calls from 10 a.m. to noon.
The study of biomechanics has also helped not only advances in medicine but prevention of injuries in the first place. Biomechanics deals with how the body moves from the cellular to the whole-body level.
Heiden gave the example of young girls and teaching them how to land. Because many girls do not grow up jumping off ledges and being rough-and-tumble, they miss out on some techniques, he said, so he's developed a routine where he helps to teach girls these skills.
"They don't have the same learned techniques for jumping and landing," Heiden said.
As Heiden talked about prevention, he mentioned the "weekend warriors."
"A lot of them get out on the weekend and think they are still 20 years old," he said.
The Orthopedic Academy said people who are starting work-out regimens should only increase their workload by 10 percent a week. So, if a person runs five miles one week, they should only run a maximum of 5.5 miles the next week.
Heiden sees a lot of those "weekend warriors" with anterior cruciate ligament and Achilles tendon injuries. Many times, a little education can help to avoid the injuries, he said.
In the past few years many gender-specific joint replacements have been announced, but Heiden thinks it may be "more of a marketing thing."
"For certain individuals," he said, "replacements are appropriate."
Replacements, however, do not last forever. Depending on a person's lifestyle, a knee replacement may only last 10 to 15 years. Hip replacements last a little longer, at 15 to 20 years.
"I've been around long enough to realize there are limitations to medicine," Heiden said. "Prevention is the best first avenue."
Heiden said he only brings the option of surgery into the picture as a last resort. Often, people can be healed by simply fixing some elements of their biomechanics, such as a new pair of shoes, adjusting the height of a bicycle seat or simply adjusting the way they sit.
"The best thing is to get involved with sports that are friendly to your joints and your cardiovascular system," Heiden said. "Have a good warm-up and be well trained and fit for the sport you're going to be involved in."
E-mail: blee@desnews.com
