5/8/10

Heal Thyself

There’s an interesting behavioral quirk that many runners nurse and foster over the years, myself included.  We develop this need to seek acceptable answers to our medical questions which meet our demanding requirements, rather than submit to the expertise of our own doctors.

Case in point: if our doctor tells us not to run, we seek a more lenient recommendation.

It typically takes at least eleven years to become a medical doctor: four years of college, four years of medical school and three years of residency work in a hospital. Depending on the specialty, some doctors may have to complete an eight year residency program.

A part of the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath, that every medical doctor takes reads as follows:  

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and therapeutic nihilism, that is, skepticism as to the value of any treatment.

From this it is clear that most doctors are fully dedicated to the treatment of their patients.  The great majority of these professionals have accepted the incredibly hard work needed to achieve their position as caregivers.  They’ve taken this sacred oath to administer the best possible medical treatment and advice, to their patients.

As such, the most common recommendation given, upon diagnosis of a running related injury, is almost always going to be: STOP RUNNING.

It’s not that they mean us ill will.  There is no secret society of medical practitioners who assemble each year to discuss how to bring upon the demise of the worlds running community.

There are no secret files hidden away in subterranean medical libraries listing the strategies intended to keep you off the road.

Still, there is something about runners that prevent us from accepting the medical recommendation “not to run”.  One friend of mine insisted on consulting with doctor after doctor until he found one who would not deny him his daily miles.

But there are some treatments which you can self administer to relive pain and return you to the road more healed than you’d be were you to sit on the COUCH OF DOOM and wait for a medical miracle or charlatan prescription of quackery based pseudo medical therapy.

Always trust in science and medical doctors who understand the efficacy of accepted therapy.  Avoid new age “alternatives” to medicine unless there is clear and unambiguous scientific proof that they work (and are more effective than doing nothing).  There are many alternative medical therapies that rely on (or are no more successful than) the placebo effect; but they will not help you return to the road more safely than proven medical therapies and the advice of your doctor.

Anti-inflammatory agents such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen can be used to reduce soft tissue swelling and, yes you guessed it, inflammation!  Be careful not to take too much of these pain killers, and avoid drinking alcohol with them.

Aqua running, that is: running in a pool, is a great alternative for injured runners.  It permits the usual running motion and continued training without the stress of impact.  Furthermore, by using the resistive properties of water you actually train with over 800 times the resistance that running in air will afford.  You’ll probably want to wear a flotation device to keep your upper body afloat.

Cryotherapy is a fancy term for “icing” an injury.  You’ll hear runners use the term “RICE” which stands for “Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation”.  Simply put, for most running injuries, you’ll want to take at least some time off, apply ice to any swelling or inflammation for 15 minutes on and off (which constricts the blood vessels of your tissue and allows fresh blood to move in when warmed), apply light compression with an elastic wrap and elevate the leg above the level that your heart is at to allow the blood flow to move away from the injury, reliving you from inflammation and pain.

Heat Therapy is used only after ice therapy.  Where ice constricts blood vessels, heat dilates them increasing blood flow and white blood cells to the injured area.  Heat can also reduce the occurrence of muscle spasms.

Massage is a form of therapy that encourages the flow of healing nutrients through the blood to injured areas, and also can flush your muscles of lactic acid which can cause pain.  It also just feels good.

Bicycle therapy is simply using a stationary bike in lieu of running for a while.  As you’re resting fro running, riding a bike can give you the aerobic exercise you crave while working many of the same muscles you use while running.  This isn’t as good as aqua running, but it’s certainly more convenient.

If you are injured, I know better than to tell you to give up running, but my non-medical advice to you is to try to be patient. If you’re like me (and I happen to know that you are) you want to be running when you’re eighty years young and older.  The only way to achieve that goal is to give the tested and true healing powers of your body a chance to “do their thing”, using the advances of medical science to promote good health: all the while taking charge of our recovery through the self treatments recommended to us by our doctors and made available to us as we work to heal ourselves.