Kinesis Physio & Rehab

MADRID (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo has become a father, his website said Sunday, although the mother’s identity is being kept a secret.

The Real Madrid winger and Portugal captain said “it is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship.”

No date for the birth was given.

The 25-year-old Ronaldo is not married, however since his signing by Madrid was announced he has often been photographed in the company of women.

“I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are,” he said.

read more at http://g.sg.sports.yahoo.com/football/world-cup/news/cristiano-ronaldo-says-he-has-a-son–fbintl_ap-ronaldo-son.html

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – – China’s star NBA center Yao Ming and wife Ye Li are the proud parents of a baby girl, a statement released by his US representatives on Friday said.

The baby was born in Houston on Friday and weighs 7 pounds, 9 ounces, according to the announcement from BDA Sports Management. Both mother and daughter are in good health.

“I am very excited about the arrival of our daughter,” Yao said. “This is a very special moment in our lives and we thank everyone for their kindness and support.”

The couple’s decision to return to their home in Houston, where Yao plays for the NBA’s Rockets, had sparked some debate among Yao’s fans in China, some of whom were dismayed by the idea the child could have an American passport.

Yao and his wife returned to the USA earlier this year after spending several months in China as he recovered from a broken foot that forced him to miss the entire NBA season.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100523/tsp-auto-prix-aus-gbr-hamilton-5820418.html

MELBOURNE, May 23, 2010 (AFP) – British Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton has been slapped with a driving charge after allegedly spinning his wheels when he was in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, police said Sunday.

Victoria Police said Hamilton’s lawyer had been given a summons in which Hamilton was charged with intentionally losing control of a vehicle in the March 26 incident which saw police impound the private car he was driving.

“A summons has been served on his solicitor,” a police spokesman said.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, has apologised for the “over-exuberant” driving outside Melbourne’s Albert Park track after a practice for the grand prix.

“What I did was silly, and I want to apologise for it,” he said in a statement at the time.

Police said the McLaren Mercedes driver was pulled over by a police patrol for performing a burnout as he turned into a busy street.

They allege that Hamilton’s car had “accelerated heavily and lost traction to the rear wheels” in making the turn.

The matter will be heard in Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 24.

(CNN) – Teenage athletes who play in multiple leagues and participate in sports year-round tend to overuse the same muscles and joints. The overuse could lead to serious injuries such as dislocated shoulders, torn anterior cruciate ligaments and ligaments usually seen more often in adults, said Dr. Thomas DeBerardino, an associate professor of orthopaedics at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

DeBerardino will moderate a session at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, this week about adolescent sports injuries.

Calling the wave of injuries a “silent epidemic,” he said he sees three major areas of injuries- head, neck and knees. Some young players play on year-round schedules and with several teams.

“If you’re on multiple teams, that is detrimental to the overall health of their kids’ shoulders and knees,” he said. “It comes down to being overscheduled. Along with being overscheduled, they’re overexposed and potentially injured.

“They never have a break. This increases risk of overuse and the adult-type injuries like stress and ligament injuries.”

One example DeBerardino cited is youth baseball. Young pitchers could end up racking high pitch counts in each of their various leagues and increase their risk for elbow and shoulder injuries.

His advice to teen athletes is simple: Learn to listen to your body.

“Each kid and body is different,” he said. “Everyone has a different thresh point. You get an injury if you’re over-fatigued, you’re doing too much and you don’t have enough of a recovery period. Each parent and person responsible for the kid needs to pay attention. You don’t have to examine the kid. Ask them if they feel overwhelmed, over-challenged. When you need a break, you need a break.”

And the reality is not every kid is going to be a Zack Greinke

From Fox10tv.com

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN and JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — President Obama “is in excellent health” and likely to remain able to carry out his duties for the rest of his term, his doctor said Sunday after completing Mr. Obama’s first routine medical checkup since he took office.

But Mr. Obama, 48, continues to struggle to stop his 30-year smoking habit and needs to modify his diet, said Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, a Navy captain who led the medical team that performed Mr. Obama’s physical.

The examination also found that Mr. Obama’s cholesterol count has risen to borderline high levels since his last publicly released medical records, though his pulse rate and blood pressure remain normal.

Mr. Obama exercises at least six mornings a week and plays basketball and golf. But the president has chronic tendinitis in his left knee area, occasionally takes a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug for that condition and needs a modified exercise regimen, including a lower leg muscle strengthening program, Dr. Kuhlman’s report said.

Mr. Obama’s cholesterol increase comes at a time when his wife, Michelle, has started a program to fight childhood obesity.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Sunday that the increase was attributed to the president’s diet. While Mr. Obama often eats healthful meals prepared by the family’s chef, Sam Kass, he also takes advantage of around-the-clock food available to him during long workdays at the White House, Mr. Gibbs said.

“I think it’s a few more burgers and a few more desserts over the past year,” he said.

Cholesterol measurements can vary among laboratories. Presumably, Mr. Obama’s cholesterol has been tested at other times. But the findings and the laboratories that performed the tests are not publicly known. So it is possible that Mr. Obama’s cholesterol has fluctuated over recent years and represents such a variation.

Doctors see a rise in cholesterol like Mr. Obama’s occasionally, said Dr. Martin L. Kahn, a professor of cardiology at New York University who is not connected with Mr. Obama’s case. “Usually that is a lever for the doctor to recommend more aggressive dietary changes and cigarette cessation to warn a patient, ‘Look what you are doing to yourself’,’ “ Dr. Kahn said in an interview.

“Nutritionists tell us that a very little extra food each day adds up to a measurable amount at the end of a year,” Dr. Kahn said.

As for Mr. Obama’s smoking, Mr. Gibbs said the president had tried to quit, but had “admitted lapses.” It is not known how frequently Mr. Obama smokes, or what the figure is for his total “pack years,” a standard measure of a smoker’s risk for diseases like lung cancer.

Mr. Gibbs referred reporters to the president’s own words from last June, when he was asked about his smoking addiction while signing a law aimed at keeping children from starting to smoke. The president noted that 90 percent of smokers began on or before their 18th birthday.

“I know — I was one of those teenagers,” Mr. Obama said. “I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.”

He added: “I would say that I am 95 percent cured, but there are times where I mess up.”

Mrs. Obama admonished him to quit smoking when he started his campaign in 2007, saying, “He couldn’t be a smoking president.”

Mr. Obama chews nicotine gum to cut down on his smoking.

“Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes,” Mr. Obama said last June at a White House news conference. “Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.”

Read the full text http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/politics/01obama.html?ref=nutrition

The Achilles tendon connects the back of the heel bone to the calf muscle and drives the foot off the ground. It can be vulnerable because a lot is required of it–in many sports, for example, the tendon is subjected to an enormous amount of stress from repetitive pounding, turning, running and jumping. That can lead to inflammation, pain, and even micro-tears. When those tears form scar tissue, the tendon becomes inflexible and can be extremely painful.

In extreme cases, like Beckham’s, the Achilles tendon can completely rupture. People often feel the tendon snap, followed by searing pain and an inability to walk on that leg.

What comes next is up to you and your doctor. Some cases are treated surgically, some non-surgically, with both typically involving a cast and/or functional brace that allows some ankle movement, followed by physical therapy. Neither treatment guarantees that the tendon won’t re-rupture, although surgery has a slight edge on that. So which is better?

A study presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in New Orleans last week showed little difference in outcomes from surgery versus non-surgery for a ruptured Achilles.

There were also no substantial differences in the participants’ level of physical activity or in their symptoms and function during follow-ups at six and 12 months.

The group that had surgery did show more improvement in function at six months, but at 12 months the groups were neck and neck–save for one heel-rise test on which the surgery group did better. During the year-long follow-up both groups showed progress, but injured legs still had a reduction in function compared with uninjured legs.

Professional athletes are generally treated with surgery for an Achilles rupture, says Dr. David McAllister, professor of orthopedic surgery and chief of sports medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The recovery is faster and the repair is likely to be more durable, and that’s everything for a pro athlete.”

Beckham will likely be able to play again after several months and a lot of rehab, McAllister added. Achilles ruptures are not always a career-ender–even for a weekend warrior. McAllister said many of his patients are middle-age men who play in recreational basketball leagues. “Even though they’re not pros it’s a big part of their existence,” he says. “The vast majority get back to playing basketball.”

Read the full text from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/03/oh-snap-beckhams-achilles-injury-is-bad-but-not-uncommon.html

Researcher urges installation of bigger buttons to stop closing doors

Feb (HealthDay News) — Over 2,600 senior citizens suffer serious elevator-related injuries each year in the United States, and three-quarters of them are women, according to the results of the first large-scale study of these events.

Slips, trips and falls accounted for more than half of the injuries, and about one-third were caused by elevator doors closing on a person. The third most common cause of injuries were those related to the wedging of walkers in elevator door openings, the researchers reported in the January issue of the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care.

The study authors analyzed elevator-related injuries that were serious enough to send a person aged 65 years or older to an emergency department. Almost half of the injuries were “soft-tissue” injuries such as sprains and bruises, they noted.

“Elevator-related injuries are not accidental; they are easily preventable. Individuals of any age, but especially older adults, who often have vision or balance issues, should not stick an arm or leg or walker into the path of a closing elevator door,” Greg Steele, associate professor of epidemiology in the department of public health at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a university news release.

He had another suggestion to improve rider safety. “Elevator open buttons should be made twice the size of the other elevator buttons so they are not hard to find by passengers who want to stop the door from closing on an approaching individual,” Steele said. “This would be very inexpensive to change because electronics don’t have to be altered, just the button. Certainly all newly installed or updated elevators should have such buttons.”
SOURCE: Indiana University School of Medicine, news release, February, 2010HealthDay

From

The Australian online http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/moguls-mans-miracle-recovery/story-e6frg7mf-1225825680262

RISING moguls skier Ramone Cooper has made what doctors are describing as a miraculous recovery from a stretched posterior cruciate knee ligament to take his place in the Australian team for the Vancouver Games.

Cooper, 21, tore a ligament in his knee in a training accident in Utah on January 13 and was given less than a 5 per cent chance of recovering in time to compete in the men’s moguls on February 14.

The only good news was that his anterior cruciate ligament was intact, so he did not need a knee reconstruction.

But that slim hope, combined with a pep talk from veteran aerials star Jacqui Cooper (no relation), was enough to inspire him to make a dash to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for intensive rehabilitation.

A team of experts in physiotherapy, physiology, strength and conditioning was assembled to work with Cooper eight hours a day to achieve the near-impossible feat of salvaging his Games. His treatment has included daily ultrasound, magnetic field therapy, water-walking, ice baths, physiotherapy and weight-training.

Twelve days later his knee is now back to 92 per cent health and he has passed the fitness test required by the Australian Olympic Committee.

Cooper is surprised at how well his knee has healed.

“But by the time I did the fitness test I was really surprised at how well I went. I was almost as good on my bad leg as on my good leg,” he said.