Health & Safety

A former pro football player says that teaching proper tackling technique so that players don't lead their helmets when making tackles can reduce the risk of catastrophic head and neck and spine injuries in football and give parents a little more peace of mind in watching their child play what is always going to be a dangerous game.

Concussion continue to be in the news.  Which is a good thing, because the media coverage provide teachable moments.  But what lessons should parents of youth and high school athletes take away from concussions suffered by comic Conan O'Brien, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, and the NFL's reaction to its own study showing an alarmingly high incidence of early dementia in former players?  The answers may surprise you.

Heel pain occurs frequently in children ages 6 to 14 as their feet grow and the heel bone develops.The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons advises parents that when their child complains of heel pain, it should be diagnosed promptly because it may be a warning sign of a serious foot problem.

Did you know that traumatic brain injury accounts for 50% to 88% of skiing and snowboarding fatalities and that the risk of head injury and of loss of consciousness increases for skiers and snowboarders not wearing a helmet when they fall.  Your child or teen may not think wearing a helmet is cool, but it could save their life.

Following a specially-designed warm-up regimen before sports measurably improves muscle strength and flexibility and corrects biomechanical imbalances blamed for the epidemic of anterior cruciate injuries among female athletes.                                                        

Sports teams around the country are already experiencing outbreaks of H1N1 (swine flu).  Here's some prevention advice for sports parents, with tips from the Centers for Disease Control.

There are more than 100,000 sports-related eye injuries every year with 42,000 requiring emergency care.  90 percent of those injuries could be prevented just by wearing the proper eye protection. Why, then, do only 15 percent of children consistently wear the recommended protective eyewear?

Which high school sports pose the highest risk of severe injury?  Football leads the list, slightly more than wrestling and more than twice the rate in girls' basketball and girls' soccer.  The safest of the nine studied? Girls volleyball.