Nutrition and Health
Contributed Pauline Myers
Be Prepared!
Health Tips - Moving to out door summer activities.
Summers is coming, and with it we can shake off the inside limits and move into the out of doors for activity. With this activity come the possibility of muscle and joint injury and it is best to be prepared.
There are two kinds of injury, over use and trauma.
Please call 911 immediately if you are having chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, sudden weakness or numbness, or if you think you have a medical emergency.
The over use can be prevented with stretching your muscles before and activity, drink lots of water and use wisdom.
- 1. Stretching: to be done twice a day for all muscles and then additionally just before the activity. Not using your muscles and then after 5 stretches, you can get into trouble.
- 2. Drink 8 8 oz of water. More if you are outside in warm weather.
- 3. Wisdom: Just because you did it last summer does not mean you can go back to the same level of intensity. Start slow to moderate and work up. Keep sports safe. Make sure your child & adults wear protective gear when playing active sports, such as wrist guards, knee and elbow pads, and a helmet when in-line skating or biking.
Trauma is when something happens that was not in your control, resulting in muscle or bone pain.
If you have any questions about the severity of the injury you need to be examine by a doctor or at an urgency care clinic/ER.
If you decide that you want to care for it at home, consider the PRICE Formula: Protection Rest Ice Compression Elevation
Protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation can help the affected muscle. Here's how: First, remove all constrictive clothing, including jewelry, in the area of muscle strain.
- Protect the strained muscle from further injury.
- Rest the strained muscle. Avoid the activities that caused the strain and other activities that are painful.
- Ice the muscle area (20 minutes every hour while awake). Ice is a very effective anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving agent. Small ice packs, such as packages of frozen vegetables or water frozen in foam coffee cups, applied to the area may help decrease inflammation.
- Compression can be a gently applied with an Ace or other elastic bandage, which can provide both support and decrease swelling. Do not wrap tightly.
- Elevate the injured area to decrease swelling. Prop up a strained leg muscle while sitting, for example.
Activities that increase muscle pain or work the affected body part are not recommended until the pain has significantly gone away.
For more information: www.firstaid.webmd.com or cdc.gov