Sports Injuries and Microscopic Scarring of Collagen-Based Connective Tissues
SPORTS INJURIES As the name implies, "Sports Injuries" are injuries that occur while playing sports.
Although many sports injuries involve things cannot be helped with I.
I.
R.
E.
C-B.
C.
T.
Tissue Remodeling Treatment (broken bones, torn cartilages, etc), there are lots of sports injuries that can almost certainly be helped - particularly injuries to the elastic, collagen-based connective tissues (muscles, ligaments, fascia, and tendons).
Although there about a million and one different sports injuries that involve muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia (all are connective tissues of what is called the "Deep Soma"), these are similar to the injuries that occur within the general population.
They just happen to occur on the athletic field, and in larger numbers than the general population.
Muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia are all made of collagen.
If you were to take a healthy person and look at these different tissues under a microscope, you would find that they look very similar.
The individual fibers that make up healthy connective tissues are neat and orderly, and their fibers line up in parallel fashion (think of well combed hair here).
When these collagen-based tissues have fibers that line up in a neat and orderly fashion, they are not only strong, but they have an incredible tensile strength (they can stretch and elast without tearing).
However, when their microscopic structure is altered due to injury, bad things begin to occur.
Injuries to the elastic collagen-based connective tissues, whether traumatic (like a muscle strain or sprained ankle) or repetitive (like the Rotator Cuff Tendinosis that you might find in a baseball pitcher), derange the collagen-based fibers.
Instead of having stretchy and elastic tissue that looks nice and neat under a microscope, you end up with a scar.
Although this scar is microscopic, it has poor strength and elasticity.
This is because the individual collagen fibers that make up the tissue are disrupted and running every which direction - in all three dimensions.
As you can imagine, these so-called "elastic" tissues end up looking more like a microscopic tangled, twisted, and knotted hair-ball than the well-combed hair we looked at a moment ago.
This microscopically "deranged" tissue causes a tremendous loss of normal motion (some of it gross motion, some of it segmental motion) that eventually causes both pain and joint degeneration.
To understand this process better, please read my E-Zine article called Chronic Pain's Relationship to Microscopic Scarring of the Elastic, Collagen-Based Connective Tissues.
Even though many of the injuries to ligaments, tendons, muscles, and fascia, will not show up on advanced imaging tests (X-rays, CT, MRI), you cannot ignore them.
Not only will they frequently cause pain and dysfunction in the present, they cause subtle joint abnormalities that end up causing Chronic Pain and degenerative arthritis, years down the road.
This always becomes a vicious cycle.
Loss of normal strength and function causes Chronic Pain and degeneration; and Chronic Pain and degeneration cause loss of normal strength and function.
Cycle and repeat.
Although many sports injuries involve things cannot be helped with I.
I.
R.
E.
C-B.
C.
T.
Tissue Remodeling Treatment (broken bones, torn cartilages, etc), there are lots of sports injuries that can almost certainly be helped - particularly injuries to the elastic, collagen-based connective tissues (muscles, ligaments, fascia, and tendons).
Although there about a million and one different sports injuries that involve muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia (all are connective tissues of what is called the "Deep Soma"), these are similar to the injuries that occur within the general population.
They just happen to occur on the athletic field, and in larger numbers than the general population.
Muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia are all made of collagen.
If you were to take a healthy person and look at these different tissues under a microscope, you would find that they look very similar.
The individual fibers that make up healthy connective tissues are neat and orderly, and their fibers line up in parallel fashion (think of well combed hair here).
When these collagen-based tissues have fibers that line up in a neat and orderly fashion, they are not only strong, but they have an incredible tensile strength (they can stretch and elast without tearing).
However, when their microscopic structure is altered due to injury, bad things begin to occur.
Injuries to the elastic collagen-based connective tissues, whether traumatic (like a muscle strain or sprained ankle) or repetitive (like the Rotator Cuff Tendinosis that you might find in a baseball pitcher), derange the collagen-based fibers.
Instead of having stretchy and elastic tissue that looks nice and neat under a microscope, you end up with a scar.
Although this scar is microscopic, it has poor strength and elasticity.
This is because the individual collagen fibers that make up the tissue are disrupted and running every which direction - in all three dimensions.
As you can imagine, these so-called "elastic" tissues end up looking more like a microscopic tangled, twisted, and knotted hair-ball than the well-combed hair we looked at a moment ago.
This microscopically "deranged" tissue causes a tremendous loss of normal motion (some of it gross motion, some of it segmental motion) that eventually causes both pain and joint degeneration.
To understand this process better, please read my E-Zine article called Chronic Pain's Relationship to Microscopic Scarring of the Elastic, Collagen-Based Connective Tissues.
Even though many of the injuries to ligaments, tendons, muscles, and fascia, will not show up on advanced imaging tests (X-rays, CT, MRI), you cannot ignore them.
Not only will they frequently cause pain and dysfunction in the present, they cause subtle joint abnormalities that end up causing Chronic Pain and degenerative arthritis, years down the road.
This always becomes a vicious cycle.
Loss of normal strength and function causes Chronic Pain and degeneration; and Chronic Pain and degeneration cause loss of normal strength and function.
Cycle and repeat.
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