![]() To ensure proper healing, I often place the runner in a walking boot and may even add crutches. Treatment: Runners with a stress fracture have to stop running until it heals. ![]() Pain is often localized in one spot, rather than a spread out over a small area, as with shin splints. If the stress injury is significant, pain may persist at rest, too. Symptoms: Pain while running, but over time, runners also will experience pain while walking and doing other activities. Eventually, the bone weakens and becomes susceptible to tiny cracks, or stress fractures. Stress fractures result from cumulative strain on the bone, without enough time for proper recovery. Flexibility exercises and strength training are also very important as part of the comprehensive treatment plan and to prevent recurrence. I advise patients to return to their running program slowly, increasing the load by no more than 10 percent per week. Sometimes, decreasing running frequency, distance and intensity by half can improve symptoms while allowing somone to keep running. Stretching and low-impact activities that don’t cause pain, like swimming and cycling, can help maintain strength and conditioning. Treatment: I start runners with rest, ice and anti-inflammatory medication for pain. The pain often goes away once running is stopped. Shin splints don’t usually cause pain while walking or during daily, non-running activities. Symptoms: Lower leg pain while running, especially at faster speeds. This condition - medial tibial stress syndrome, or MTSS - is common among new runners, runners returning to the sport after an extended break and runners who have rapidly increased their mileage and training intensity. ![]() To make the diagnosis, I start with with a complete history from athletes about their running routine, including mileage, intensity, pace, terrain and footwear, as well as any recent changes in training regimen. I see many runners in my primary care sports medicine practice at the University of Chicago Medicine. A stress fracture is a tiny crack in the bone and usually occurs in the lower leg, hip or foot. The lower leg pain of shin splints is caused by inflammation and micro-tears in muscular attachments and tissue around the shin. Poorly fitting footwear, running on hard surfaces, and a lack of flexibility and muscle imbalance can also play a role. These common overuse injuries are usually caused by training errors and running too much, too quickly. In time for running season, here’s what you need to know about how to prevent and treat shin splints and stress fractures.
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