Family Medicine Practitioner
This article is based on an expert interview with David Schechter, MD, conducted by wikiHow Staff Editors. Dr. David Schechter is a physician in Culver City, California. With over 25 years of experience as a family and sports medicine physician, Dr. Schechter specializes in mind-body medicine, preventive medicine, and chronic pain. Dr. Schechter received his MD from New York University and is an attending physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was named a Top Doctor by Los Angeles Magazine and Men's Health Magazine. He has also written several books, including The MindBody Workbook.
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Playing sports is an excellent way to get in a good workout and stay fit and healthy, but sometimes injuries happen. Knowing the most common sports injuries can help you avoid them and recognize what’s wrong if something feels off. In this video, family medicine practitioner David Schechter shares the most common sports injuries he sees working in the field and breaks down how they’re diagnosed.
Key Takeaways
- Shoulder, knee, ankle, and lower back injuries are some of the most common in sports.
- Elbow, wrist, foot, and hip injuries are also common in sports, but less so.
- Icing sports injuries can help with inflammation and pain.
Video Transcript
I see a lot of injuries to the shoulder, knee, ankle, lower back, and less so to the elbow, wrist, feet, and hips. And one of the things that I do is a careful physical exam. I talk to the patient about their symptoms and how they began. I want to find out if there's progress along the way. I want to make sure their mental attitude stays positive in terms of the healing mentality. And I recommend things like ice as a treatment, not just for those first few days, but it's often effective in sports injuries for even a week, 10 days, or 2 weeks later if there's inflammation, which is swelling and redness and pain. And then of course, sometimes you need imaging of those injuries if they’re not getting better. That might be an X-ray or even an MRI scan sometimes. Those are the areas I work on the most.
