Orthopedic surgeon reveals 3 things he would never do to prevent injuries: 'Don't wear the wrong shoes for your sport'
Dr Glashow also added that varying your cardio routine can help prevent overuse injuries, hence, mix up your workouts by trying different activities is a good idea. He said, 'As a sports medicine specialist, I see preventable injuries every day. Here are my non-negotiables for staying injury-free.'
Here are three things Dr Glashow suggested never doing:
1. Never skip strength training
Dr Glashow said, 'Strong muscles = protected joints. Focus on shoulder stabilisers to prevent shoulder injuries, quad/glute strength for knee protection and calf strength to reduce Achilles tendon ruptures.'
2. Never wear the wrong shoes for your sport
'Spiked cleats on artificial turf? That's asking for an ACL tear (especially for female athletes). Match your footwear to your playing surface, it matters more than you think,' he added.
3. Never do the same cardio every day
Dr Glashow also wrote, 'Treadmill only → shin splints and stress fractures bike only → nerve compression and tendinopathies elliptical only → hip problems. Mix all three. Your body won't adapt to repetitive stress, and you'll actually get better results. Bottom line: Strength train consistently, wear appropriate shoes, and vary your cardio.'
Want to know how you can enjoy weekend sports while keeping your joints safe and healthy? In an April 2025 interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Rajesh Malhotra, senior consultant, orthopaedic surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, shared valuable tips to keep yourself safe. Click here to know what he said.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Nearly 800 Gazans killed in recent weeks seeking aid, says UN
Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new US- and Israel-backed organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory's vast UN-led aid delivery network read more Women embrace, while mourning loved ones, during the funeral of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire yesterday, as they sought aid in northern Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry, at Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City. Reuters Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the UN, with Israel's army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities. Friday's reported violence came as negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he hoped a deal for a 60-day pause in the war could be struck in the coming days, and that he would then be ready to negotiate a more permanent end to hostilities. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hamas has said the free flow of aid is a main sticking point in the talks, with Gaza's more than two million residents facing a dire humanitarian crisis of hunger and disease amid the grinding conflict. Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new US- and Israel-backed organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory's vast UN-led aid delivery network. There are frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people seeking aid, with Gaza's civil defence agency saying 10 Palestinians were killed Friday while waiting at a distribution point near the southern city of Rafah. 'Unacceptable' The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 'in the vicinity of the GHF sites'. 'Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where… they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable,' UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's deaths, but has previously accused militants of firing at civilians in the vicinity of aid centres. Asked about the UN figures, the military said it had worked to minimise 'possible friction' between aid seekers and soldiers, and that it conducted 'thorough examinations' of incidents in which 'harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned,' it added in a statement. GHF called the UN report 'false and misleading', claiming that 'most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys'. Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP that Israeli forces killed 45 people overall in the territory on Friday. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties. Truce talks In Gaza's south, a witness said Israeli tanks were seen near Khan Yunis, reporting 'intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling, and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land'. Israel's military said troops were operating in the area against 'terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground'. Hamas has said that as part of a potential truce deal it was willing to release 10 of the hostages taken during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war. Netanyahu, who is under pressure to end the war after mounting military losses, said that would leave 10 living hostages still in captivity. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I hope we can complete it in a few days,' he said of the initial ceasefire agreement and hostage release in an interview with US outlet Newsmax. 'We'll probably have a 60-day ceasefire, get the first batch out, then use the 60-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to this.' Netanyahu has said that a key condition of any deal is that Hamas first gives up its weapons and its hold on Gaza, warning that failure to do so on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict. Another issue holding up a deal is disagreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said. Hamas has said it wants 'real guarantees' for a lasting truce and Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza, and that it opposes any Israeli moves to push Palestinians into 'isolated enclaves'. The group's 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. At least 57,823 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The Wire
2 hours ago
- The Wire
With Limited Research and Understanding, Doctors Struggle to Treat Long Covid Patients
Banjot Kaur 2 minutes ago Several Long Covid patients say their problems have been ignored completely by clinicians. But even sympathetic doctors say the path forward is unclear. here. New Delhi: As we mark five years of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, 'Long Covid' remains the most challenging issue to deal with. Though our understanding of the Sars-Cov-2 virus has evolved quite a bit by this time, the phenomenon of Long Covid remains an enigma, by and large. Dr Ameet Dravid is an infectious diseases expert who practices in Pune. He has been treating Long Covid patients ever since the first wave of the pandemic started in 2020. Dr Dhruva Chaudhry is the head of the pulmonary and critical care department at Pt BDS Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak. Like Dravid, he, too, has been working with Long Covid patients. Working in two different parts of India, unknown to and independent of each other, both are grappling with one common question: Has Sars-Cov-2 fundamentally changed anything in our bodies, especially in our immune systems? Speaking to The Wire, both these clinicians said that they are launching studies with the help of other institutions to try and answer this question. Chaudhry said he was in touch with a renowned private university in Delhi-NCR to investigate whether something has "gone wrong with the functioning of our T-cells and B-cells that form our immunity'. These are the cells which are main components of the human immune system and allow it to do what it does. Dravid is working with the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV). 'We want to check the blood samples of those who tell us that their capacity to carry out daily deeds has dramatically gone down which has seriously affected their lives [with those who haven't reported this problem]. And we want to know whether their B cells, their T cells, their antibodies, their gut bacteria, their nose viruses — whether they are any different from others. So we are in the process of doing a biorepository,' he said. Dravid says the initial tests are already providing some hints. The T cells are in smaller numbers than those who don't suffer from Long Covid Issues. In simple terms, if these 'very initial results' hold true, it would mean the long haulers have weakened immune systems now. This, in turn, may explain a number of problems these people are grappling with – from heart issues to gut diseases and many more in between. Dravid says the remnants of the dead virus have remained inside the bodies of those suffering from Long Covid for quite some time, even after they got a Covid-negative test report. Dr B.V. Murali Mohan, a pulmonologist who headed a Long Covid clinic in a private Bengaluru hospital, shares this opinion. Since the remnants of the virus were dead, they did not make the patient sick, per se. But they remained inside the body, and therefore kept triggering the immune system to mount a battle despite them being dead, simply because they are foreign elements. This, according to Dravid, might have resulted in the exhaustion of immunity – known as immunosense. Due to this exhaustion, the system could not adequately do its job when a new infection happened, thus making long haulers more sick. Range of diseases Long Covid is an umbrella term for a host of medical conditions. According to World Health Organisation's definition of Long Covid: 'Post COVID-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARSCoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.' According to the WHO, 6% of all COVID-19 patients suffer from Long Covid. In absolute numbers, this can be extremely high. The US-CDC estimated this number to be 6.9% in 2022 in the country. In India, an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study published in 2023 reported 6.6-11.9% prevalence of three specific Long Covid conditions – fatigue, dyspnoea (breathing difficulty) and mental health. The Wire wrote an email to ICMR on March 24 asking if it has conducted a study to know the broader prevalence rate in India, after this one. The ICMR did not reply despite repeated reminders. In the first part of this series, The Wire spoke to people suffering from Long Covid about their symptoms and difficulties. Doctors The Wire spoke to also listed a range of issues – most of them overlapping with what the patients had said. Murali Mohan of Bengaluru Hospital found most Long Covid patients to be recovering in the long term, but Pune's Dravid said many of his patients are suffering even now. All the doctors that The Wire spoke to made it clear that five years down the line, the number of new Long Covid patients has declined dramatically. According to the World Health Organisation, Long Covid conditions can develop a maximum of three months after infection. Like all other viruses, Sars-Cov-2 is still around, but with its intensity significantly reduced. People are still getting COVID-19 – and so the possibility of Long Covid in new patients isn't zero just yet. One of the most common issues is cognitive decline, commonly known as 'brain fog'. 'Professors have come up to me saying they frequently lose their train of thought during lectures,' Dravid said. Murali Mohan has had some patients who still haven't recovered from cognitive decline. There is no consensus on the pathway of virus causing brain fog. Dr Chaudhry believes that if a virus entered the bloodstream via the lungs, it could have breached the barrier between blood and brain in some cases. The virus could have also impacted the nervous system, known scientifically as 'micro-neural damage', thus affecting the brain. He said that some of the damage in the brain is also reflected in MRIs and other scans. One of the triggers that led doctors to ask for these scans was loss of sense of smell. The virus, according to studies like this, can negatively impact the olfactory bulb – the part of the brain which is responsible for activating the sense of smell. So once a patient reported loss of smell, doctors asked for brain scans. These scans showed that some parts of the brain were affected. Whenever an infection takes place, the immune system mounts a response. At times, it goes into overdrive and affects otherwise healthy organs of the body, by mistake. The diseases caused by this act are called autoimmune diseases. Long Covid patients have reported neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the spinal cord and the nerves in the brain suffer abnormalities. Chaudhry is also particularly worried about the long persistence of pneumonia in Long Covid patients or even those who don't fit under this broad umbrella term. 'In my 30 years of practice, I have never seen this big a number of patients suffering from pneumonia,' he said. Murali Mohan says interstitial lung disease, a long-term ailment which "cripples the lives of people", is something he has commonly observed after the pandemic. Past experience suggests that some viruses have also triggered this disease, and therefore, Sars-Cov-2 doing the same shouldn't surprise clinicians. 'The autoimmune phenomenon can impact the brain, the nervous system, the lungs and so on,' Murali Mohan said. The gut, which holds the key to many digestion-related functions, also seems to get affected because of the COVID-19 virus. The good bacteria in the gut does not let toxins enter the bloodstream. With the gut suffering, its 'gatekeeper' role goes for a toss. Consequently, the body's internal systems are exposed to a whole range of toxins, which can cause a number of diseases. Some Long Covid patients come to Dravid with psychiatric problems like nervousness, hopelessness and excess anxiety. 'Family members say their patient was such a calm person before COVID. Now s/he is like a cat on a hot tin roof — completely anxious, keeps shouting at us for simple things.' Apart from the issues mentioned, all these doctors spoke of seeing patients with the most common Long Covid problems like an increased heart rate, chronic fatigue, chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations, etc. which substantially affect the quality of life. Matters of the heart A group of problems related to the heart have been a key issue for Long Covid patients. The American Heart Association says the risk of heart attack and strokes following a COVID-19 infection remains increased at least up to three years later in adults. Even children's and adolescents' hearts can be adversely affected, says this study published on April 11, 2025. Dr K. Srinath Reddy, former head of the Public Health Foundation of India and former head of AIIMS' cardiology department, says COVID-19 infection can wreak havoc on the heart in multiple ways. One among them is inflammation. As a result of any infection, when the immune system rushes to do its job, it leads to inflammation. In most cases this inflammation subsides on its own, but in some it does not. This is true for infections with various pathogens; Sars-Cov-2 is no exception. Inflammation can damage the inner lining of blood vessels. Veins transport blood from the heart to different organs and arteries do the reverse. They are both vessels, and if vessels are affected, clotting, also known as thrombosis, takes place. This causes heart attacks. The second pathway to heart attack due to COVID-19 could be the autoimmune. As explained above, an autoimmune scenario destroys healthy organs of the body, in some cases the heart and blood vessels.. Deranged lipid profile (three types of cholesterol indicators and triglycerides) and abnormal sugar levels can also affect blood vessels adversely. High blood sugar is a noted post-Covid complication. Reddy says a combination of all these pathways can lead to heart attacks. To know the exact pathway, more research is needed. Link with Covid One of the biggest challenges is to establish that the patients developed these conditions because of COVID-19 and hence can be treated under the Long Covid umbrella. Doctors like Murali Mohan believe that patients may have developed some of these problems anyway, with or without Covid. The other possibility is that they existed before COVID-19 infection, in a latent manner. The infection worsened the symptoms, leading to their full-fledged manifestation. The third possibility is that the COVID-19 virus itself caused these problems. There are several reasons why a direct link is difficult to establish. One is that most investigations, including scans and bloodwork for testing biomarkers, show nothing wrong with the body. Biomarkers are molecules in the blood – if their levels are outside of the normal range, it shows that the body isn't functioning normally. But Long Covid patients, as all of those who spoke to The Wire said, continue to suffer – despite their 'clean' test results. Dravid says physicians need to think out of the box. The CD4 count is a biomarker that marks the status of immunity, especially for HIV patients as their immune system is heavily compromised. There are indications now to suggest that COVID-19 may have altered immune systems to a greater extent. Dravid says if the count is tested for Long Covid patients, and it turns out to be low, then it may give an understanding of an underfunctioning immune system. That itself can be a clue to many of the conditions that Long Covid patients grapple with. 'If patients are coming with allergies following a COVID-19 infection, how about checking the IgG, IgA, IgM levels — that is, immunoglobulin levels — which we otherwise use to check for allergy patients. This is something that many of us may not be doing now for Long Covid patients,' he said. 'Maybe biomarkers for Long Covid conditions are different, which we have not been able to find out yet. We are only trying to test those biomarkers which are commonly associated with a particular disease,' he said. The medical community worldwide is grappling to fill the gaps of biomarkers. This study, a 'global expert consensus' published on April 20, 2025, lists a whole range of biomarkers that doctors must look into for Long Covid patients. It indicates investigations for every system of the body. The other difficulty is to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between these conditions and COVID-19 infection. Because the pathway isn't usually clear, doctors are hesitant to come to such conclusions. Sometimes, doctors have found that nutrient deficiency also causes similar conditions – thus delinking 'Long Covid' symptoms from a COVID-19 infection. 'The significant deficiency of Vitamin D as well as Vitamin B12 can have specific and nonspecific effects causing a number of diseases,' Chaudhry said. These deficiencies are examples of the 'confounders' which render doctors unsure what caused the diseases – Long Covid or other reasons. Confounders are findings that may not align with the conclusions one would normally have drawn. Delhi-based Dr Hitakshi Sharma, a community medicine specialist, stresses on checking minerals levels to rule out their deficiency, because that can also lead to some of these conditions. Despite the existence of these confounders, Sars-Cov-2 is not an anomaly as far as post viral and bacterial illness are concerned. Other viruses too have been known to cause complications when patients have recovered from infections caused by them. Long-term joint and muscle pain in patients post a chikungunya infection is a common occurrence. Even after fully recovering from a tuberculosis infection, some people continue to have impaired lung functioning. Ditto for swine flu. Doctors say since COVID-19 affected so many patients in a span of just a few years, they see more patients suffering with post-viral illness and the word 'long' got prefixed to these diseases – which is not the case with other infections. Clinicians' dilemma With these uncertainties, doctors are hesitant on two counts as far as Long Covid patients are concerned. First, they aren't sure if all the problems that Long Covid patients face indeed happened following a Covid infection, and so, how to treat the issues. Second, and more importantly, investigations don't reveal anything for a lot of these patients, and so doctors end up rejecting the possibility that illness exists. 'I agree it is very difficult to decide whether COVID-19 is the cause or something else is. But if the patient is saying there is a temporal association with COVID-19, we should give those symptoms credence – at least hear them out – and not just dismiss their conditions,' Dravid said. Murali Mohan says doctors are being 'close-minded' when they refuse to recognise Long Covid patients' symptoms just because they can't see anything obviously wrong. "The most hurtful thing for any patient is rejection with contempt,' he said. Both Dravid and Murali Mohan stressed on doctors giving adequate time to Long Covid patients in their OPDs. They said that these patients may need to be heard for half an hour or even more to understand what they are saying. This is made even more important by the fact that investigations don't always reveal the issue. Asking the right questions and taking down a detailed history is vital for these patients, they believe. "Look at their physical issues. Rule out any underlying cause [which could have been present before COVID-19 infection]...that can be the first step,' Murali Mohan advises. It is definitely a difficult thing to do, though, he said. Dravid came across Long Covid patients who had already seen multiple consultants before visiting him. They were, therefore, exhausted by repeating their history again and again. 'That is when we doctors need to be sympathetic,' he said. This Pune-based physician added that it is impossible to quantify many of their conditions, say fatigue, cognitive decline or breathlessness. The absence of quantification makes clinicians sceptical about the problems of Long Covid patients. The road ahead When doctors themselves have not yet understood Long Covid and the issues it presents, treatment protocol becomes complicated. For example, autoimmune diseases, in general, are treated with steroids. However, when the autoimmune pathways to Long Covid conditions are not undeniably proven, it is difficult for doctors to prescribe steroids to patients, says Murali Mohan. Dravid says occupational therapy could be a graded way to help Long Covid patients suffering from chronic fatigue. 'And, then of course, psychological support to them can go a long way in helping them,' he said. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach that includes the services of a rheumatologist (for autoimmune conditions), immunologist, physical medicine specialist, cardiologist and physiotherapist can be the key, he feels. A Long Covid patient The Wire spoke to said she received such a treatment when she was in the US. But the road ahead can be bumpy for Long Covid patients despite the best of intentions of a section of doctors. They say while these patients can recover to some extent, their quality of life may not recover to levels they were at before. Dravid, though, adds a rider to this thought: ongoing research on Long Covid may potentially throw up solutions that could reverse the problem completely. Until then, a sympathetic clinician could help manage the symptoms. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Myles Turner joins Milwaukee Bucks on $108.9M deal, says emotional goodbye to Indiana Pacers fans
Myles Turner, a long-time competitor of the Milwaukee Bucks, was signed by the team to a four-year, $108.9 million contract this offseason. It shocked the whole NBA community. The agreement was finalized on Sunday. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Before his first press conference following the announcement, he was keen to express his gratitude to his fans. So he took his social media for the same. Additionally, he also wrote a heartfelt farewell message to the Indiana Pacers community. After 10 years with the Indiana Pacers, Myles Turner signs $108.9M deal with the Milwaukee Bucks and moves on After joining the Indiana Pacers, immediately won over the fans. However, his ten-year Indianapolis chapter came to an official end on Thursday. This is because Myles Turner has left the team and moved on with the Milwaukee Bucks. In a daring move to keep satisfied, the Milwaukee Bucks extended the remaining $113 million on Damian Lillard's contract. They then released him to create a place for Myles Turner. According to reports, the Indiana Pacers wanted to keep him, but the Milwaukee Bucks' offer was too good to refuse. Shortly after this, in an emotional letter to his supporters, Myles Turner expressed his gratitude. He took to social media and said: 'What's up y'all? It's Myles Turner checking in to the Cream City. I'm excited to join the organization, man, and it's been quite some time, and good news, man, I don't hate y'all no more, baby. It's love.' This wasn't the only heartfelt message he shared for his fans. He also posted a touching parting message on Instagram, addressing his followers and former teammates. He admitted that the decision wasn't easy and that the offer came as a shock. Myles Turner is a dynamic player (Image via Getty Images) Stating the same, he wrote: 'It's hard to put into words what the past 10 seasons and past 10 years of my life have meant to me... Saying goodbye is never easy, especially so abruptly. Together, we've experienced the highest of highs and some of the toughest lows… All of it, the good and the bad, has shaped me into who I am today, and those memories can never be taken from us…' The Milwaukee Bucks supporters are reportedly extremely thrilled about Myles Turner's entry. Now that the former player is ready to start a new chapter in his basketball career, his fans are eager to see him perform. Also read:
