Shedding light on the dark

It’s January and winter has at last arrived in North America. It officially started several weeks ago, but it took a while to really get going.  After a balmy December (for most of the country, anyway), the first month of 2016 has given us, as expected, single digit temperatures and snow:  the Minnesota vs. Seattle playoff game earlier this month was the third coldest NFL game in history. This month is also giving us the shortest days of our year north of the equator.

ACSP meeting coming up — Come to Surfers’ Paradise if you can!

[sidebar and shout out to our colleagues in the Australasian College of Sports Physicians (ACSP)–I am so looking forward to the warmth and long, sunny days of Surfers’ Paradise, in a mere 4 weeks!!!]

But the days are lengthening, and the sun will get stronger each day, of course. And metaphorically, at least, I can find light in this darkness by sitting down with this month’s edition of CJSM.  You can, too.

Yes, ‘shedding light in the dark,’ that’s the image I hold as I enjoy this privilege of being one of a group of editors managing one of sports medicine’s premier journals.  The on-going process of scientific investigation continues to expose the dark corners of our knowledge base, and journals like ours–disseminating this knowledge via print, internet, and other media vehicles–help practicing sports medicine clinicians bring the latest evidence-based research to the sidelines, training rooms and clinics.

In truth, I recently wrote about being ‘in the dark’ (literally and figuratively) as I watched the movie ‘Concussion’ and reflected on how much we still lack in our understanding of this clinical entity, in almost all aspects:  diagnosis, management, treatment, prognosis.  I am reading now with pleasure three pieces of original research about concussion just in our January issue, bringing their light to bear on the issue:

• A study on orthostatic intolerance and autonomic dysfunction in young athletes with prolonged post-concussive symptoms (I am privileged to be one of the authors on that one).
• One on the effects of state legislation (which now exists in all 50 states in the USA) on concussion reporting.
• Another on certain aspects of vestibular therapy in the treatment of concussed, youth athletes.

And as I have begun to prepare my talk for the upcoming ACSP conference (“School sports and youth injury: the promise and the peril”), I find myself leaning heavily on research published in CJSM. To wit:

• A school-based injury prevention program–original research coming from the illustrious Caroline Emery
• The lead article and study in our January 2014 issue, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) position statement on overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports.

And there is so much more ‘lighting up’ this most recent issue.  Have you had the chance to read the AMSSM scientific statement on viscosupplementation in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis?  Listened to the podcast with the lead author of that study, Dr. Tom Trojian?  By all means, do so now!

So…..whether you are one of our readers heading to Australia to join the conference on ‘Treating the Elite Athlete’ and bask in the Queensland sun, or one who will be, for the time being, ‘hanging’ in the northern hemisphere watching those days slowly lengthen……stay tuned to the newest and brightest in the world of sports medicine–on line, on the blog, on social media.