Return to sports after knee surgery, is it possible?

Whether you are a top athlete or an amateur, it will happen to you do one day or later: you will have a sports injury.
One of the most common dramatic sports injuries is a torn anterior cruciate ligament, abbreviated to ACL.

When you tear your anterior cruciate ligament or ACL your knee swells with blood. When the knee swells, that triggers a cascade of events which causes you to lose quadriceps strength. In addition you will notice that your thigh looks a lot smaller than the other one. That is due to atrophy of the quadriceps which occurs after an ACL injury.

In addition to the loss of quadriceps strength and atrophy which accompanies an ACL tear you will also notice loss of motion and in most cases a fair amount of pain.

Many athletes choose to have ACL surgery to improve their chance of returning to the same level of performance as they had before.
The sad reality is that many athletes can not return to sports after ACL surgery. The reasons for this vary. As such, there is a lot of research taking place to improve your chance for a successful return to sports after an ACL reconstruction.

But first the question whether ACL surgery should be done.

Botox: what is it and is it dangerous?

Nowadays, you often hear how people have used botox in order to get rid of unwanted wrinkles. Apparently, 3 out of 4 users are satisfied enough to recommend it to others. As a matter of fact, botox has become so popular, there are even so-called 'botox parties' in which the guests all receive injections while having a drink and bite.

Although botox was approved for medical use almost 30 years ago in 1989, it was only approved for cosmetic treatment 15 years later in 2002.
Botox became rapidly popular as a solution to sagging skin. So much so, that perhaps you too are considering to do it as well.
However it is a smart idea to get familiar with how botox works and what to expect in order to make a smart decision.

Why does skin wrinkle when we age?

Normal healthy skin has a nice epidermis with a smooth outer layer that acts as a barrier to water and environmental injury. Skin colour and tone is even and unblemished. Components such as collagen that make the skin look firm and plump.
Elastin is what makes the skin elastic while glycosaminoglycans keep the skin hydrated. These three are all abundant when we are young.

So, what causes the skin to look wrinkled? That is a result of a combination of both intrinsic aging and extrinsic aging.

Silicon supplement rejuvenates skin, hair and nails

It's not only gelatine and biotin that make your nails stronger. Studies show that silicon compounds do so too. Belgian researchers demonstrated the effect of orthosilicic acid in an experiment in which they gave women with an aging skin a mere 10 mg silicon daily.

Why are we so much less flexible when we age?

We cannot stop but smile at how adorable babies and toddlers look when they move: they may be clumsy but their little bodies can bend as if they have no bones to stop their amazing range of motion. The reason is these toddlers have a very high amount of collagen in their joints.