Doc On The Run Podcast

Today on the Doc On the Run Podcast were talking about how runners can get the very best second opinion. The other day I had an interesting conversation with a runner who has had a really difficult time recovering. The bottom line is that she had a couple of surgeries that didn’t work out exactly the way she expected and now she is still having trouble. So we were having a conversation about how s...

Have you ever had a race that you really only made it through just because you believe you can do it? Sometimes you get to a place where it seems like all you have left is hope and when you get to that place it seems like hope is really all that you need. Today I was doing a remote consultation call with a frustrated runner in Texas. We worked through her problem and came up with some options that...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we are talking about how you can use the power of meditation to relax and heal. Jason Stephenson has been involved in the meditation and relaxation field for over fifteen years and he even has a YouTube meditation sleep music channel that has over 700,00 subscribers with over 90 million views. For whatever reason when runners become injured they don't really see...

Every day I talk to runners who tell me their doctor said they have to stop running. Just stop and think about that for a minute. A runner is told to stop running. A runner has pain in her foot. Maybe it’s a metatarsal stress fracture. Maybe it’s a plantar plate sprain. Maybe it’s plantar fasciitis. But the runner wants to run and not have foot pain. So the runner makes an appointment with a suppo...

Today I was on a 15 minute Virtual Doctor Visit call with a runner who has been trying to get over a nagging case of Achilles tendinitis and still wants to do well in the Boston Marathon. It may not surprise you to hear that he is worried about how skipping long runs to protect the Achilles tendon will make it very difficult for him to have a good run in Boston. He’s been doing all the right stuff...

This episode is based on a question sent in from one of our listeners and she actually wrote in and said “I mistakenly had “plantar release” done to my right foot 16 years ago. I am no longer able to run because my arch has collapsed and my foot now rolls inward significantly with every step. I’m in constant pain in both of my knees (because of the change in my gait) as well as my foot as a result...

Today on the Doc On the Run Podcast we’re talking about the special considerations overweight runners need to think about when they want to get to their goals without getting injured.  I am really excited to have Gary Stotler on the show today and Gary is a guy who is truly inspirational. He actually went from 400 pounds to running 100 miles.

I’m really excited to have Dr. Stephan Guyenet as a guest expert today. Dr. Guyenet spent 12 years at the University of Washington as a neuroscience and obesity researcher. Much of that time he was studying the role of the brain in eating behavior and body fatness. His publications have been cited more than 1,400 times by other scientists and in peer-reviewed scientific publications. He is the aut...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking with Linda Hall about meditation and how to focus on the mind-body connection and stress management as a tool that runners can use to recover faster, decrease the risk of running injury and hopefully even recover from overtraining injuries.

This week I got a couple of calls from runners who had various different forms of foot pain and they both said the doctor they saw said they had a condition called synovitis. They were both understandably confused because neither one of them really understood what “synovitis” really means.  Synovial tissue is the tissue that makes the fluid that lubricates your joints. The fluid on the inside of y...

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about muscle atrophy after recovering in a fracture walking boot, and what runners can do to prevent it.” I recently met Kim and she was explaining to me that she had an Achilles tendon rupture and then developed this same kind of muscle atrophy we all become concerned about. Fortunately for all of us, she was willing enough to come on the show and...

Sleep may be the most valuable, most abundant, least expensive, and yet most underutilized resource available to a recovering or injured runner. If you are a runner, you are always recovering. You do tissue damage every time you run. If you run a little too much, or you run a little too far, you might get an over training injury. That overtraining injury is really nothing more than an exaggerated...

The problem with running injuries is that they are easy to ignore. A little tightness here or little achiness there is nothing compared to the pain you feel in those final few miles of a marathon. Runners are used to ignoring pain. One of the most important elements of training for endurance sports is learning how to endure. After all, enduring is the name of the game. You have to learn how to kee...

A goal is not a fantasy. A goal is not a dream. It’s a place you clearly want to end up. If that goal is important to you, I believe you can get there. No matter how far-fetched, outlandish, or seemingly difficult to achieve, there is always a way to get there. They set all kinds of goals for themselves, their families, their finances, and of course, their athletic goals as well. For most people t...

Over and over patients tell me their doctor has told them to quit running. The doctor has said that running is at the root cause of the running injury. B.S.! Breathing doesn't cause lung disease. Eating doesn't cause stomach upset or heart disease. Driving doesn't cause automobile accidents. Spending money doesn't cause bankruptcy. Running doesn't cause running injuries.  Running isn't the problem...

Rodney asked about a non-displaced fifth metatarsal fracture. He said “Hi, it’s been 8 weeks and my orthopedic doctor says it’s healed. Even though the x-ray doesn’t look like it’s healed. There is still a black in the gap where it was broken. He says that line will be there. Is this possible?” Metatarsal fractures are extremely common. In fact metatarsal bones are fractured more often than any ot...

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about how you can tell when it’s okay to resume running with a stress fracture.   A runner named Whitney recently sent a great question to me on Twitter. Whitney asked “if you suspect a stress reaction/fracture how do you know when it’s healed enough to resume running? Thanks for your podcast!”   As we all know stress fractures in the foot are one...

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast I’m really excited to have Marla on the show to talk about her experience with recovering from a running injury. Running injuries can be really difficult for lots of reasons and one of the reasons I think they seem to be so difficult is that the standard of approach in medicine is to first tell you to “stop running”. Sometimes the standard medical approach, or t...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we are going to discuss how Paternalism fails runners. During a sermon one Sunday morning in 1896 in Dayton, Ohio, Bishop Milton Wright said, “If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings!” Lucky for us, his sons didn't listen. Had Wilbur and Orville actually taken their father’s admonitions to heart, it would certainly take us a lot longer to get fro...

Stress fractures are one of the most common running injuries. And every runner who gets a stress fracture has to, at least in same capacity, reduce their activity to heal. Sometimes the runner has to stop running for a brief period of time. Sometime you can just run less, modify the way that you run, or come up with some creative strategies to keep running.  You never get a second chance to do you...

Pain is a part of running. There is a saying often lauded by athletes and we have all heard, “Pain is just weakness leaving your body.” We affectionately call our training studios “Pain Caves.” We bask in the discomfort of pain, knowing it will make us stronger. In training we embrace pain as an ally. But when you get an over-training injury, pain when running is no longer your friend. The pain fo...

A few days ago a guy named Vito sent in a great question. “I was in a walking boot for 6 weeks due to ankle fracture, no surgery. I am out of the boot and doing physical therapy to restore flexibility and strength. Can I safely being running again after a period of time?" This is a very common question I hear from runners simply because one of the most common treatments for running injures like st...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast I’m really excited have Dr. Vinh Ngo from Smart Medicine San Francisco. Doctor Ngo is going to explain hormone replacement as a way to make sure your training at full capacity and at lowest risk of injury. Dr. Ngo is a UCSF trained physician and he is an expert in men’s health and hormone optimization. So today I’m really excited that he’s here to share his inte...

A few days ago I was doing a phone consultation for a patient who had a fracture in his fifth metatarsal. I was trying to help him understand how important it is to reduce inflammation to speed healing. During our call he asked a great question. “Should I wear compression socks if I have a running injury?” In this episode were talking about whether or not you should wear compression socks when you...

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we have Tina Deane who is the owner of Massage Works in Los Gatos. This episode will help you understand how runners and triathletes can use massage as a tool to simply run more, train more, train harder, workout more, build your fitness more with a lower risk of injury.