I went to hospital today.....

[juansolo]

See this is what happens when you do exercise!

[Matt77]

Cuprofen gel is cheap and does the trick, depending on what medication you are already taking.

[Sifu Ben]

^Actually there's little evidence of the efficacy of topical NSAID creams/gels. Regular oral ibuprofen is way cheaper and probably more effective (especially if combined with self massage of the effected area, which is probably why people report benefit from the gels).

[tomjackson]

Ouch!  Hope it's better soon !

I broke a rib when playing football just before going off travelling for a year.  Then I re broke it 3 weeks later putting my rucksack on!  Should have gone to the docs really.

Also broke my wrist but decided it was just sprained which meant it all had to be re set 2 days later!

Not played since but that's more due to having kids...

[AndyR]

At least you can still play the geetar with a knackered ankle...

Not if you can't hardly walk and the missus puts your guitar out of reach :lol:

[Ted 'N' Leo]

Damn, that looks painful! My other half sprained hers in July and she was in loads of pain (well, judging by all the complaining anyway).

Get well soon!

[ToneMonkey]

Man up you big girl, it's only a twisted ankle  PDT_008

Maybe you should take your pain killers in the morning when you're putting on your makeup.  PDT_031

[mikeluke]

Better trying to pluck with a bent finger...

[Dmoney]

Better trying to pluck with a bent finger...

I tried that recently... it sucks!

Arnica is the realness!

Incidentally, that's how our old singers ankle looked when he got bitten by a spider, but with more black in it.

[MrBump]

Ian - pics or it didn't happen...

 :)

[Matt77]

^Actually there's little evidence of the efficacy of topical NSAID creams/gels. Regular oral ibuprofen is way cheaper and probably more effective (especially if combined with self massage of the effected area, which is probably why people report benefit from the gels).

Careful! I recruited the person that organised the clinical trials for that one.  :)
She'd be a bit upset if she read that  :lol:

[Sifu Ben]

I was thinking about rewording it a little actually, it comes across a bit strong, and I can't remember where I read it (it was when I did pharmacology). However, as we both know, all you need from a trial to market a drug is better than placebo results with a P of less than 0.05, which in theory is evidence it works but in practice can be meaningless (especially when the drug companies opt not to publish the concurrent trials which didn't show any benefit). Single trials have value but even the best conctructed trial has scope for inaccuracy, which is why meta-analysis is so valued in medicine.

[Twinfan]

However, as we both know, all you need from a trial to market a drug is better than placebo results with a P of less than 0.05, which in theory is evidence it works but in practice can be meaningless (especially when the drug companies opt not to publish the concurrent trials which didn't show any benefit).

That's not the case any more.  New trial transparency regulations mean that a lot more results, positive AND negative, now make it into the public domain.

Single trials have value but even the best conctructed trial has scope for inaccuracy, which is why meta-analysis is so valued in medicine.

Not necessarily true.  I'd trust one large well conducted trial with a defined population over a whole bunch of small random ones stitched together.

I know a little bit about this kinda stuff  ;)

[Matt77]

Rather surprisingly for someone of my background and cognitive impairment I was actually aware of both of your points.

Regardless of P values and other stats etc. I tend to only recommend stuff I use and like.

So for football and wank1ng related injuries, I can honestly say it has been more effective than ibuprofen tablets.

[Sifu Ben]

The registration regulations will only really have  effected products coming to the market from next year, and I'm sure the pharmaceutical industry will come up with new ways to market questionable drugs. Seeing as one of the big problems is how cosy industry is with it's regulators, I'm not too optimistic :( As for the drugs currently on the market, my statements are largely true, and indeed only 2 months ago AstraZeneca settled a huge case about suppression of trial data.
As for trials,well structured large multi-centre RCTs are indeed strong evidence, but unless they went on forever and considered every conceivable variable and ruthlessly tracked down every possible confounding variable, they always have some scope for error or misinterpretation. Indeed, there's a saying that goes "you only really learn about a drug after it's been used in practice for a while". Your point is a little off though, as systematic reviews consider the quality and size of individual trials and weight them accordingly, and one large well constructed trial will offset numerous small poorly constructed ones (much to the chagrin of homeopaths).