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Research Quest on alcohol and achilles pain

Research Quest on Alcohol and achilles pain
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So I have something to admit ...


​I think a large majority of the studies produced these days are misunderstood.​


Now I'm not one to use strong language, but this makes me so upset that I would even go as far as to say most studies are flipping misunderstood (my apologies to sensitive readers but at least now you can feel my burning passion).

Now before you burn me at the stake, let me give you an example and then you might hear me out.


van der Vlist et al., 2019:


Researchers wanted to see what the risk factors for Achilles tendinopathy are.


  • They dived into a sea of 5111 scientific papers and eventually came out with 9 risk factors that increase a person's risk for Achilles tendinopathy, with one of those risk factors being a moderate consumption of alcohol.



  • The advice that they offered all clinicians is to make sure that patients reduce their alcohol to less than 7 units per week for men and less than 4 units per week for women.


Now, most people would stop there and follow the advice, considering their actions to be evidence-

based. I, however, catapulted myself into the reference list to investigate further.


Turns out that the original study found that moderate drinking was associated with increased risk, but heavy drinking was NOT.



More than 13 units a week for men and more than 6 units a week for women did not significantly increase or decrease your risk compared to zero alcohol use.



So the obvious question is, if alcohol really does contribute to tendon pathology, why is there not a linear relationship? Why do people who are heavy drinkers have a similar risk to those who don't consume alcohol?


Another caveat from the article is that you had a greater risk of developing Achilles issues if your job involved communications than if you were a light, moderate or heavy drinker.


Sorry, what?


The problem lies not with the results, but how we interpret them.


And so I end the week by heeding a friendly warning...


Be careful when you only read the conclusions of papers. Sometimes staying evidence-based means being selective about what advice you follow.

References

van der Vlist AC, Breda SJ, Oei EHG, Verhaar JAN, de Vos RJ. Clinical risk factors for Achilles tendinopathy: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2019 Nov;53(21):1352-1361. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099991. Epub 2019 Feb 4. PMID: 30718234; PMCID: PMC6837257.

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Written by Kyle van Heerden

Online Educator at Research Raconteur

Top 10 Research Quests from Research Raconteur

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