Sudden Noise Can Lead to Knee Damage - East Idaho News

Sudden Noise Can Lead to Knee Damage

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getty 100814 kneeinjury?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1412768479336iStock/Thinkstock(NEWARK, Del.) — Sticks and stones may break your bones and loud noises can hurt your knees. Or rather, reacting to sudden noises such as a siren or a car horn might result in a loss of balance that spurs sprains and tears to the knee’s anterior cruciate ligament.

While nobody wants to feel like a klutz, even well-conditioned athletes are sometimes startled by loud or shrill sounds, causing muscle stiffness that boosts the risk of an ACL injury.

Researchers put 36 students from the University of Delaware into a special motorized chair where they were instructed to keep from bending the knee of their dominant leg in a series of trials involving high-pitched beeps.

Nevertheless, the beeps induced a startle response whereby the knee muscle suddenly stiffened and just as quickly subsided, which the researchers say makes it ripe for injury because of abnormal stresses on the joint needed for proper knee function.


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