Best way to tell a stress fracture from a stress reaction

Metatarsal stress fractures are one of the most common overtraining injuries afflicting runners. Much of the time the stress fracture is preceded by what we as doctors call a “stress reaction.” If you ignore the warning signs of a stress reaction and keep on running in the same way, applying the same stress, the stress reaction will advance to a full on stress fracture they can keep you out of training for months. Most people think and X-ray of the foot is the best way to tell the difference between the stress fracture and a stress reaction. But that assumption is false. If you're trying to figure out whether or not you're in the early phases of the stress fracture injury process you have to take action to figure out what is going on immediately. This episode will explain that process. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about the difference between stress fracture and stress reaction.