Dr. Miho Tanaka: Advice for avoiding (or treating) muscle and joint injuries

Today, we welcome back to Midday a wonderful friend of the show, Dr. Miho Tanaka. She’s an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine expert who will answer your questions about training and exercise. We call our segments with Dr. Tanaka, What Hurts Today? If you’ve got something that hurts, feel free to give us a call… But first, the Baltimore Running Festival is back. On Saturday (October 9), runners will hit the streets in four different events: the 26-mile full marathon, a half marathon, a 10K race (that’s about 6 miles) and a 5K race (that’s about 3 miles). It’s the 20th anniversary of this popular event, which like so many events, took a COVID-related hiatus last year. Tom's first guest today is Lee Corrigan, the Festival's executive race director and president of Corrigan Sports Enterprises, the Elkridge-based company that organizes this and many other footraces across the region. After Mr. Corrigan's marathon preview, it’s time for a Midday segment that, like the Baltimore Running Festival, has been absent during the pandemic. It’s a segment we call, with our tongues firmly ensconced in our cheeks, What Hurts Today? We pose this question because, let’s face it. Something hurts. Your knee. Your shoulder. Your elbow. Your ankle. I ask with all due respect, with genuine concern,and with a shared sense of what it means to have things that hurt. I have things that hurt, and so do you. And what’s more fun than comparing what hurts? Dr. Miho Tanaka specializes in what hurts. She is an acclaimed orthopedic surgeon and the director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She is a member of the faculty at the Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Tanaka has treated professional athletes and weekend-warriors alike. Whether or not you are running in one of the races in the Baltimore Running Festival this weekend, or your idea of a good time is hopping on your bike and riding, or leashing up your dog and walking, or playing soccer or tennis or golf or lifting weights; whatever you like to do to keep active and fit, Dr. Tanaka is here to answer questions you may have about how to stay active and injury-free, and to suggest some things to think about if you have an injury you need to address. Dr. Miho Tanaka joins us on our digital line from Boston. We welcome your questions and comments.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.