All Articles by Lindsey Barton Straus, JD

The increased popularity of cheerleading as a competitive, year-round sport involving complex acrobatic stunts has been accompanied by a steady increase in the number and severity of injuries, many of which could be prevented by taking simple safety precautions, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Girls don't appear to be worse off after sports-related concussion than boys, either in terms of concussion symptoms or on neurocognitive tests measuring reaction time and visual memory, a new study finds.

Pre- or early adolescence appears to be the best time to start a neuromuscular training program in order to reduce the number of injuries female athletes suffer to their anterior cruciate ligaments, says a new study.

Concussions, and even lesser subconcussive head trauma, may speed up the brain's natural aging process says a new study which found changes in gait, balance, and in the brain's electrical activity in areas measuring attention and impulse control in otherwise healthy college students with a history of concussion.

Vitamin D deficiency is common in athletes. Correcting the deficiency by taking a Vitamin D supplement can produce significant musculoskeletal sports health benefits, says a new study.

Most soccer players are able to return to play after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery (ACLR), but one in eight who return end up having additional surgery, with females and those whose first surgery was on their non-dominant leg most at risk, a new study finds.

Female adolescent soccer players who followed a 15-minute neuromuscular warm-up program twice a week in training over the course of a season experienced a 64% reduction in the rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury compared to players who did not follow such a program, according to a 2012 Swedish study.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) has issued a valuable new position statement summarizing the best available evidence related to the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and calling for improved understanding of AAS in the sports medicine and athletic communities.

Neuromuscular and educational training programs designed to prevent injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) among young athletes appear to cut the risk of ACL injuries in half, according to a new study, although researchers were unable from a review of 14 studies to determine which components of the training interventions were most or least effective.

California has moved to strengthen its youth sports concussion safety law by adding training on concussions to the first aid certification required of all California high school coaches.