Mountain Biking Hazardous To Your Spine

New research indicates the increasingly popular recreational sport of mountain biking may be just as dangerous as other sports like football, hockey, skiing and rugby. Canadian researchers reviewed 107 patients seen at a spinal referral center during a 13-year period who were injured while mountain biking. The majority of those injured were male with the average age of 33. Of those injured, almost two-thirds required surgery and 40 percent sustained spinal cord injuries. Worse yet, of those 40 percent who had spinal cord injury, almost half resulted in complete paralysis. Moreover, at discharge 2 patients remained on a ventilator. Surprisingly, the study also found that helmets didn’t appear to help in reducing spinal injures, although, they protected the head. Thus, while helmets are important in protecting the head and brain, they offer little protection to the cervical spine when riders go over the handle bars or fall from heights and land on their heads. Researchers advise mountain bikers and for that matter all bikers, to use extreme caution when thinking about or performing any tricks or jumps. They also advised to ride with others and to stay together just incase someone becomes injured.