How do they walk in these things?

THURSDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- The first direct proof of how osteoarthritis destroys cartilage has been discovered by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.

They said their finding could lead to preventive treatments for a disease that affects almost 21 million aging Americans and is the leading cause of disability in the United States.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental gout drug called pegloticase lowered levels of uric acid in the blood to target levels within a few hours in most patients.

That's the conclusion of a study by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and Savient Pharmaceuticals, the company that's developing the drug.

(HealthDay News) -- When a splint or cast is applied to help a broken bone heal, the cast itself requires some care.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons offers these suggestions:

* Keep your cast dry. Use two layers of waterproof protection to cover it when you shower.
* If you have a walking cast, give it plenty of time to dry and harden before you try to walk on it -- about an hour for a fiberglass cast and two to three days for plaster.
* Avoid letting sand, dirt or powder get into your cast.

(HealthDay News) -- A herniated (sometimes called "ruptured") disk in the back or neck can cause severe pain and numbness.

Disks are the soft, rubbery pads found between the spine's vertebrae. When stressed or overused from wear-and-tear, the center of the disk can push through its outer edge, putting pressure on nearby sensitive nerves.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists these common risk factors for herniated disks:

* Lifting objects the wrong way.
* Smoking.
* Being overweight, which causes stress on the spine.

THURSDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The ability to brake suddenly while driving is fully returned six weeks following bunion surgery, researchers say.

A bunion is the bump just below the big toe that can occur when the big toe begins to angle sideways toward the second toe. Bunions can become swollen and painful, sometimes making it hard to walk. In these cases, surgical treatment to realign the bone, ligaments, and tendons may be required.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Over the past 25 years, cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of all catastrophic sports injuries experienced by high school and college females in the United States, a much higher proportion than previously thought, a new report says.

Cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of female high school athlete injuries and for 66.7 percent of female college athlete injuries.

FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- New details about how rheumatoid arthritis destroys bone have been uncovered by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers, who said their findings are already helping efforts to create new drugs to reverse the process.

Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that affects about two million Americans, causes swelling, pain and deformity in joints and also thins bone.

THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Text messaging may not seem an obvious safety concern. But the American College of Emergency Physicians warns that being distracted by text messaging at inappropriate times -- such as when crossing streets -- can result in serious injury or death.

Teens and young adults, in particular, "are arriving in emergency departments with serious and sometimes fatal injuries, because they were not paying attention while texting," ACEP President Dr. Linda Lawrence said in a news release.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A modified form of MRI may help diagnosis osteoarthritis at an early stage when it may be possible to prevent or reduce permanent joint damage, say U.S. researchers.