Boomers’ Sports Injuries Drive Doctors’ Visits

"Physically,"   Dr. Nicholas A. DiNubile, a Philadelphia-area orthopedic surgeon, told the New York Times, "you can’t do at 50 what you did at 25." The curiously named surgeon, the Times reports, has been so busy treating the sports injuries of baby boomers that he has coined the term "boomeritis."  DeNubile is in good and no doubt prosperous company.  According to the story, baby boomers’ near obsession with exercise results in so much pain that sports injuries have become the No. 2 reason for visits to a doctor’s office, behind the common cold. Wait, there are more stats:  A Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that infirmities associated with the
athletic activities of middle-aged adults were the source of 488
million days of restricted work in 2002, and when the Consumer Product
Safety Commission examined emergency-room visits in 1998, it discovered
that sports-related injuries to baby boomers had risen by 33 percent
since 1991 and amounted to $18.7 billion in medical costs. Geezer is impressed, but still trying to figure out if this is good news or bad. More good stuff on this in the Times. Go get it.