Thread: Stitch

What cause's a stitch??

Found this:

http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/...-stitches.html

Pain in the shoulder blade
To get a better purchase on how and why stitches occur, scientists recently studied 965 athletes is six different sports (running, swimming, cycling, aerobics, basketball, and horse riding). Over the course of a year of training
and competition, 75% of swimmers had trouble with stitches, 69% of runners were afflicted, 62% of horse
riders had ETAP, 52% of aerobics participants suffered,
47% of basketball players did so, and 32% of cyclists were affected ('Characteristics and Etiology of Exercise-Related Transient Abdominal Pain,' Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Volume 32 (2), pp. 432-438, 2000).
A very interesting aspect of this research was that 14%
of the athletes indicated that they experienced shoulder-
tip pain (i. e., discomfort at the bottom tip of one of the shoulder blades). This is an important clue for understanding the origin of stitches, because the tip of the shoulder blade is a 'referred site' of pain for the diaphragm - the key muscle of breathing. In other words, pain which seems to emanate from the tip of the shoulder blade may actually have its source in the dome of muscle which separates the thoracic and abdominal cavities - the diaphragm. Similarly, much of the abdominally experienced pain which we call a stitch may originate in the diaphragm as well.
Why would the diaphragm call out in anguish (i. e., create a stitch) as we carry out our favourite sporting activities? When we ride a camel across the desert (or run across the soccer pitch, carry out an aerobics workout, shoot baskets, or pursue a cricket ball), the internal organs in our abdominal cavities bounce up and down. Those internal organs - like the liver, stomach, and spleen - aren't exactly riveted in place. Instead, they're supported by flimsy ligaments hanging down from the diaphragm, and with each bounce, the organs pull downward on the diaphragm.
That's no problem if the diaphragm is moving downward, too (as when an athlete is breathing in air). When the bouncing occurs as the diaphragm is moving up (when an athlete is breathing out), on the other hand, it creates a lot of strain on that ample muscle. As Swedish exercise physiologist Finn Rost has pointed out, the tension created can probably force the diaphragm into a spasm, creating all kinds of pain and discomfort ('Stitch', New Zealand Medical Journal, vol. 99, p. 469, 1986). Frequently, the pain is intense enough to force an athlete to stop exercising; unfortunately - as mentioned above - stitches are not rare occurrences.

If a stitch grips you during activity, one quick remedy is simply to change your breathing pattern. In athletes whose sports involve running, breathing and stitches are linked together because breathing and stepping patterns are coordinated. Specifically, most athletes breathe out - over and over again - on the same leg. An individual athlete might always exhale only when his/her right foot is on the ground, for example ('Running and Breathing in Mammals', Science, vol. 219, pp. 251-256, 1983).

Four ways to prevent stitching
To keep stitches from striking in the first place, use the following four techniques:

(1) Unkink and strengthen your diaphragm.
(2) Strengthen your abdominal muscles.
(3) If you are stitch-prone, don't take in any food or water for a couple of hours before you exercise.
(4) Relax! Stitches occur much more frequently in tense athletes.