Sports Medicine is that branch of medicine dealing with injuries, pain or dysfunction of the muscles, tendons, bones and joints of the body. The bones from the skeleton provide the rigid framework for the shape of the body. The joints allow for movements. The muscles perform and control those movements. Dr James Brown the clinic director is a Consultant in Sports Medicine working in the NHS in Leeds. (click for a brief biography).

Sports Medicine, is that field of medicine encompassing the health of the athlete, but more importantly also covering all aspects of exercise medicine. Doctors after their medical training, complete a higher specialist degree eg a Masters or Diploma in Sports Medicine. This allows a very specialised understanding of athletic or sports injuries and their impact on the athlete. Consultants in Sport and Exercise Medicine belong to the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine part of the Royal college of Surgeons Edinburgh. FFSEM(UK) in the professional qualifications denotes this

Most people can and should exercise. However, there are individuals who should get their doctor's permission prior to beginning an exercise program. Anyone with an unstable medical condition will want to seek an exercise prescription from their doctor. Injury may also require an individual to wait for the healing to be complete prior to beginning exercise. If you have cardiac, pulmonary, or metabolic disease, you should begin your exercise in a medically supervised environment.

Various problems affect the musculoskeletal system. Most people are familiar with fractures, (cracks or breaks in bones), which usually occur as a result of trauma. Arthritis is a condition in which individual joints become inflamed, which makes them swollen and painful. There are many causes of arthritis; some are well understood, but others are still a mystery.

There are other, much more common aches and pains in various parts of the body, such as the back, the neck, the shoulder, the elbow, the hip and the knee. Although sometimes called "arthritis:, these complaints are often not due to joints being inflamed. In many cases the exact source and cause of pain are unknown and cannot be discovered using common tests.

The term - musculoskeletal pain, is used to describe these conditions. The pain is real, but is not usually evident on x-rays. It means that the problem lies somewhere in the bones, joints, nerves or muscles of the affected part of the body, even though the exact source is not clear, Musculoskeletal / Orthopaedic Medicine is branch of medicine that deals specifically with these difficult conditions.