I could just fancy some cheese Gromit. What do you say?

I’m partial to some, now let’s be honest most cheeses yet I’ve never thought about using gorgonzola or perhaps a nice ripe brie to heal an injury. You haven’t either I hear you say? Well it seems some people have. Lindsey Vonn is the most successful American Alpine woman skier in history and was due to excel at the recent Winter Olympics in Canada following her successes at three consecutive overall World Cup Championships (2008, 2009, and 2010).

However just prior to the Winter Olympics, Vonn revealed that she was suffering from periosteal bruising (bruised bone) to her tibia. The solution was not horse’s placenta which is a favourite amongst Premiership football players of late, but Topfen, a soft, tangy Austrian cheese that has a similar consistency to cottage cheese. I was never partial to cottage cheese. So in addition to more conventional treatments like Laser, painkillers, and stretching   apparently Vonn had her shin regularly covered in Topfen to help reduce the inflammation.

Whilst many in the sports medicine community have been quick to distance themselves from cheesegate (although they were strangely quiet over the horse placenta issue), and dairy scientists have held forth over the healing properties of cheese, it is easy to see why Vonn opted for the fromage. Athletes will try anything to get fit again – especially in the build up to a major tournament. Vonn was in training in Austria when she sustained the injury and it is not uncommon to treat injuries with a poultice in Austria.

Did it work? Almost certainly not but you can’t underestimate the power of placebo. Vonn was helped by the unseasonable warm weather that delayed the alpine events in Canada, but out of the five medals that she was chasing she managed a gold, a bronze and a fractured finger. For Vonn it was a disappointment and inevitably it was the cheese that made the headlines.

So is David Beckham sitting at home with his Achilles tendon covered in dairylea triangles? No, but don’t bet that he’s not trying something. 

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