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Lead Stories: Sunday, October 12, 2008

Low Bone Density: A Serious Risk Factor for Athletes

Posted October 29th, 2007 at 5:20 PM by Megan Hueter

Section: Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise

A University of Missouri study suggests that athletic men may be at risk for low bone density. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, “osteoporosis affects more than 2 million men in the United States and nearly 12 million more have osteopenia– clinically significant low bone density that is less severe than osteoporosis.” The study now suggests that men who engage in low-impact forms of exercise have a higher incidence of osteopenia.

Pamela Hinton, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Missouri’s College of Human Environmental Sciences claims that “Regular, non-weight-bearing activities, such as swimming and cycling are effective measures for preventing the leading risk factors for death and disability in our society, but the results of this study suggest that regular weight-bearing activities, such as running, jogging, or rope jumping, are important for the maintenance of healthy bones.”

Read the rest of this article by new, staff writer Denise Musumeci via our partner site: HesFit.com

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Q & A: What’s the best way to treat stress fractures?

Posted February 26th, 2007 at 11:41 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise

Bone stress fractures are very common sports injuries. Any trauma to bones, such as repeated pounding when your heel strikes the ground during running, or landing on your feet after grabbing a basketball, can cause small cracks on the surface of bones called stress fractures. In healthy athletes, they can take from 3 to 12 weeks to heal, forcing an athlete to lose valuable training time.

A study from Tulane University shows that intravenous pamidronate can heal these fractures quickly and keep you playing (Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, March 2005). Bones change constantly. Calcium is carried from bones by cells called osteoclasts and carried into bones by cells called osteoblasts. Bisphosphonates such as pamidronate prevent osteoclasts from carrying calcium from bones. The athletes received five weekly intravenous infusions of pamidronate and were able to continue training.
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Supplements Made Easy - Part 3

Posted October 26th, 2006 at 12:15 PM by Jonathan Faccone

Section: Nutrition, Supplements

This is Part 3 in my “Supplements Made Easy” Seriesfor runners and other endurance athletes. Make sure to also go back and read Part 1 and Part 2!

Shopping for supplements can be a daunting task, but remember to keep it simple and that supplementation will only help if you first help yourself by doing your best in giving your body what is needs via your food intake.

Once you have taken care of proper eating, you can move onto supplements. Keep in mind, everyone’s body is different and therefore supplementation choices that you pick should be as unique as yourself.

BCAA (Branched chain amino acids) include the leucine, isoleucine, and valine. They are essential for aerobic metabolism and may have performance enhancing qualities for endurance events lasting longer then three hours. Lack of BCAA’s during endurance events could accelerate the breakdown of muscle glycogen and cause premature muscle fatigue.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid found in the body and is usually used for strength training as a muscle recovery agent, but may benefit endurance athletes as well. Evidence has shown that in times of stress, like exercise, the body cannot produce enough of this amino acid. This has been shown to contribute to muscle breakdown, diminished immune function and reduced performance.

Supplementation with 6-8 grams/day of BCAA and glutamine has been shown to decrease protein degradation during ultra-distance triathlon competition, decrease exercise induced muscle damage after prolonged running, and has shown to improve performance in 40K cycling time trial performance Read the rest of this entry »

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