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Sports
medicine
The topic of sports medicine covers a variety of subjects. Many
sports-related health care issues have strong advocates on conflicting
sides of a topic. Having a physician whose knowledge and skills you
trust is essential to getting the best possible advice.
Skin
infections: Serious antibiotic-resist Staphylococcus aureus ("Staph")
infections have been increasing
among athletes.
Warnings include an advisory
from the US Centers for Disease Control on infections among athletes.
It is important to take steps to prevent
infection as well as to detect infections for early treatment.
These infections can be life-threatening and and often progress rapidly.
Overuse
injuries: Physicians are seeing a huge
increase in overuse
injuries
among young people due in part to more specialization and in part to
large workout loads among talented young athletes. These include knee, shoulder
and stress
fracture injuries. Most overuse injuries are relatively
minor and will heal with rest and moderate physical therapy.
However young athletes who are pushing themselves to extreme levels of
performance and perfection are at risk for life-long injury from
overuse. Many coaches are wary of athletes who achieve athletic success
at the cost of very heavy practice loads and recurring injuries. Do not
let overuse end your athletic career early. No one can continue to work
through pain without risk of injury. Remember, talent does not protect
you from overuse.
- University of
Michigan Sports Medicine:
- This resource has a huge list of topics and the
articles are reasonably accessible to non-medical readers. The specific
topics are covered in varying degrees of depth but it is a great place
to start your search for sports medicine information.
- Medline
Plus Sports Injuries
- Medline is the medical literature research
service of the National Library of Medicine, a part of the National
Institutes of Health. A number of sports-related injuries are described
and their treatment discussed.
- Dr.
Stephen Pribut's site
- A wealth of information about sports medicine
and injuries with particular attention to overuse running injuries. If
you are a runner with leg or foot pain this site is a great resource on
prevention, treatment and more. There is an article on women's sports issues
and also an article on exercising
in heat that is useful for participants and coaches in many sports.
- Mayo
Clinic
Topics in youth sports medicine
- Although this article starts with a discussion
of the pre-participation physical exam for young athletes, it has links
to important topics in sports medicine like exercise-induced
asthma, steroids,
other performance
enhancing drugs, eating
disorders, amenorrhea
and more.
- Drugstory
- A great many links to information about the
dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs and steroids.
- Teen's
Health
- Part of the Kid's Health website, this site has
discussions of many health issues including a lot of topics related to
sports. There are particular pages devoted to sports-related health
issues like nutrition, sports
supplements, women's sports issues and a long list of other sports-related topics.
- NCAA
on Supplements
- An article about unregulated sports dietary
supplements and their dangers for athletes.
- CoolNurse
- The title topic is teen athlete use of
steroids, but the site discusses other drugs taken for athletic
performance enhancement. The CoolNurse.com site has a large section
devoted to other teen
health topics.
- High
school sports injuries
- Fractures can be especially serious in young
people. This site has information about sports injuries in high school
students. Especially serious are fractures that affect the bone's growth
plates.
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© 2004 by Don Campbell
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