Know When to Change Sports
August 20, 2006
If your favorite sport causes chronic pain or an injury that
does not heal, you should probably switch to another sport. Two
recent studies from the Argentine Tennis Association followed
players with knee and shoulder problems (British Journal of
Sports Medicine, May 2006).
The second study followed older men who had played tennis for many years and had no shoulder pain, surgery or trauma to their shoulders. Even with no symptoms, thirty-three percent of these men had significant x-ray findings of joint damage called osteoarthritis in their dominant shoulder, and the older they were, the more likely they were to have this damage. X rays showed increased incidence of joint space narrowing, joint cysts, bone fragments, flattening of the joint cartilage, displacement of the upper arm bone and erosion of the joint cup. If you are a long-time tennis player and have shoulder pain, your doctor will probably recommend that you stop playing tennis.
The good news is that switching to a new sport is much easier than starting from inactivity. Training principles are the same for all sports. Give yourself time to learn new skills and build up the muscles you have not used before.
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Reports from DrMirkin.com
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Do you still have burning in your stomach?
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: What should I eat after a hard workout?
Eating a protein-rich meal as soon as possible after this hard workout hastens muscle recovery. Intelligently-increased workloads make an athlete stronger, and anything that helps you recover faster allows you to do more work. When you feel the burn during intense exercise, you are damaging your muscle fibers. The pain that you feel 8 to 24 hours after a hard workout is due to muscle damage. It is now fairly well established that your muscles recover faster if you eat protein as soon as possible after a hard workout or competition.
You’ll be happy to know that a study from Indiana University in Bloomington shows that chocolate milk helps athletes to recover faster from hard exercise than drinks that replaced only carbohydrates or fluid (International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, February 2006). Milk is full of protein, but so are, fish, shellfish, meat, chicken, whole grains and beans, and so forth. Eat any source of protein that tastes good to you.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: How common is muscle pain from cholesterol- lowering drugs?
Some patients with high cholesterol levels are afraid to take statins because off fear of developing side effects such as muscle pain. A study from Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego reviews the latest data on side effects of statins (The American Journal of Medicine, May 2006). This review found that statin- induced muscle damage is more common in Asians, people who exercise, have had recent surgery, have kidney, liver or thyroid disease, or have high triglycerides. The incidence of muscle pain and damage from statins is extremely low in non- exercisers, three to ten percent in those who exercise, and very high in competitive athletes.
Most athletes refuse to take statin drugs because they train by taking a hard workout that damages their muscles. Then they must take easy workouts until the soreness disappears and muscles heal. When statins prevent this muscle healing, the athlete must train at reduced intensity for a much longer period of time. Brand names of statins include: Altoprev, Crestor, Lipitor, Mevacor, Pravachol and Zocor.
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Zucchini Recipes
-- to help you use up your bumper crop
Mexican Vegetable Stew
Ratatouille with Baby Potatoes
New World Ratatouille
Cajun Lentils and Zucchini
List of Diana's Healthful Recipes