Health issues in athletics

"Health Issues of Athletics" concerns the health and wellbeing of athletes participating in an organized sport. Given that these athletes are physically and mentally underdeveloped, they are particularly susceptible to mental or physical issues. Some athletes who intend on improving their performance in sports can actually do harm to their bodies either through disorder eating, overtraining, use of steroids/supplements, and injury.

Eating Disorders

Over-dieting can be extremely harmful to athletes when combined with the increased physical activity. Doctors have recently started to use the term "Female Athlete Triad" for athletes who have inadequate nutrition, amenorrhea, and low bone mass. Athletes have employed a variety of methods to lose weight, including dehydration, fasting, diet pills, laxatives, vomiting (bulimia), overtraining, even the use of rubber exercise suits. These practices result in “decreased plasma and blood volume, reduced cardiac outputs, impaired thermoregulatory responses, decreased renal blood flow, and an increase in the amount of electrolytes lost from the body.” A female athlete who feels pressured to maintain a certain body weight or appearance may exercise excessively and/or restrict calorie intake. Other effects include changes in mood: feelings of tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion. A lack of estrogen and nutrients such as calcium can actually cause a loss in bone density or formation which increases the risk for injury. Poor nutrition can also lead to hormonal changes that stop menstrual periods. These pressures may also be rooted in the relations between men and women. Female athletes participate sport culture that is innately masculine but struggle with their body image in a society where femininity is praised. Some athletes develop a poor body image, perceive themselves as too masculine, and were worry they were unattractive to men. Some female athletes struggle with their physicality in a society where femininity is praised. The pressure to please is intense, and correspondingly, 42% of female aesthetic athletes have been diagnosed with eating disorders.

Certain sports place a heavy emphasis upon weight and body image as ingredients for success in competition. Athletes in sports such as wrestling, boxing, gymnastics and skating often feel the pressure to lose large amounts of weight in order to compete at their peak performance levels.

Wrestling

Though there is no concrete data on the prevalence of eating disorders in wrestling, the sport's emphasis on eating and exercise plans can facilitate behaviors that may be harmful to their health. From the youth to the collegiate level, wrestlers compete is various weight classes to ensure the athletes are fairly matched. As a result, many wrestlers participate--whether it is self-motivated and encouraged by their coach--in fasting, purging, or over-exercising. In order to compete, 81% of wrestlers will deliberately lose weight. This involves shedding 3% to 20% of their body weight — most of which being dropped within a short period of time. The issue gained a lot of attention in when three collegiate wrestlers died within a 32-day period in order to 'make weight' according to an article in 1998 on "The Effects of Dehydration on Wrestling Performance and Health." It has been postulated that wrestlers may suffer impaired growth and development due to their fluctuating body weight. However, a study examining high school wrestler growth patterns concluded that participation does not stunt growth.

Gymnastics

For rhythmic gymnasts, “success is strongly influenced by visual appeal and body aesthetics. Rhythmic gymnasts are often required to meet certain weight targets to attain and maintain a thin shape.” As a result of disordered eating, Young female gymnasts may suffer from delayed menarche, menstrual irregularities, low body fat, and delayed maturity. Of these athletes, 11% are at risk for a mental disorder, while 40% risk delayed physical maturation. According to an article on "Athletes and Eating Disorders: The National Collegiate Athletic Association Study," the there has been a trend in gymnastics to reward thinness and the average weights continue to decline significantly. In 1972, the winning female gymnastics team had an aan average height 5 ft 3 inches and weight of 106 lb and in 1992 the average height was an average height 4 ft 9 inches and weight of 83 lb.

Treatment

The most effective treatment for athletes is rest and proper nutrition. Because the physiological and psychological complexities behind disordered eating, treatment for female athletic triad may require medical professionals including a doctor, gynecologist, physician, trainer, nutritionist, and/or counselor. Recovery depends on the wiliness of the athlete and hard work from professional help. Effective treatments can many months or even years depending on the severity and may vary depending on the type of disorder.

Overtraining

Nearly half of all injuries in pediatric sports medicine are due to overuse. An overuse injury is a microtraumatic damage to a bone, muscle, or tendon that is subjected to repetitive stress without time to heal naturally as a result of long and/or high intensity workouts. Many youth athletes are participating in sports year-round or on multiple teams at once. Another factor could include parental pressure to compete and succeed. Other risk factors include sleep deprivation, general physical and cognitive immaturity, dietary imbalance and inadequate physical fitness. Among young athletes, common overuse injuries are stress fractures, which include injury of the:

• femoral neck/pubic ramus
• femoral shaft
• tibia
• fibula
• metatarsals
• calcaneus
• cuboid

'Overtraining Syndrome' is a term that has been used to describe athletes who are training for competition and train beyond the body's ability to recover naturally. Common warning signs include tiredness, soreness, drop in performance, headaches, loss of enthusiasm. Without adequate rest and recovery, training regimens can backfire, eventually decreasing an athlete's performance. Overtraining can also be associated with eating disorders: Athletes may turn to excessive exercise in order to loss weight.

Supplements/Steroids

Anabolic steroids are artificially produced hormones called androgens which are essentially male-type sex hormones in the body. The most powerful of the androgen is testosterone. Another group of steroids include steroidal supplements, a weaker form of androgen. Steroids and supplements are controversial in their use for sports because of the health risks associated with them. Some serious and long-term effects on the body include hair loss, dizziness, mood swings, delusion, paranoia, high blood pressure, increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and even cancer. Newer studies also suggest that steroid users had an increase risk of depression and alcohol use later in life: doctors are calling this the 'snowball effect' of steroid-related health problems. Injury patterns of steriods suggest that joint ligaments aren't able to adapt to steroid-induced muscles and are leading to injury.

Injury/Illness

An issue unique to youth athletics is that the participants’ bones are still growing, placing them at highest risk for injury. Around 8,000 children are rushed to the emergency room daily because of sports injuries. High school athletes suffer approximately 715,000 injuries annually. Regarding American football, there are five times more catastrophic injuries in high school than compared to college-level competition. Some injuries include heat illness and dehydration, concussions, and trauma-related deaths.

Heat illness and dehydration

Heat illnesses are a recent concern in youth athletics. They include heat syncope, muscle cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and exertional hyponatremia. Heat illness and dehydration are typically brought on by conditions of high temperatures and high humidity. These conditions carry increased risk for young athletes, particularly if at the beginning of a season when they are less fit. Other factors which increase vulnerability include: heat-retaining clothing, recent illness, previous experience with heat illness, chronic conditions, or sleep deprivation. Additional precaution is to be taken if the child is taking supplements or using cold medication.

Heat illnesses are among the primary causes of sports-related death or disability, and as such they require immediate medical attention. Symptoms to watch for are as follows:

• dry or sticky mouth
• headache
• dizziness
• cramps
• unusual fatigue
• confusion
• loss of consciousness

Concussion

Per year, high school athletes sustain 300,000 head injuries, 90% of which being concussions. Though by the beginning of high school, 53% of athletes will have already suffered a concussion. Less than 50% of them say something about it in order to stay in the game. Ice hockey, soccer, wrestling and basketball carry a high risk for concussion, with football at the top. A history of concussion in football players can contribute to sports-related sudden death.

Sports-related death

Sometimes sports injuries can be so severe as to result in actual death. Over the past year, 48 youths died from sports injuries. The leading causes of death in youth sports are sudden cardiac arrest, concussion, heat illness and external sickling. Cardiac-related deaths are usually due to an undiagnosed cardiovascular disorder. Trauma to the head, neck and spine can also be lethal. Among young American athletes, more than half of trauma-related deaths are to football players, with track and field, baseball, boxing and soccer also having relatively high fatality rates.