Specialists with the UI Sports Medicine Center are offering a free seminar Tuesday, October 24, on fitness for women and preventing problems that are common in the female athlete.
George Phillips, MD, a pediatrician at University of Iowa Children's Hospitaland UI Sports Medicine specialist.
Phillips says in the popular press, the sports injury that's most talked about in terms of gender differences is tearing the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee, or the ACL, and female athletes are anywhere from three to eight times more likely to tear the ACL compared to male athletes.
"There are multiple factors that appear to contribute to this difference, including hormonal differences and biomechanical differences, meaning there are differences in the way women activate muscle groups in the leg versus men. Now that being said, there are also a host of other sports issues that can be slightly different for woman then for men, just given the physiologic differences between the two genders."
Do female athletes need a different diet? Phillips says it's probably better to emphasize that athletes in general need an appropriate diet that meets the training demands of their sport. "What we unfortunately see in certain sports is an emphasis on weight classification or body image that may encourage athletes to manipulate their diet in a way that's actually counterproductive to performing their best in their sport.
"And also, diet trends in the general population, such as counting bad carbohydrates or fad diets, can influence athletes to consume a suboptimal diet. Therefore, our education for athletes really needs to focus on an appropriate diet that meets their training demand."
The female athlete triad consists of irregular menstrual periods, abnormal bone health, and disordered eating practices. "Each of those three components represents a spectrum of severity," he says. "For instance, irregular periods could be as severe as a woman having no periods at all. Abnormal bone health could be osteoporosis or recurrent stress fractures. And disordered eating practices can range from significantly restricting your diet or taking diet pills inappropriately to a true eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia.
"At the symposium, we're going to talk about the significance of each component of the triad for the female athlete and we'll discuss how the three components are interrelated.
"The seminar is ideal for any female athlete and probably for anyone who has a female athlete in their family. This will especially be a great information session for parents of younger female athletes and will hopefully help them in developing a healthful approach to sports participation. I think this will also be a great symposium for coaches who work with female athletes.
I will be joined at the symposium by Andrea Wilson, who is a physician assistant in the U of I Sports Medicine Center, and Kathy Mellen, a registered dietitian with the University's Student Health Services. All three of us are involved with the care of student athletes at UI and each of us has a specific interest in the female athlete triad.
The seminar is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 24, in the Larson Conference Room at the UI Sports Medicine Center at UI Hospitals and Clinics.
There will be light refreshments available and plenty of time, aside from the presentation, for the public to ask questions of all the speakers. "Registration is not necessary but is always helpful if we know roughly how many people will be attending, especially so we make sure we have enough refreshments on hand. Anyone is interested in attending can call either 319-384-8442 or 800-777-8442 to register and receive more specific directions on parking and finding the Larson Conference Room," he says. |
