Category Archives: Diseases, Conditions & Disorders

Sports And Nutrition

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Athletes who want a winning edge should get the right kind of nutrition. When you drink enough water and eat a balanced diet, your body can produce energy efficiently and fuel top performance. You can make the most of your athletic talent and acquire more strength, power and endurance when you train. Base your diet on a variety of elements including your age, size and physical condition; and the type of exercise you’re doing. See your doctor for some individualized nutrition advice.

Your Hydration

Water is the most important element in sports nutrition. It makes up about 60 percent of your total body weight and is involved in almost every bodily process. Your body cannot make or store water, so you must replace what you eliminate (i.e., urine, sweat). Everybody should drink at least two quarts (eight cups) of water everyday, and athletes need more than that. Drink plenty of liquid before, during and after sports events to stay hydrated and avoid overheating. When you workout or compete, especially during hot weather, try to closely match the amount of liquid you drink with the amount you lose for sweat.

Your Sources Of Fuel

Eating a balanced diet is another key element to sports nutrition. The right combination of fuel (calories) from carbohydrates, proteins and fats gives you energy for top performance.

Carbohydrates: The most important source of fuel, carbohydrates, come in fruits, vegetables, pastas, breads, cereals, rice, etc. and should provide about 60-70 percent of your daily calories. Your body converts sugars and starches in carbohydrates into energy (glucose) or stores it in the liver and muscle tissues (glycogen), giving you endurance and power for some highly intense, short-duration activities. If your body runs out of its carbohydrate fuel during exercise, it will burn fat and protein for energy, causing your performance levels to drop. This may happen if you start exercising without any or little muscle glycogen, exercise heavily for more than an hour without eating more carbohydrates, do repeated high-intensity, short-duration exercises or participate in multiple events or training sessions in a single day. Use a carbohydrate strategy to stay energized so you can perform at your best.

Nutrition Before Competing

What you eat several days before endurance activities will affect your performance. Your food the morning of a sports competition can effectively ward off hunger, keep blood sugar levels adequate as well as aid hydration. Avoid high protein or high fat foods on the day of an event, as these can put stress on the kidneys and take a long time for you to digest. Make sure you empty your upper bowel by competition time.

Loading On Carbohydrates

To avoid running out of carbohydrates for energy, some endurance athletes like long-distance runners, swimmers and bicyclists try to load their muscles with glycogen by eating some extra carbohydrates in combination with doing depletion exercises several days before an event.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

How to Choose a Diabetes Medical Team

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The process of finding the right health care professional to help you manage your Type 2 diabetes can take awhile – Take your time. Not only do you want to find a professional that takes the time to listen to your concerns while you’re in his or her office, but it’s also important to find a professional that is available if you call the office with a concern or one that will at least return your call within a reasonable amount of time.

Diabetic and Doctor

The primary factor to focus on when selecting a doctor is to trust your intuition. Ask yourself these questions:

* Do you feel connected with the doctor?
* Does the doctor seem to be available when you need him or her?
* Does he or she take time to answer your questions without rushing you out the door?
* Does the doctor try to connect one medical issue with another so that you can have a complete understanding of your condition?

Here are some other factors to keep in mind when selecting the right medical team member:

Mental and Physical Understanding

Diabetes may be a physical issue, but diabetics also need to pay attention to their mental health.

It is important to establish a relationship with a doctor who is willing to take time to look you in the eye and listen to your concerns. When it comes to your health, it is not worth it to settle for a doctor that focuses more on the paper than the person (even when the paper is important!)

Personal Talks – The Sex Talk

As a Diabetic, chances are good that you will need to speak with your doctor about very personal issues, including matters related to erectile dysfunction and menopause. Therefore, you should feel comfortable addressing these health issues with your medical practitioner. Your doctor should also ask you questions about these very personal aspects of your life.

If you have never been comfortable discussing issues related to sex and sexuality with your doctor, remember that he or she is in the profession of helping people achieve optimal health in all areas of their lives, including their sexual relationships. You doctor will not judge you based on the confidential information you share. And, more than likely, your doctor has had other patients that have the same health concerns.

Alerting People to Your Condition

It is important for you to alert your family members, co-workers, and friends to your diabetes so that they can be prepared in the event that something happens to you. Often, diabetics will even wear a wristband so that if they fall into a coma, get into a car accident, or need some form of medical attention, medical professionals will be alerted to the fact that the diabetic may need special treatment or attention.

Depending on the type of medications a diabetic is taking, a doctor may treat a diabetic patient differently. Therefore, make sure that people close to you know what type of diabetes medications you take. One always hopes that one stays healthy and accident-free. However, in the event that something unfortunate should happen to you, informing the doctors of your condition is the fastest way to help you receive the right treatment.

Type 1 diabetics who are reliant upon insulin syringes in order to regulate their bodies need to be especially careful about making sure that people are aware of their condition. In the event that a Type 1 diabetic loses consciousness for any reason, the diabetic may need an insulin or glucose injection immediately to avoid long-term damage.

Many diabetics may also have low blood sugar levels after they take their medication. At times, these blood sugar levels drop so low that the diabetic becomes faint or loses consciousness. The diabetics need to have an insulin syringes and needles if they lose consciousness. However, if people are aware of the condition, they may be able to help the illdiabetic stay conscious by giving him or her juice or sugar free candies in order to quickly raise the blood sugar level.

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Nutrition With Vitamin Supplements

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Nutritional vitamin supplements are a big business. Many say that they are unnecessary, whilst others contend that they are more necessary than ever. They have been a source of controversy and debate for many years. Why is this?

Vitamin supplements have been around a good long time in one form or another. Cod liver oil was widely given to children every day only 100 years ago. Those same children would never have dreamed that some day people would pay lots of money not only to take fish oil, but to take it more than once a day. You have probably seen the daily vitamins sold in most stores that even many doctors are now grudgingly stating are fine to take regularly.

The heart of the controversy is both the types and potencies of many of the supplements. Often, one single dose contains a nutrient in such high concentration as to be completely impossible to consume in a proportionate amount in foods that contain that same nutrient. Many people in the medical establishment insist that this is at best a foolish and at worst a potentially dangerous practice. They state that some nutrients, being water soluble, are simply passed through the system and others that are fat soluble can be absorbed into fat reserves in hazardous levels if consumed without caution.

Those who promote the use of supplements counter that passing part of a dose of a water soluble nutrient is worthwhile because it ensures saturation of that nutrient at a cellular level, maxing out the body’s available supplies. The supplement industry itself has added precautionary statements to their labeling to warn people of the potential hazard of consuming a high level of fat soluble nutrients.

Nevertheless, for vitamins and minerals, there is some monitoring by the Food and Drug Administration. For others that aren’t recognized as essential nutrients, the truth becomes more hazy.

If you truly wish to take nutritional supplements, start with small doses under the advice and supervision of qualified some professionals such as a registered dietician. After all, they aren’t called supplements for nothing.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.