Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine Today in sports athletes endure many mental and physical obstacles from there competitive environment. Many of today’s best athletes work with sports psychologists to help them handle the pressures found in this competitive atmosphere. One question that athletes ask is, why cant they play in big games as well as they anticipate themselves doing? Sports psychologists feel that spending all their time on body conditioning and athletic skills will not ensure that athletes reach their peak performance.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

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Through various studies, psychologists conclude that the psyche aspect must also be in shape to maximize the performance potential in sports as well as education or running a business corporation.

Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with identification, treatment, and prevention of injuries in sports (Edelson 53). In addition, it deals with physical fitness and well-being of individuals who participate in any kind of physical exercise.

Sports medicine covers both professional and amateur athletes in all fields of sports. It is a diverse field because it includes healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and nutritional specialists (Edelson 54).

In addition, it encompasses several health careers that include medical doctors, kinesiotherapists, athletic trainers, nurses, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and doctors of osteopathy (Narvani and Lynn 23).Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine is an important field of medicine because it deals with preventive, curative, and rehabilitative aspects of physical fitness and injuries in sports.

History of sports medicine
Study and practice of sports medicine dates back to the 20th century even though certain aspects existed as early as the 5th century. However, certain aspects of sports medicine can be traced back to ancient times. Greeks and Romans developed ways to improve training of athletes, hence development of physical education.

Development of physical education led to careful control and supervision of athletes’ training that led to improved strength and athletic abilities. During ancient times, athletes underwent special training procedures in order to reduce risks to injuries (Snook 252).

For example, therapeutic exercises used to heal injuries are attributed to Herodicus and Galen. Galen was a doctor in charge of monitoring the training of gladiator fighters (Snook 252). Modern practice of sports medicine can be traced to the 1928 Olympic Games.

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A committee was formed to organize the International Congress of Sports Medicine (Snook 253). The congress came up with the idea of involving medical doctors in the games to deal with athletes’ injuries and physical fitness.

During the 1968 Olympics, Dr. J. C. Kennedy organized a team of doctors whose responsibility was to deal with athletes’ injuries and physical fitness (Schepsis and Busconi 74). In addition, the doctor formed the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine.

He was the first doctor appointed to head a medical team in the history of Olympics (Snook 253). Today, every team that participates in physical activity has a team doctor or physician. The role of physicians of improving team performance and safety is critical cannot be ignored.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine team
Members of a sports medicine team include physical therapists, physical trainers, surgeons, physicians or medical doctors and athletes (Edelson 62). Athletic trainers or therapists deal with health and physical fitness of athletes. They treat and prevent athletic injuries.

They also serve the role of mediators between the team’s coach and athletes (Narvani and Lynn 27). The team’s physician supervises the physical history of players, clears players for return to athletics after rest due to injury, and cooperates with the physical trainer to improve the team’s training program (Narvani and Lynn 28).

Athletes have several roles. They adhere to rules set by the team’s physician and trainer, maintain good physical fitness as required by the physician and coach, and use protective equipment to avoid injuries (Schepsis and Busconi 64).

On the other hand, the coach supervises athletes’ training, ensures safety of training facilities, provides protective equipment to athletes, and develops training programs and procedures that enhance athletes’ safety (Narvani and Lynn 29).

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Athletic training students (ATS’s) assist the coach to clean training facilities, and keep records of athletes’ health and physical fitness. In addition, they help the coach improve safety by keeping training equipment in good condition.

Primary focus of sports medicine
The primary focus of sports medicine is quick recovery of athletes from injuries. This is due to the competitive nature of sports that requires optimal performance by athletes. Sports medicine offers preventive, rehabilitative, and curative medical services to athletes.

Therefore, practitioners in sports medicine specialize in diagnosis and treatment of injuries associated with participation in physical activity (Schepsis and Busconi 77). The main type of injury experienced by athletes is deformation of muscles and joints caused by unsafe training methods.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine has facilitated development of innovative treatment methods that guarantee quick recovery of athletes. These include methods to restore muscle integrity, tissue strength, and joint mobility and durability (Schepsis and Busconi 75). Preventive services include ways of avoiding injuries.

Examples of preventive services include education on safe training methods and procedures. On the other hand, rehabilitative services include ways to hasten recovery and avoid deterioration of injuries.

The American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (AOASM) classifies sports medicine into two classes that include surgical care and primary care (Schepsis and Busconi 78). Surgical care includes surgical operations that repair joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Primary care includes all other medical procedures that do not involve surgery. Some aspects of primary care include nutritional guidance that helps athletes choose foods that promote physical activity and strength.

Importance of sports medicine
The sports industry is an important sector of the global economy. Countries that participate in national and international sports events generate revenue that develops their economies and improves lives of athletes (Schepsis and Busconi 61).

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Therefore, the health of athletes should be improved in order for countries and athletes to benefit fully (Engerbretsen and Steffen 961). Sports medicine is important because it monitors physical activities that involve many risks, which predispose athletes to injuries.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Injuries cause great harm to the body and reduce performance and productivity of athletes. In addition, physical injuries may result in long-term physical complications such as organ amputation and paralysis (Engerbretsen and Steffen 961). For example, fractures cause joint pains, body aches, and arthritis.

Therefore, it is important to avoid, and treat injuries. Regaining mobility and activity after injury requires skills of trained medical practitioners who possess knowledge on how to induce recovery of bones and tissues (Engerbretsen and Steffen 961).

Sports medicine is also important because it helps prevent future injuries thus enabling athletes improve their performance. Physical injuries cause great pain and suffering to athletes because they sometimes take long to heal. In addition, they occasionally lead to irreparable damages that end careers of athletes.

Some athletes have been paralyzed due to severe brain injuries that resulted from physical injuries. In addition, others have had their hands or legs amputated to prevent further damage. Sports medicine helps prevent such incidences among athletes (Engerbretsen and Steffen 962).

Common sports injuries
Common sports injuries include concussion, muscle cramps, ankle sprain, ACL sprains, and shin splints (Schepsis and Busconi 39). Concussion results from extensive head trauma due to violent movement of the brain within the skull.

Muscle cramps result from sudden contraction of muscles and consequent failure to relax. They do not cause serious complications because recovery is quick. ACL sprains results from poor coordination between feet and knees.

They arise when knees twist while the feet are firmly positioned on the ground without any movement to complement the knees’ movements (Schepsis and Busconi 41).Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Ankle sprains result from excess stretching of ligaments due to strenuous physical activity. Shin splints results from overuse of muscles that connect the lower leg to the shinbone (Schepsis and Busconi 43).

Conclusion
Sports medicine is not a new concept in the world of athletics. Its history can be traced back to the 5th century. It involves identification, treatment, and prevention of injuries in sports. In addition, it deals with physical fitness and well-being of individuals involved in sports and physical exercises.

It is a wide field of study and practice because it encompasses skills and knowledge of different professionals that include medical doctors, kinesiotherapists, athletic trainers, nurses, nutritionists, physiologists, and doctors of osteopathy. It takes care of all aspects associated with athletes’ safety and health.

One of the most important aspects of sports medicine is the sport medicine team. It comprises therapists, coaches, physicians, and athletes. Each of these groups of members plays a different role in the team.

What is sports medicine Sports medicine is medical research and practice related to sports science in the field of sports injury diagnosis and treatment, injury prevention and exercise training (including training, exercise and nutrition). In other words, sports medicine is a medical field that focuses on injuries caused by sports such as football, baseball, basketball and other sports. There are different kinds of sports injuries, so there must be several orthopedic surgeons or experts who treat patients based on their injuries.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

This Is Why Sports Medicine Is Important for Athletes
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08/28/1700
Sports medicine (sometimes called “sports and exercise medicine”) is a medical specialty that deals with the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and fitness.

Healthcare professionals who work in this interdisciplinary medical field focus not only on treating sports-related injuries, but also on injury prevention, rehabilitation, nutrition, and performance training in order to help athletes improve their game.

A sports medicine specialty team often involves physicians who are trained in sports medicine, as well as orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, trainers, coaches, and others. The team works together to help patients get back into playing shape as safely and quickly as possible.

Academic medical centers often maintain academic research departments that conduct research and clinical trials; the information these research departments produce often benefits the field of sports medicine as a whole, aiding in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of sports-related conditions and injuries.

Sports Medicine in the 21st Century
Sports medicine fills a much-needed niche in medicine. Sports- and activity-related injuries are very common, not only among professional athletes but also, among the general population.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

From 2011-2016 there were 8.6 million sports- and recreation-related injuries in the U.S. among people of all ages, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).1

Although it is a relatively new medical specialty, having emerged as a distinct field only in the late twentieth century, sports medicine has become indispensable for athletes, with its targeted focus on their unique needs and concerns. Reputable sports medicine specialists and surgeons can make a tremendous difference in the lives of athletes.

Ahead, we’ll explore the meaning and importance of sports medicine in more detail, we’ll look at some of the most common sports injuries among athletes and fitness enthusiasts, and we’ll cover prevention and treatment options for sports injuries. First, let’s look at some of the benefits of sports medicine.

Sports Medicine Benefits
Specialized Care: Sports medicine physicians are specially trained to care for athletes, fitness professionals, and active individuals. They understand the impacts of sports and exercise on their patients’ bodies, such as concussions and repetitive motion injuries, and they work closely with orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists to develop tailored treatment plans that suit each patient’s specific needs.
Enhanced Injury and Reinjury Prevention: Sports medicine physicians have an in-depth understanding of how athletes use their bodies during practice and play; as such, they provide patients with expert advice and instructions on preventing injuries and avoiding re-injuring a previously damaged area. They help professional and novice athletes alike make important “return to play” decisions, conducting pre-participation physical exams to ensure their patients are ready to resume activities.
Cutting-Edge Treatment Options: From leading-edge reconstructive surgical techniques to regenerative medicine procedures like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy and stem cell therapy, sports medicine physicians and surgeons utilize the latest techniques and procedures to help restore function to injured areas.
Enhanced Athletic Performance: Sports medicine specialists often play a role in developing tailored training programs constructed around an athlete’s individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses. These experts have the knowledge and tools to evaluate an athlete’s anatomical strengths and weaknesses, make training regimen recommendations, and identify areas for improvement.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Athletes: Putting Their Bodies to the Test
Professional athletes test their bodies every day in ways most of us might have a hard time imagining. In the nearly year-round training season leading up to the Tour de France, for example, a rider will work his way up to 6 hours of cycling a day for 5 or 6 days a week at varying levels of intensity. He might ride 60, 100, even 180 kilometers in a single day to simulate what he’ll experience on the Tour.

While Tour de France riders are exceptional athletes in a category of their own, professional and aspiring pro-tennis players, golfers, basketball players, personal trainers, and athletes of every variety also spend an impressive number of hours on the court, course, field, or in the gym.

Such intense training can take its toll on the body, and injuries are virtually inevitable. This is why having a skilled sports medicine doctor is essential. Let’s explore sports medicine in more detail and how it helps athletes and fitness enthusiasts. First, a few words about injury types.

Acute vs. Chronic Sports Injuries
Generally, there are two types of sports injuries: acute and chronic.

Acute sports injuries are those that occur suddenly while playing, training, or exercising (e.g., a fractured bone or a torn tendon). Acute injuries aren’t always immediately obvious, especially when adrenaline, cortisol, and other hormones are coursing through a person’s body. Signs and symptoms of an acute injury can include sudden, severe pain, swelling, redness, or tenderness at/around the injury site; inability to place weight on a leg, knee, ankle, or foot; inability to move a joint normally; or a bone that is visibly broken or dislocated.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay
Chronic sports injuries (also called overuse injuries) are those that occur over time from repetitive motion or strain. Examples include tennis elbow, runner’s knee, and shin splints. Signs and symptoms of a chronic injury can include pain when you play/exercise; swelling and/or tenderness at the injury site; and a dull, aching pain during rest.
Common Sports Injuries
Sprains and strains, especially ankle and hamstring sprains
Elbow injuries, including tennis elbow; read more about procedures for elbow injuries
Knee injuries, including ACL tears; the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a major ligament in the knee; read more about surgical procedures for knee injuries
Tendinitis (inflammation of a tendon, usually caused by overuse or poor form)
Bursitis (inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs that cushion joints)
Achilles tendon injuries
Shin splints (throbbing and aching of shin muscles; causes can include irritated and swollen muscles from overuse, stress fractures, poor lower spine function, and others)
Fractures and dislocations
Lacerations and abrasions (cuts and scrapes)
Sports medicine involves not only treating injuries, but prevention, physical therapy/rehabilitation, and (for some) performance training.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports Injury Prevention
Preventing injuries requires good form and technique, good equipment (and a good dose of common sense) while training/playing/exercising. Even the most seasoned athletes should work themselves into shape slowly, especially after a sedentary period. It may be tempting to jump right into a former routine without preparing, but this is a recipe for injury.

Athletes should warm up before each exercise session, without exception, and cool down afterward. They should stretch regularly, use good technique (a performance training program can help in this area), and be mindful of fatigue and dehydration, which can impair concentration and lead to an injury. Athletes should always respond to the signals their body is sending—dizziness, faintness, nausea, overheating, and extreme fatigue are all clear warning signs.

Prevention really is the best form of treatment.

Sports Injury Treatments
Nonetheless, injuries happen. The PRICE method is usually the first line of treatment for less severe injuries, such as sprains and strains. The PRICE method involves:

Protection: Applying bandages, wraps, splints, etc., can help protect tissues from further damage.
Rest: Rest is a critical but an often overlooked part of the healing process. Your sports medicine specialist will work with you on a plan to gradually reintroduce activities.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay
Ice: Icing an injured area for 24-72 hours on and off after an injury helps reduce swelling and pain.
Compression: Pressure also helps reduce swelling and inflammation; athletes commonly use compression bands around their knees, elbows, and other previously injured or vulnerable areas.
Elevation: Gravity helps drain fluid away from injured tissues to reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation; a simple but effective method.
Medications, including acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen, can reduce inflammation and help with pain management, but these are meant as temporary solutions.

Regenerative medicine harnesses the body’s own tissues to help promote self-healing. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy involves isolating and concentrating platelets from the patient’s own blood and injecting it into the injured area to initiate healing. Stem cell therapy involves using stem cells (usually from bone marrow) to promote healing and regenerate tissue.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Physical Therapy/Rehabilitation
Some injuries require physical therapy/rehabilitation tailored to the specific needs of the individual. Physical therapy can help restore function, decrease pain, increase strength and flexibility, and prevent future injuries. It may involve the use of:

Therapeutic exercise (such as stretching, core exercises, and weight lifting)

Heat treatments
Massage
Aquatic therapy
Balance training
Spinal traction
Other therapies
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Surgery may be needed to correct more severe injuries that don’t respond to other treatments. Minimally invasive surgery involves making a series of small incisions (rather than one large “open” incision) through which tiny surgical tools fitted with cameras are passed to perform the surgery. There are many advantages to minimally invasive surgery, including reduced blood loss, smaller scars, shorter hospitalization, and faster recovery times.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Surgery can help correct a range of sports-related injuries, including:

Elbow injuries
Knee injuries
Foot and ankle injuries
Spine disorders
Trauma
Nerve damage
Muscle grafts
Joint damage (corrected with reconstructive surgery)
Which combination of treatments/therapies a doctor prescribes will depend on each person’s unique situation. Surgery is generally reserved as a last option after other treatments/therapies have been exhausted.

Sports Medicine: Playing a Vital Role in Our Modern Health-Conscious World
The importance of sports medicine in games and sports cannot be overstated. Humans have been playing sports since the dawn of civilization, yet more and more people today recognize the importance of exercise and physical activity for good health.

Sports that have once been reserved for the fittest and most talented among us are increasingly being embraced by everyday people. This makes sports medicine, with its comprehensive focus on all issues surrounding sports and exercise, from injury prevention to performance training, more important and relevant than ever.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

About Crystal Run Healthcare
The exceptional team of world-class sports medicine specialists at Crystal Run Healthcare offers patients access to the latest diagnostic tools and treatments for sports-related injuries. The fellowship-trained specialists at Crystal Run have worked with the New York Jets, the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies, and a host of collegiate and high school athletes.

Crystal Run Healthcare offers leading-edge diagnosis and treatment for a range of ankle, shoulder, knee, elbow, and hip injuries, and its practitioners are among the few specialists in the region who perform elbow arthroscopy (a minimally invasive procedure for examination and treatment), hip arthroscopy, and arthroscopic shoulder reconstruction (joint replacement). Learn more about our exceptional team of sports medicine specialists and orthopedic surgeons, and call us at 845-703-6999 to schedule an appointment.

Sports medicine has always been difficult to define because it involves a wide scope of healthcare for professional athletes and recreationally active individuals. It provides them with diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative and preventive medical services. Athletes and active individuals demand expertise and sport-specific knowledge, for issues varying from musculoskeletal to environmental stresses; cardiological to dermatological and endocrinological to psychological. The moral, legal and health-related challenges (such as doping) surrounding professional athletes further contributes to the unique and complex picture presented to the doctors who treat them. Finally, prevention is an area of increasingly specialised interest, knowledge and expertise. Many believe that sports medicine will make its most significant contributions in the area of prevention. The benefit to health and quality of life from participation in physical activity – at all levels – is clearly apparent.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Over the last century, in many countries around the world there has been a growing need – and therefore interest – in sports medicine. This is due to increased participation in physical activity following many national projects promoting health and exercise. The aim of this article is to give a historical background to the areas of medicine and science which have developed into sports medicine and sports science. Attempting to identify the origins of sports medicine requires a look at mainstream medicine. Furthermore, as medicine is a scientific discipline, its relation to other areas – especially sports sciences, should be defined.

HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF MEDICINE AND SPORTS MEDICINE

The question “how to live healthily?” is very old. The issue of healthy living is directly related to diseases, diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, medicine is the oldest profession to address this problem and is considered to be the science of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

These fundamental practices date back thousands of years. Medicine was probably first institutionalised by the Ancient Egyptians. The earliest known physician is an Egyptian, Imhotep (2980 BCE), whose name was given to a temple university in Men-Nefer (Memphis), where (the so-called ‘father of medicine’) Hippocrates studied. In those days, the fertile soil of the River Nile was called ke-meth (watered wet brown soil), while Ancient Egyptian physicians were known as sunu or swnw (pronounced ‘sewnew’). Sunus were Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) priest-magician-physicians or healers. The combination of the two terms; ke-met sunu is pronounced as met-sunu (ke is the article and not pronounced with met) which is very close to the Latin term medicina and may have been adopted by ancient Greek scholars, then transformed into Latin over time.

In India, a collection of texts including therapeutic exercises called ‘Arthava Veda’ can be found in written sources around 8th century BCE. Unfortunately, little is known of this rich cultural heritage. For example, Susruta (600 BCE) left important information on the relationship between health and activity. Susruta was an ancient Indian surgeon commonly credited as the author of the treatise Sushruta Samhita. He is dubbed the ‘founding father of surgery’ and the Sushruta Samhita is identified as one of the key historical commentaries on the medical science of surgery. He is said to have been a physician originally of South India, who practised in Varanasi and lived some time between the period of 1200 to 600 BCE. The Sushruta Samhita was translated into Arabic during the 8th century AD by Ibn Abillsaibial. The work was known as Kitab Shah Shun al-Hindi in Arabic or alternatively as Kitab i-Susurud. The 9th century Persian physician Rhazes was familiar with the text. Obesity was known to Susruta, who related it to diabetes and heart disorder. He recommended physical work to help cure it and its side effects.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

The evolution of medicine has shown a distinct characteristic which is based upon – and entirely dependent on – human health. For example, wrapping a corpse with linens for mummification has probably lead to taping and bandaging for fixation of broken and injured extremities in later years. Relating medicine to exercise (more specifically sport), the first use of therapeutic exercise is credited to Herodicus in the 5th century BCE, who is thought to have been one of Hippocrates’ teachers.

The Ancient Greek physicians including Hippocrates and Galenos and also the Islamic physician Ibn-I Sina (Avicenna), were able to dissociate medicine from religion to a more secular practice. These three pioneers of modern medicine served their profession well by documenting their observations and differentiating medicine from the metaphysic. That is why, in English, ‘physician’ refers to a medical doctor – someone who is studying the exact nature of a disease. In other words, physicians study matter and energy in physical terms related to health and health disorders.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

The term ‘science’ is derived from the Latin word ‘scientia’ which means ‘knowledge of something’. More specifically, ‘scire’ or ‘scindere’ in Latin means ‘to know, distinguish or separate something from another’. Until the Enlightenment, the word science referred to any systematic or exact recorded knowledge. Philosophy was moral science and others were natural sciences. More recently, science has come to be restricted to ‘natural science’ only, which is then divided into physical and biological sciences, with social science also included as a ‘soft’ science as it uses scientific methodology1.

We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is a scientific discipline or not? Remember back to a childhood visit to a doctor and it may be argued that medicine is a clinical practice only. There is however, a heavy research component via clinical studies, therefore, some medical scholars have emphasised that medicine is: ‘the art of healing using scientific methods’. The term ‘doctor’ in Latin is another word for describing a physician and means teacher – someone who teaches how to stay healthy or what to do when sick2.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

In the 2nd century AD, the first ‘team doctor’, Galen (also known as Claudius Galenos; 131 to 201 AD), was appointed as doctor of the gladiators in the Pergamum Kingdom. The physician only became involved if there was an injury. Whether or not there was good communication between the trainer-coach and the team physician back then is a matter of speculation, what was clear, however, was that from the very beginning, sports medicine has been multidisciplinary – with an obligation not only to treat injuries, but also to instruct and prepare athletes1. Galen went to Rome in 162 AD and made his mark as a practicing physician. He observed the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and the health consequences of inactivity, e.g. obesity. Galen’s treatise ‘On the exercise with the small ball’ (medicine ball today) has been welcomed by scholars of ancient sports for its description of ball games and also by scholars of ancient medicine for its discussion of the benefits of exercise. Galen argues that everyone should engage in games of this type.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

He recommends: “take fresh air, get a good sleep, eat and drink properly, control emotions and empty bowels once a day!” He adds: “no activity is exercise unless you become breathless”.

Of course, it is not only the ancient Egyptian physicians or Hippocrates and Galen who have contributed to the development of sports medicine. There are other famous physicians as well. Ibn-I Sina (Avicenna 980 to 1036), Gerolamo Mercuriale (1530 to 1606), Santorio Santorius (1561 to 1636) and Bernardino Ramazzini (1633 to 1714) were just some of the doctors who also practiced sports medicine by developing techniques to promote health and fitness and ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone who participated in athletic competition3.

Avicenna (Ibn-I Sina) is an eminent name in medicine. He was Persian, born in Buhara (980 AD) and died in Hamedan (1037 AD). He became a doctor at the age of 19 and wrote 450 papers of which 240 are available today and 40 are related to medicine. His two famous books in medicine are Kitabü’s-Sifa (‘Book of Healing’) and El-Kanun fi’t-Tıb (‘Law of Medicine’). El-Kanun fi’t-Tıb was the main textbook in many European medical schools until 1650.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Ibn-I Sina (Avicenna) gives examples of healthy lifestyle (including exercises) in the Law of Medicine.

He also classified the sciences as:

El-ilm ül-esfel (natural sciences)
Mabad-üt-tabia (metaphysics)
El-ilm’üll-âli (logic)
El-ilm ül-evsat (mathematics)

Girolamo Mercuriale’s book De Arte Gymnastica is considered to be the first comprehensive book explaining human movement, while Ramazzini can be regarded as the ‘father of occupational medicine’ for his work De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (‘Dieases of Workers’)4.

Santorio Santorius was a friend of Galileo and Professor of Medicine at Padua, and was one of the first researchers on human metabolism. He used innovative techniques for his studies, recording changes in daily body temperature with the first air thermometer. He also measured pulse rates with Galileo’s ‘pulsilogium’ (pulsiometer). Ever inventive, Santorius studied digestion by constructing a wooden frame that supported a chair, bed and work table. Suspended from the ceiling with scales, the frame recorded changes in weight. For 30 years, Santorius slept, ate, worked and even engaged in sexual activity in the weighing contraption to regularly record how much his weight changed as he ate, fasted or excreted. He invented the term ‘insensible perspiration’ to account for differences in body weight, because he believed that weight was gained or lost through the pores during respiration. Often depriving himself of food and drink, Santorius determined that the daily change in body mass approached 1.25 kg. Santorius’ book of aphorisms, De Medicina Statica Aphorismi (1614 AD), received worldwide attention and acclaim. Although he did not explain the role of nutrition in weight gain or loss, Santorius nevertheless inspired later researchers in metabolism, particularly during the 18th century.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

August Bier (1861 to 1949), a pioneer of anaesthesiology and Arlie V. Bock (1888 to 1984), who studied circulatory and blood responses to exercise, were also key figures in implementing sports medicine as a formal field of study in Europe and the United States, respectively.

The list of other researchers who, although not directly related to exercise, contributed largely to human physiology in general includes:

Luigi Galvani (1737 to 1798, muscular electrical potentials).
Alessandro Volta (1745 to 1827, physiological tetanus).
William Beaumont (1785 to 1853, digestion).
James Lind (1716 to 1794, seamen’s nutrition and immunity).
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743 to 1794, metabolism, nutrition and exercise physiology).
Justus von Liebig (1803 to 1873, proteins in exercise and strength).
Claude Bernard (1813 to 1878, homeostasis – metabolism during exercise).
Edward Smith (1819 to 1874, closed circuit spirometry).
Emil du Bois Reymond (1818 to 1896, neuromuscular physiology).
August Chaveau (1827 to 1917, heat production during muscular work).Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay
Adolf Fick (1829 to 1901, myotonography).
Russel Henry Chittenden (1856 to 1943, low-protein diet).
Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861 to 1947, vitamins and amino acids – won the Nobel Prize in Experimental Physiology).
Francis Gano Benedict (1870 to 1957, metabolism and heat exchange during exercise).

Italian physiologist Angelo Mosso (1846 to 1910) holds a significant place in the history of exercise physiology. At the first International Congress of Physiologists in Basel, Switzerland 1889, Mosso discussed his findings on muscular fatigue while demonstrating the function of an ergograph (work recorder). After receiving his degree in Medicine and Surgery from Turin, Italy in 1870, Mosso was able to study and interact with renowned physiologists Wilhelm Ludwig, Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Hugo Kronecker and Etienne Marey. By 1879, he was a Professor of Physiology at the University of Turin, where he conducted research pertaining to blood circulation, respiration, physical education, high-altitude physiology and muscular fatigue. Using traces recorded with the ergograph (concentric contractions of the flexor muscles of the middle finger that were volitionally or electrically stimulated), he was able to characterise muscle fatigue and associate its occurrence with central or peripheral influences. He showed that exercise would increase muscular strength and endurance while delaying the occurrence of fatigue – which he postulated was a chemical process that involved the production of toxic substances such as carbonic acid. The phenomenon of contracture was described and his collective studies led to the formulation of laws pertaining to exhaustion and to the 1891 publication of La Fatica (Fatigue). Besides La Fatica, Mosso is remembered as a scientist with a love for physiology, a concern for the social welfare of his countrymen and as one who sought to integrate physiological, philosophical and psychological concepts in his experimental studies.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

At the same time, work was also being performed in North America, especially in the USA. The first article on exercise physiology was published in 1855 in the USA (Byford WH. On the physiology of exercise. Am J Med Sci 1855). Dudley A. Sargent (1849 to 1924), the Director of Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University, developed a system for physical examination including strength testing and anthropometric measurements. He also designed individual exercise programmes based on this data. His Sargent Jump Test is still in use today. Atwater and Bryant (1900) studied boat crew members from Harvard and Yale and found a typical diet consisted of 15.6% protein, 40.7% fat, 44.2% carbohydrates, totalling 4085 Kcal/day. The inception of the Modern Olympic Games in the 1890s and the formation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894 may have stimulated some interest in exercise physiology and sports physiology, in parallel to other medical disciplines, which also influenced the development of sports medicine.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essa

In Europe, August Krogh (1874 to 1949), from Denmark (who was interested in science from an early age and wrote his first work with Christian Bohr, inventor of the tonometer), collected data relevant to ‘the Greenhouse Effect’. Krogh and Bohr published work in 1904 demonstrating that when carbon dioxide binds to haemoglobin, it decreases the affinity of haemoglobin for oxygen (thus promoting unloading of O2) – ‘the Bohr Effect’. They showed that oxygen passes from alveolus to capillary via passive diffusion in 1906. Archibald V. Hill and Otto Meyerhof shared the 1922 Nobel Prize with their studies on muscle glycolytic metabolism5,6. All related to exercise physiology and sports medicine in particular.

The very first attempt to measure human gas metabolism, while performing quantified physical work, can be traced back to the year 1790. Developments in ergometery in the 19th and 20th centuries are well documented. Later, in 1929, Germans Hugo Wilhelm Knipping and Ludolph Brauer were the first to analyse cardiopulmonary function during exercise. But the first ergospirometry apparatus that met all scientific requirements was introduced in 1950s7.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was established in 1927 as part of the Harvard Business School. Many people credit the Laboratory as the origin of exercise physiology in the United States. Director David Bruce Dill was interested in environmental effects on exercise performance and – among other topics – he studied the effects of altitude on exercise and thermoregulation during exercise. Dill was often a subject in his own studies – including some unpleasant scenarios – like walking across the desert with only a donkey and a dog for company. The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was closed in 1947, however interest in exercise physiology continued during the second half of the 20th Century, when the American Physiological Society began publishing the Journal of Applied Physiology (JAP) in 1948. Krebs and Lipmann won the Nobel Prize in 1953 for their study on the Krebs Cycle and CoEnzyme A.

A greater demand on sport, science and medicine influenced these spheres to come together in co-operation and merge into sports medicine and sports science.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

The world’s first sports medicine establishment took shape in Dresden, Germany, in 1911. The ‘First Congress for the scientific investigation of sports and physical exercises’ was held in 1912 (Oberhof, Germany) and the term ‘sports physician’ or ‘sportarzt’ (coined by Arthur Mallwitz) was first used in 1913. The first sports medicine journal was published by the French Society of Sports Medicine (SMEPS) in 1922. Further sports-related medical societies followed suit, publishing journals in 1921 in The Netherlands and in 1922, in Switzerland. Thirty-three physicians from 11 countries participating in the 2nd Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz founded the ‘Association International Medico Sportive’ (AIMS). In 1934 the name of the organisation was changed to ‘Fédération Internationale de Médecine Sportive (FIMS)’. FIMS was predominantly a European organisation until the IOC recognised FIMS as “the designated competent international organisation for biological and medical research to medicine and sport and medical care of athletes”. FIMS was later recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Council of Sports and Physical Education (ICSPE) in 19608.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

The establishment of further sports medicine societies followed. The Italian Sports Medicine Federation (FMSI) was founded in 1929. During the First Polish Sports Physicians’ Congress (1937) in Worochta, the Polish Sports Physicians Association was established, while the Finnish Society of Sports Medicine was founded in 1939. In 1945, Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic) established the first institute of sports medicine in a medical faculty, led by Dr Jiri Kral. Previously, Jan Evangelista Purkyne (1850, Czechoslovakia) put forward the idea of the favourable effect of body training for human health. Along with several important research topics, the first wireless transmission of heart frequency and cardiological observations during sport events were studied this institute9.

In addition to the above-mentioned countries, Scandinavian, Mediterranean and Balkan Countries also have longstanding traditions in sports medicine.

In 1958, after the 2nd World War, the first School of Specialisation in Sport Medicine was established in Milan, Italy, by Professor Rodolfo Margaria. Today, Italy is one of the few countries with a public system of pre-participation medical examinations for sports activities. In Italy, people playing sport organised by national federations or sports promotion bodies have to undertake a periodic medical visit to obtain a certification of eligibity to play. The screening tests and physical examinations are also sport-specific. They are listed in special decrees issued by the Ministry of Health, which regulate on competitive sport activity (1982), non-competitive sport activity (1983), competitive sport activity for disabled people (1993) and professional sport activity (1995). Since 1950, it has been mandatory for all professional and amateur athletes to obtain a medical certification for eligibility to play sport. In 1971, the Italian Government set about safeguarding the health of all those practicing sport at competitive and non-competitive level with laws (regularly updated) that regulate preventive pre-participation screening in competitive and non-competitive sports. Competitive athletes must undergo an annual preventive screening protocol including a past medical history, clinical evaluation, urinalysis, electrocardiogram at rest and after a step test, and pulmonary function tests. This evaluation can only be performed by a board-certified Sports Medicine Physician, who is legally responsible for the accuracy of the assessment and makes the final judgement on eligibility to participate in sport.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

SPORTS MEDICINE AND SPORT SCIENCES

The division between science and sport had two major consequences. Firstly, at the end of the century, at a time when sport was gaining mass popularity, there was very little scientific interest in boosting athletic performance. Secondly, athletes and their coaches showed little knowledge of, or interest in, contemporary science. Training techniques were thus explained according to ‘scientific’ notions about the physiology of exercise that gave wide latitude to the idiosyncrasies of various practitioners. Even after 1870, as British physiologists began to catch up with their French and German counterparts, the term ‘scientific training’ was used frequently to refer to the regimens devised by individual trainers who spoke in the most rudimentary scientific terms on the basis of personal observations. This ad hoc approach is evident in R.J. Lee’s Exercise and Training: Their Effects Upon Health (1873), which scarcely advances beyond the generalities of Sinclair dating from almost of a century earlier. While maintaining that exercise is important for “the preservation of health and prevention of disease”, Lee admits that physiologists had neglected training as a scientific field. The founder of performance physiology in Germany, Nathan Zuntz, published on a whole series of topics relevant to the biology of the athlete: circulation, respiration, energy metabolism, nutrition, muscular work and altitude physiology. In 1899 his son, Leo Zuntz, published the first major study on energy metabolism in cycling. In the 1920s, the Nobel Prize-Winning muscle physiologist Archibald V. Hill published several essays on the integration between his research and high-performance athletics.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

It is clear that some studies in sports science have been triggered by physiologists and physicians. This inevitably does not apply to other sports science disciplines such as biomechanics. For example, the analysis of athletic movement was first made possible by ‘chronophotography’ invented by the great French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey (1830 to 1904). As early as 1872, Marey’s predecessor, the Anglo-American photographer Edward Muybridge, had photographed horses in motion and in 1879 Muybridge announced that he would apply this technique to “all the imaginable postures of athletes, horses, oxen, dogs and other animals in movement”. Marey’s chronophotography improved Muybridge’s work by including the precise time intervals that separated these new and startling images of bodies and limbs frozen in time – thereby making human and animal motion both visible and comprehensible for the first time. In 1894, Marey stated his interest in producing instantaneous photographic images of “very strong and competent athletes” and at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, he used chronophotography to reveal the motions of the world’s best athletes. The high-speed photographs and computer models that enable biomechanics experts to assist runners and throwers today can be traced back to Marey’s work. Biomechanics, therefore, was initiated not with the help of physiologists or physicians, but by photographers.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine is a well-established profession with a long historical background in health sciences. It can also be as regarded a scientific discipline in co-operation with sport sciences. Sport is a cultural phenomenon. Any related aspect in sport is observed, measured, evaluated, analysed and documented using techniques and methods by several scientific disciplines – so-called sports science(s). Coaching, like clinical medical practice, applies the information gained through studies in sports science. Both serve to benefit active people and professionals within two distinct perspectives: one pushes the limits, the other protects health within these limits

What is sports medicine and sports science? Sports medicine is a medical field that involves injuries in sports, including its prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of prevention and treatment of injuries is to maintain optimal health and maximize optimal performance. Traditionally, sports medicine is the only field of team doctors working mainly with college, professional and Olympic athletes. Today, however, the sports medicine team is representative of many areas such as exercise training, biomechanics, exercise physiology, nutrition. Sports medicine experts are also working with non-professional athletes such as children participating in youth sports and elderly participating in football competitions and people participating in various recreational activities .Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

What is sports medicine Sports medicine is not a single occupation, but various experts are worried about the health and happiness of athletes. The term “athlete” includes young people, high school students, university students and professional athletes, as well as those exercising for health or recreation. Even injuries at some workplaces are being treated by experts in sports medicine – they are similar to sports injuries. People of all ages and people of different levels of activity want sports medicine providers to be instructed about training techniques, prevention of injuries and diagnosis and treatment of exercise related problems.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine is a field of medicine that deals with health and treatment and prevention of injuries related to exercise and exercise. Most sports teams hired team doctors for many years, but until the end of the 20th century sports medicine became a unique healthcare field. The doctor is an expert who further focused on sports medicine or “sports and sports medicine” (preferred term) after completing medical school and receiving appropriate resident training. The occupation of sports medicine may be the doctor’s first field of study (eg Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy). After specializing in physics, family medicine, pediatrics or orthopedics, it may also be secondary or secondary majors. Various methods reflect medical culture in different countries

Coaches develop training programs, physicians treat injuries, and therapists offer advice on appropriate training procedures. The primary focus of sports medicine is quick recovery of athletes from injuries. Common sports injuries include concussion, muscle cramps, ankle sprain, ACL sprains, and shin splints.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay

Sports medicine is important because it prevents and cures injuries that may have long-term effects on athletes such as paralysis and organ amputation. In addition, its services are important because they help to improve the performance and safety f athletes.

On Feb 21, 2005, the UK Secretary of State for Health, with the Minister for Sport and the Chief Medical Officer, announced that sport and exercise medicine was to be recognised as a specialty in the UK, with equal status to all other medical specialties within the National Health Service (NHS). This news is remarkable, since the notion of sport and exercise medicine was conceived less than 80 years ago (panel). Although the new specialty brings a modern multidisciplinary approach to health care that overlaps with many other areas of medicine, it also has its own unique area of action, body of knowledge, and research and training programmes. Furthermore, it is internationally accredited.
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In every year in accident and emergency departments in the UK, about a tenth of all acute injuries are sports related, prompting a need for further understanding of such injuries. Sport and exercise medicine, therefore, originated as a research-based academic discipline. Early workers, myself included, were enthusiastic amateurs, although we soon developed a scientific approach. Within 40 years, a complex teaching and learning plan had evolved.
The doctors and physiotherapists who launched the UK teaching programme in sport and exercise medicine in 1953 were a tiny but enthusiastic group. At that time, the multidisciplinary postgraduate teaching programme of the British Association of Sport and Medicine (BASM) relied on an annual conference and on its regional subdivisions to promote its activities. Nevertheless, the course spread throughout the UK and was supported by the sports councils. Undergraduate teaching of sport and exercise medicine was rare in 1986 when I introduced the subject in Belfast, but has since become an integral part of the curriculum of most medical schools. In 1981, after proponents of the new discipline demanded a recognised postgraduate qualification, the London Hospital Medical College began to offer a Diploma in Sports Medicine, which eventually developed into its Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Medicine. Today there are eight such university courses in the UK.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay
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After the 13th Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, Donald MacLeod—a leading light in BASM—persuaded the three royal medical colleges of Scotland to join together to found a Board for Sports Medicine. Within 3 years, this Board had developed the regulations and syllabus needed to launch a nationally recognised Diploma in Sports Medicine. For various reasons, ranging from disinterest to disapproval, such rapid progress of the specialty was not paralleled in the rest of the UK. The Academy of Royal Colleges eventually founded the Intercollegiate Academic Board of Sport and Exercise Medicine (IABSEM), but it did not hold its first meeting until July, 1998.
We have come a long way since 1953, when I was conscripted into the British army and worked in the specialty of sport and exercise medicine as a young doctor in the 6th Royal Tank Regiment. During peacetime, sporting activities were every bit as important as military pursuits. My regiment promoted excellence in athletics, boxing, soccer, rugby, and field hockey.
Between 1978 and 1994, I travelled to five Commonwealth Games as medical officer to the Northern Ireland team and the Medical Commission, and on every occasion I learnt a great deal from the Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand medical teams. When comparing the sophistication of their services to ours, our shortcomings were exposed time and time again. They were always much more advanced than us, using both doctors and physiotherapists in the diagnosis and treatment of soft-tissue injury.
I often think of a young boxer at one of the Games who was called for a drug test immediately after winning his fight. He took longer than 3 hours to produce 100 mL of urine because he was deliberately dehydrated to keep within his weight category.Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay  The next day he had another fight, and was hence reluctant to drink anything. In the end he agreed to drink a little water while in the shower. Eventually satisfying our needs, we discovered the boxer had gained more than 2 kg in weight, and he had to skip for over an hour while wearing a heavy rubber jump suit to lose the extra pounds. He beat the 8 am weigh-in, but unsurprisingly did not win his fight. Knowing what I know now, I realise the importance of an experienced medical team who would perhaps have found a way to please both the athlete and the authorities.
Sport and exercise medicine is today an established medical specialty, the aims of which are to understand and to meet the needs of an exclusive group of patients. A basketball player, for example, who sustains a sprained ankle during a match cannot and will not accept that rest is the most effective treatment. Such an athlete expects rehabilitative treatment that includes maintenance of his overall fitness and skill, and an almost instant return to activity.
Regular physical activity is essential for a healthy life. The promotion of this idea demands leadership. Equally, sports-related injuries demand scientific research in prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation, not just for the elite athlete, but for everyone. These goals encapsulate the unique discipline of sport and exercise medicine. Exercise & Sports Medicine Essay