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EXTRA POUNDS CAN INCREASE YOUR CANCER RISK
"'We estimate that 90,000 deaths due to cancer could be prevented
each year in the U.S. if men and women could maintain normal weight,'
says Eugenia Calle, director of analytical epidemiology at the American
Cancer Society in Atlanta."
'After tobacco smoking, obesity is the principal cause of cancer in
the U.S.,' says Dimitri Trichopoulos of the Harvard School of Public
Health. "…the risk of most cancers started to climb at a Body Mass Index (BMI)
of 25, which is the dividing line between "normal" and "overweight."
Check your BMI and your Waist to Hip Ratio here -
http://fha.state.md.us/cpf/
'If you're obese, and especially if you carry extra weight around
your abdomen, you run the risk of living in a state of high circulating
insulin levels,' explains the American Cancer Society's Eugenia Calle….
Insulin might also explain why active people have a lower risk.
Exercise helps you put a lid on insulin levels, even if you're
overweight."
Nutrition Action Health Letter October 2003
WE CAN GET YOU ACTIVE AND ON THE RIGHT DIET! CALL US TODAY FOR
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ACL Injuries in Female Athletes
Female Athletes Have Arrived
More women and girls are playing sports than ever before. The
spectacular performance of the women in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics
and the popularity of women's professional soccer, basketball, golf
and tennis have had a profound influence on little girls. Forget
about "Be like Mike," instead "Be like Mia!"
The speed, power, and intensity of women's sports have dramatically
increased over the past decade. With this style of play has come an
increase in musculoskeletal injuries. One of the more common injuries
is a sprain or rupture of the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) of the
knee.
Anatomy of the Knee
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four main ligaments
of the knee. It is located inside the knee and runs from the thigh
bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia).
Its functions are to keep the tibia (shin bone) from sliding forward
on the knee and to stabilize the knee when it twists (rotation). So in
straight-ahead sports like jogging, swimming, and biking, there is
little stress to the ACL. But in the sports that involve cutting,
planting and changing direction, the ACL plays a vital role.
Injury Statistics
According to 1998 injury statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission, more than 81,600 people injured their knee playing
soccer, and 225,800 sustained injuries in basketball. Soccer and
basketball are considered two high risk sports for ACL injury in
females.
In 1995, an article was published in the American Journal of Sports
Medicine that found that female basketball players in the NCAA tore
their ACLs four times more often than male basketball players. In the
same study, women who played NCAA soccer sustained ACL injuries twice
as often as male soccer players.
Causes of Injury
The reasons why this is the case are not easily explained. It is
helpful to divide these causes into two groups:
1. Mechanisms of Injury
2. Anatomical and Hormonal Factors
Mechanisms of Injury
Most ACL injuries are non-contact related: running and cutting sharply
in a more erect posture than in men, landing from a jump without bending
the knees sufficiently, and playing on surfaces with a high coefficient
of friction. The level of skill and experience of the athlete is always
of significance. Of course, contact injuries like a direct blow to the
knee from the rear or side can cause a tear in the ACL.
Anatomical and Hormonal Factors
1. Intercondylar notch size. This is the groove in the femur through
which the ACL travels. The size and shape of the notch tends to be
smaller in women. This narrowness may predispose women to higher
rates of ACL injury. Not only is this groove smaller in women, but
the actual size of the ACL itself (MRI cross section of the ACL in a
man averaged almost 14 millimeters larger than in females at the width
of the space through which the ACL travels) is smaller in women (1).
2. Pelvis size. Women typically have a wider pelvis, which makes the
thigh bones angle downward more sharply than in men. This is called
the "Q" angle. The greater the angle, the more pressure put on the
inside (medial aspect) of the knee.
3. Ligament laxity. Women's ligaments can be more lax (have more give)
than men's ligaments. Also, research has shown that women's muscle
tissue is more elastic than male muscle tissue. Therefore, excessive
joint motion combined with increased flexibility may be an important
cause for women tearing their ACL at a higher rate.
4. Reflex time. It has been shown that female muscles stabilizing the
knee may take a millisecond longer to respond than their male
counterparts. It is suspected that this small difference in the
time of contraction to protect the knee could also lead to injury.
5. Quadriceps/Hamstring Strength Ratio. Poor hamstring strength in
both sexes may be a cause for ACL injury. If the hamstring cannot
balance the power of the quadriceps (front thigh muscle), then this
imbalance can cause significant stress to the ACL.
6. Hormones. A recent study suggests that changes in estrogen levels
during the menstrual cycle may affect the strength of the ACL. This
may predispose women to the higher injury rate. (3)
The Good News
Multiple studies have shown that a proper training program can be
very effective at decreasing the rate of ACL injury.
"A training program developed at the University of Vermont Medical
School designed to prevent ACL injuries in skiers demonstrated a 69%
decrease in injuries among ski patrol personnel and instructors who
received the training compared with those who did not. Another
prevention program developed in Cincinnati demonstrated that a
six-week program of training could reduce the risks of knee ligament
injuries in female athletes. One of the important aspects of the
training program is to train these athletes to rely more on hamstring
muscles than quadriceps, thereby protecting the knee ligaments.
A controlled study of women athletes who did not participate in the
training program compared with those who did indicated a five times
higher incidence of knee injury than in male athletes. Females who
participated in the training had injury levels equal to or only one
or two times higher than males." (2)
How You Can Prevent ACL Injury
1. Proper leg muscle strength training and core training.
2. Proper neuromuscular (balance and speed) training.
3. Proper coaching on jumping and landing and avoiding any straight
knee landing.
4. Proper footwear and orthotics if necessary.
See our SPORTS PERFORMANCE TRAINING to get one on one instruction!
See this article on our website for references.
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Maryland Sports Injury Center