Jet Lag

June 14, 2015 by

One of the more popular studies we have published in the last few years has been ‘Jet Lag and Travel Fatigue:  A Comprehensive Management Plan for Sport Medicine Physicians and High-Performance Support Teams.’  The paper was written by Charles Samuels, M.D., the Medical Director of the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance, Calgary Alberta and published in our May 2012 CJSM.  It has been ‘hit’ on-line and emailed many, many times.  If you have not had the chance to read it yet, it remains freely available; my colleague Chris Hughes previously reviewed the study in depth on this blog as well.

I am thinking about this study quite a bit right now, as I recover from 24+ hours of travel making my way back from SE Asia to my home in Columbus, Ohio, where I resume work seeing patients tomorrow a.m.  I’m using melatonin to help re-adjust my circadian rhythm so that I can be as ‘sharp’ as possible taking care of the athletes I’ll see soon.  I began taking 0.5 mg melatonin each morning in Thailand 2 days before departing; and now that I am back in the USA I will continue taking 0.5 mg melatonin each night for five nights.  So far, so good.

I thought it high time that I post a poll on this blog.  I have been remiss in not doing so for several months.  And so, whether you are a clinician who manages teams doing a lot of long-distance travel, or whether you are only responsible for yourself, I have written this poll for you!  Let me know your management of this common problem–and if you have not had the chance to read this study previously, by all means do so!!!

 

Filed under CJSM Polls, Drugs and Doping in Sport, General Interest Tagged with , ,

CJSM in Southeast Asia

June 7, 2015 by 1 Comment

lunchdocs-2

With Suthichai Yoon (L), Dr. Mokkhavesa (standing) and Dr. Lamsam (R) at ‘The Cup’

I’m enjoying a vacation with my family in Thailand and Vietnam, and I can’t help but notice that sports is as big of a deal here as it seems to be anywhere else I travel.  In the time I’ve been here Chelsea F.C. has played in a friendly with the Thai All Stars, Leicester City has made a name (infamous) for itself during their visit to Thailand, and the sports news is full of results from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which began June 5 and are taking place in Singapore.

mo celebrating

A Barca fan celebrating Champions League triumph in the middle of the night, Vietnam

And all that is only the local and regional sporting news.  Like so many others here in SE Asia, I am trying to stay abreast of developments at Roland Garros and in the NBA and NHL finals.  I delighted in the news that came in this morning on American Pharoah’s achievement:  the first Triple Crown in 37 years!

My Thai is rudimentary and my Vietnamese non-existent; and so I’m happy to report that the English news in Thailand especially is extremely well developed.  The Nation newspaper, a daily English paper which is part of the Nation Multimedia Group, is part of my morning routine here in SE Asia–both in print and on line–and helps keep me abreast of the sporting news.

Where there is sports there is sports medicine.  Before coming to Vietnam, where I am writing this blog post, I enjoyed an excellent lunch at The Cup in Bangkok with Drs. Chanin Lamsam and Suprija Mokkhavesa, and Mr. Suthichai Yoon, to suss out the sport medicine and publishing landscape in Thailand.  Dr. Lamsam is Head of Orthopaedic Sports Medicine at Siviraj Hospital and is on faculty at Mahidol University.  Dr. Mokkhavesa has spent his career in military medicine, and is in the Department of Orthopaedics at Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok.  And Suthichai Yoon is Co-founder of the Nation Multimedia group.

Dr. Lamsam gave me some sense of the sport medicine scene in Thailand.   Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest Tagged with , , ,

CJSM Podcast #9: A Conversation with Australia’s Dr. Alexander Donaldson

June 4, 2015 by

jsm-podcast-bg-1FootyFirst:  that’s the subject of our newest podcast.

Australian Rules football (AKA ‘Footy’) is big sport Down Under:  by some measures it is the country’s most popular sport.  Footy is played on the professional level–the Australian Football League (AFL) season is fully under way.  It is also played by many on the community level, and the injury rate is apparently rather high.

The May 2015 CJSM has as one of its “Editor’s Picks” new research on injury prevention in community Footy, coming to us from the Australian Centre for Research Into Injury in Sport and Its Prevention (ACRISP).  Lead author Dr. Alexander Donaldson and the ACRISP team have been conducting on-going research into establishing an intervention to reduce lower limb injuries in the sport; the exercise program is known as “FootyFirst.”

I came away from this podcast having learned a lot from Dr. Donaldson:  about injury prevention, about FootyFirst, and about Footy.  For a guy who used to think of “Arena Football League” when he heard the term “AFL”; a guy who thought of Brad Wing when he thought of Footy…..well, let’s just say, I think I’ve come a long way.

I know I’m already looking forward to getting to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) some day to see a game!  You’ll feel the same way when you listen to the podcast or read the blog post interview I conducted with Dr. Donaldson.  And for a limited time, this “Editor’s Pick” is freely available on our website:  check it out.

Injury prevention, that’s the name of the game in sports medicine: whether it is the AFL (Footy) or the AFL (Arena Football)!  So click on this link to hear our conversation with Dr. Donaldson, or go to iTunes to download the podcast. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, Injury Prevention Tagged with , , ,

#ACSM2015

May 29, 2015 by

social media

Reading #ACSM15 twitter stream, two Fellows of the ACSM: Drs. Anastasia Fischer and Avery Faigenbaum

california coast

Even views from a train are apparently blissful on the California coast.

The 2015 annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine has not ended yet, but I’ve had to cut out early.  I’m sad to say I’m on my way from San Diego to L.A. Well, let me clarify my sadness:  I’m on a train heading up the California coast right now, with an absolutely stunning view outside of my window–talk about Exercise is Medicine!  I may not be burning calories while I blog, but there are plenty of surfers in the water this afternoon burning some for me.

No, I’m not sad to still enjoy a little bit of the California ambience.  I’m sad to bid #ACSM15 so long.  It’s been a great conference.

I can only give a superficial nod to all the sessions that have taken place already.  As the world-renowned Australian injury prevention expert Caroline Finch put it in a tweet of hers: “This conference size always stuns me ”

patricios gray

Drs. Aaron Gray & Jon Patricios, multi-tasking on the dais while talking about the power of social media for sports medicine clinicians.

Dr. Avery Faigenbaum was among a panel of youth sports researchers discussing a new IOC initiative regarding a “Youth Athlete Development Model.”  Pierre d’Hemecourt gave a great, live demonstration of hip ultrasound–I walked away from the session with a renewed sense of the importance of this modality to our profession, a topic CJSM has returned to on several occasions in the journal and on this blog.  Peter Kriz from Brown University gave a hands on demonstration of the clinical use of video analysis in evaluating baseball throwers.  I joined my fellow social media friends, doctors Aaron Gray and Jon Patricios (AKA @MizzouSportsDoc and @JonPatricios) in giving an enjoyable talk on the power of this—of social media in sports medicine.  The power of twitter, for instance, in curating content, in professional networking. The power of podcasting and blogging, whether a producer or user of content.

Of course, there is the socializing at conferences that provides memories as well. I enjoyed a fine diner with Kate Ackerman, the subject of a recent blog post,and Dai Sugimoto,an author of a recent CJSM published study on gender differences in hip abduction/adduction peak torques.

#ACSM15 is not nearly done; there is plenty left today and tomorrow.  But for me, San Diego is well down the train tracks.  Fare well until ACSM 2016 in Boston.  Now that is something to look forward to.

Filed under General Interest, Youth Sport Tagged with ,

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