Health & Safety

On May 27, 2011, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell signed the state's youth sports concussion safety bill into law, adding the state to the list of  states that have passed strong legislation since May 2009.

MomsTeam nutrition expert Nancy Clark reports on the latest research from the ACSM Annual Meeting on the importance of physical exercise, nutrition for the injured athlete, and creatine safety.

In response to a recent MomsTeam article reporting on the American Academy of Pediatrics' clinical report on sports and energy drinks, a reader, a high school cross-country coach, suggesting that youth athletes tolerated sports drinks less well than water. We wondered whether he was right. MomsTeam's youth sports hydration expert, Dr. Susan Yeargin, says no: tolerance is a question of liquid volume and workout intensity, not drink composition.

One often overlooked area of an athlete's body that needs protection from potentially life-threatening injury is the throat and neck, particularly in ice hockey and lacrosse, both of which are played with sticks and high-speed projectiles (pucks/balls) that can come in contact with a player's throat area.

College-age athletes who had previously suffered a concussion performed more poorly on tests for verbal memory than those who had not, according to a new study presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and 2nd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine® in June 2011.

Along with studies reporting high concussion rates, increased concussion awareness among athletes, parents, coaches and health care providers, and new state concussion safety laws has come rapid growth in the use of computerized neuropsychological testing in evaluating and managing sports concussions, particularly at the college and high school levels. The problem, says sports concussion neuropsychologist, Rosemarie Scolaro Moser, Ph. D, is that obtaining a valid baseline test result can be a challenge, especially for youth athletes.

Sports drinks should be consumed by children and adolescents only when there is a need for fluid, carbohydrate and electrolyte replenishment during and after prolonged, vigorous sports participation, while the ingestion of energy drinks should avoided completely, recommends the American Academy of Pediatrics in a report published in the journal Pediatrics.

Litsa Bolontzakis thinks we're all living disposable lives, and that our children deserve better.  The best things in life we can offer our kids take little time, and cost nothing, she says.  Her message to parents is to take whatever time they can to turn off the TV, shut down the computer, leave the cell phones turned off and open their children's eyes to the world around us.

Because summer sports are less likely to be staffed by an athletic trainer or other health care professional with specialized expertise in recognizing and treating concussion, parents need to be especially vigilant to the signs and symptoms of concussion.