Originally published January 3 2006
Sports medicine expert spearheads policy to stop unhealthy weight loss practices among young athletes
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The American Academy of Pediatrics has called attention to a report made by Dr. Thomas Martin, a sports medicine specialist, who has raised concern over weight loss practices common among young athletes, such as diet pills and saunas, which can lead to adverse health effects and sometimes death.
Young athletes are at risk of engaging in unhealthy efforts to lose or gain weight and doctors need to give them guidance and "put pressure" on coaches to do the same, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
"Weight loss accompanied by overexercising, using rubber suits, steam baths, or saunas" should be prohibited for all young athletes, the policy says.
The new stance was prompted partly by the 1998 deaths of three college wrestlers using strenuous workouts to lose weight and upcoming weight control requirements for student athletes from the National Federation of State High School Associations.
It applies to youngsters in sports where leanness or strength is emphasized, including bodybuilding, gymnastics, figure skating, football and cheerleading.
These are sports in which coaches may encourage unhealthy weight management practices that can lead to problems including eating disorders, dehydration, heat stress and gaining too much fat instead of muscle, which can lead to cardiovascular problems, the policy authors said.
Doctors need to "put pressure on coaches to do it right," said Dr. Thomas Martin, lead author of the academy's policy and a sports medicine specialist in Williamsport, Pa.
That gives heftier youngsters who lose weight an advantage over more naturally slight competitors who truly belong in the lowest weight classes, said Jon Almquist, chairman of the National Athletic Trainers Association's secondary schools committee and an athletic training specialist for schools in Fairfax County, Va.
The problem is "multifactorial," said Dr. Eric Small, chairman of the academy's council on sports medicine and fitness and a sports medicine specialist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"There's a coaching involvement, there's a parental involvement, there's a societal involvement to be the best at all costs ...
The policy's guidelines for allowable weekly weight gain and loss parallel requirements for wrestlers from the National Federation of State High School Associations that take effect in the 2006-07 school year, Almquist said.
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