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Study finds sports injuries preventable through Psychology.
Whether you are an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, you know that sports injuries can ruin a game, a season, or a career. Injuries are as psychologically harmful as they are physical. So what if we could prevent injuries using psychology? A University of Auckland PhD student has shown that psychology has an important part to play in injury vulnerability for sportspeople and their ability to recover. Ralph Maddison has submitted his PhD at the Department of Sports and Exercise Science and his research has shown that by altering psychological variables that help to reduce stress, using techniques like relaxation, then injury vulnerability can be reduced.
Part of Ralph's study looked at introducing a stress-management program for those players with an "at-risk" psychological profile in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of sustaining further injury and reducing the amount of time missed due to injury. Fifty rugby players were divided into two groups at the beginning of the season. Coping techniques such as relaxation, positive self-talk, imagery, goal-setting and planning were introduced to one group. These were designed to help them deal with the rigors of training and the stress associated with competition. The second group was the control group that continued through the season with no additional assistance.
The results at the end of the season showed the intervention group had fewer injuries and missed less time due to injury than the control group.
A second part of Ralph's research addressed the role of psychology in the rehabilitation setting. This study looked at whether patients following knee surgery would recover faster by watching observational learning videos of an individual who has already gone through the same procedure. "The study looked at 76 athletes undergoing an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL) and the rehabilitation involved following this," says Ralph. "The participants were divided into two groups, with one group viewing videos of other people who had the same operation, showing their rehabilitation progress along the way.
Results showed that those who watch the videos had greater confidence to perform rehabilitation exercises and walk following their operation. The video group also had better early functional outcomes after surgery compared to the control group.
Ralph received funding from ACC for the first two studies. Ralph hopes that his research will be used in the future to assist athletes in their ability to not only prevent injury, but also recover quicker by addressing these and other psychological factors.
Article taken from http://www.news-medical.net/?id=2165
Healthy exercise helps treat eating disorders
By Alison McCook
The field of psychology has recently hopped on board with the idea that exercise has numerous psychological benefits. Yet, in eating disorders, patients sometimes use exercise compulsively, or to compensate for food intake. Is it best in such cases that exercise go out the window cold turkey? One piece of new research shows adding an exercise program to the treatment of eating disorders appears to help women who have an unhealthy attitude towards exercise.
Investigators found that women who completed an exercise program designed to encourage the attitude that exercise is for more than weight loss tended to develop a healthier approach to exercise. Moreover, among women who were also anorexic, adding exercise to their treatment appeared to help them actually regain some of their lost weight.
Study author Rachel Calogero explained that most eating disorder treatment programs do not let patients exercise, permitting it only once patients have gained a certain amount of weight. She added that women who use exercise to further their eating disorder -- by, for instance, over-exercising, punishing themselves via exercise, or working out to give themselves permission to eat -- are likely going to continue to exercise once they have been treated for their eating disorder. This program may help by giving women the tools to continue to exercise in a safer way, Calogero noted. All of the women included in the study had an eating disorder and an unhealthy attitude towards exercise, defined as exercise abuse.
Four times per week, 127 women spent 60 minutes practicing a variety of activities, including stretching, yoga, Pilates, strength training and aerobic activities, along with recreational games. Before and during exercise, coordinators emphasized to women that exercise can be a tool to rejuvenate the body, rather than deplete it. Women were also taught that exercise can increase their mind-body connection and alleviate stress. At the end of each exercise session, women discussed how the workout made them feel.
Reporting in Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, Calogero and her co-author found that women who participated in at least two exercise sessions were less likely to believe that they were obligated to exercise than women who were not allowed to exercise during treatment. Exercisers with anorexia also gained more than one-third more weight than non-exercisers with anorexia, the authors note.
In an interview, Calogero, who is based at Syracuse University in New York, explained that women in eating disorder programs have to follow a meal plan, which often contains many more calories than they used to allow themselves. Exercise may help them relax about their new diets, thereby letting them eat more calories and gain weight, she said.
"By allowing them to exercise, it probably alleviated some of their anxieties about eating," she said.
Moreover, exercisers may have also absorbed the message of the program -- that you can exercise and eat in a healthy way, without becoming a "huge monster," as many of them fear, Calogero noted.
SOURCE: Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, Fall 2004.
Until the next issue…. Take care of yourself. | 
