Resources for athletes

Ten Credible Online Resources

October 16, 2012 By Larry Creswell, MD Leave a Comment

In my monthly column at Endurance Corner, entitled Ten Credible Online Resources, I wrote about how the Internet has brought us an abundance of online health information. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, there is ample information to be found–if you have the time to search. But on the down side, it can be difficult to evaluate the quality or credibility of online health information.

In my article, I list my favorite online sources of general health and heart health-specific information that might be useful to athletes. Over the past couple years, I’ve found these various sources to be useful, trustworthy, and reader-friendly. I like to use the Flipboard app for the iPad to collect information from the various websites, blogs, and Twitter streams in one place to review at my convenience. You might give that a try.

Inspirational Videos

May 3, 2012 By Larry Creswell, MD Leave a Comment

A couple video clips caught my attention this week and I thought I’d share the links here. I’ll bet that, like me, you’ll identify with the spirit of their creators.

The first video clip, Make It Count, is from Casey Neistet. Funded by Nike, the video chronicles a 10-day trip by Casey and his friend, Max.

The second video clip, Exercising Around the World, is from Steve Kamb. You can also check out his nerdfitness blog, where Steve describes the making of his recent 18-month, 120,000-mile journey–exercising all along the way!

Enjoy!

Book Recommendation: Heart 411

April 13, 2012 By Larry Creswell, MD Leave a Comment

Heart 411 is an excellent new book by Marc Gillinov, M.D., and Steven Nissen, M.D. from the Cleveland Clinic.

The book doesn’t focus on athletes specifically, but the authors have assembled a comprehensive, 550-page guide that deals with all aspects of heart disease prevention and treatment. The book would be a valuable reference to athletes of all sorts.

The book is written in easy-to-understand language and takes an objective stand on areas that are controversial. The book is divided into five sections:

Heart Health and Disease: The Basics That You Must Know
A Plan for Prevention
Fixing the Broken Heart
Personal Plans
Looking Forward

If you’re looking for an authoritative, comprehensive guide to heart health, this may be the book for you.

Cardiacathletes.com: An Online Patient Support Community

December 20, 2011 By Larry Creswell, MD 2 Comments

I’ve been aware of an online patient support community called Cardiac Athletes for a while now. I got an email yesterday from Lars Andrews, their chief cardiac physiologist asking if I’d spread the word about their site.

Taking a look, the site brings together athletes from around the world with various heart conditions. There is some general information that will be useful to athlete patients, but the biggest opportunity here is the Forum, where athletes can connect with each other about their medical conditions.

So check out www.cardiacathletes.com.

A Book Recommendation

October 11, 2011 By Larry Creswell, MD Leave a Comment

Cuppett M and Walsh KM. General Medical Conditions in the Athlete, 2nd Edition. St. Louis: Elsevier Mosby, 2012.

I came across this book and thought that I’d take a minute to offer my recommendation here at the blog.

This 2nd edition is written by two athletic trainer educators–one at the University of South Florida and the other at East Carolina University. It’s a textbook aimed at athletic trainer students that covers gammut of health issues that confront athletes of all sorts. There are chapters devoted to diagnostic imaging and testing, pharmacology and drugs, common bedside procedures, and to medical conditions that affect each of the body’s systems.

Although the book is aimed at health profession students, it’s written at a level and in a style that make it accessible to athletes themselves. By far, it’s the best single book I’ve seen that is devoted to medical conditions in athletes and could serve as a great home reference book.