For those of you that missed my first post last week, I am a doctor and MMA fan and my goal is to promote real discussion of medically-related MMA issues, both here and at my new website fightmedicine.net
Tonight, there was an interesting UFC roundtable discussion with Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, and Dominick Cruz.
One topic they addressed was what is perceived to be an increase in injuries of UFC fighters, the so-called "injury bug". Now, whether there is an increase incidence or just more reporting of it due to social media and the internet remains to be seen.
Kenny Florian did bring up an interesting issue and that is that these fighters train under several different coaches (Muy Thai, grappling, strength, etc.) and they don’t have on coach that knows what to do with specifically MMA fighters. Perhaps once could make a role for an MMA Team Physician much like other professional sports have Team Physicians.
The other topic that was up for debate was whether Testosterone Replacement Therapy, or TRT, should be legal. All of them but Rashad Evans thought it should be illegal. Rashad’s argument was that its a professional sport and all professional athletes look for an advantage. What was interesting was that all of them states they could get it for an "ailment", which sounded oddly similar to how patients are so easily able to get medical marijuana in California.
Furthermore, I am unaware of any professional medically-trained team physician or endocrinologist (a hormone specialist) that advocates for testosterone replacement therapy, especially as an atheltic adjuvant. I think most of these guys are equating testosterone with some sort of performance enhancing drug, which is not necessarily the case. Bisping seemed to allude to the testosterone level being equal to the strength or vigor of a 20-year old. Testosterone is a hormone and the endocrine system (hormone system) in the body is a very complex network with all types of positive and negative feedback mechanisms. Thus, a simple shot of testosterone is not a magic pill for strength and vigor.
What do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g0daUQ_nIY&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3p7NQHZD0E&feature=plcp
Tonight, there was an interesting UFC roundtable discussion with Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, and Dominick Cruz.
One topic they addressed was what is perceived to be an increase in injuries of UFC fighters, the so-called "injury bug". Now, whether there is an increase incidence or just more reporting of it due to social media and the internet remains to be seen.
Kenny Florian did bring up an interesting issue and that is that these fighters train under several different coaches (Muy Thai, grappling, strength, etc.) and they don’t have on coach that knows what to do with specifically MMA fighters. Perhaps once could make a role for an MMA Team Physician much like other professional sports have Team Physicians.
The other topic that was up for debate was whether Testosterone Replacement Therapy, or TRT, should be legal. All of them but Rashad Evans thought it should be illegal. Rashad’s argument was that its a professional sport and all professional athletes look for an advantage. What was interesting was that all of them states they could get it for an "ailment", which sounded oddly similar to how patients are so easily able to get medical marijuana in California.
Furthermore, I am unaware of any professional medically-trained team physician or endocrinologist (a hormone specialist) that advocates for testosterone replacement therapy, especially as an atheltic adjuvant. I think most of these guys are equating testosterone with some sort of performance enhancing drug, which is not necessarily the case. Bisping seemed to allude to the testosterone level being equal to the strength or vigor of a 20-year old. Testosterone is a hormone and the endocrine system (hormone system) in the body is a very complex network with all types of positive and negative feedback mechanisms. Thus, a simple shot of testosterone is not a magic pill for strength and vigor.
What do you guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g0daUQ_nIY&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3p7NQHZD0E&feature=plcp
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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