European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 31, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Guidelines for female athletes women who train intensively Are at risk of developing serious medical problems. File photo Wypa Croce Knight Ridder newspapers Hether americans watch a nationally televised triathlon or catch a pickup basketball game in their neighbourhood you re More Likely than Ever to see female athletes in action these Days competing with the same intensity As their male counterparts. But biology does t treat All athletes equally. Unlike male athletes women who train intensively Are at risk of developing two major medical problems Iron deficiency and amenorrhoea or menstrual cessation. Both require extra care on the athlete s part. Iron helps physical Effort in two ways. It is a principal element of haemoglobin which carries oxygen throughout the body and athletes require a greater oxygen carrying capacity. In addition Iron helps remove lactic acid a byproduct of exercise that causes fatigue and muscle soreness. An Iron deficiency which is not severe enough to be classified As anaemia results in greater fatigue that run Down feeling As they say in advertisements. When you ingest or your body absorbs insufficient amounts of Iron or when your body loses High amounts of Iron through hard exercise you become Iron deficient. Women Are More vulnerable than men to this deficiency because their bodies require More Iron than men a the . Recommended daily allowance Rda for Iron is 18 milligrams for women but Only 10 my for men. How can female athletes guard against Iron deficiency Here Are some guidelines eat plenty of foods containing Vitamin a because that Vitamin enhances Iron absorption. For example put some strawberries on top of your enriched Cereal add several slices of Tomato to your Sandwich at lunch and include Broccoli in your dinner menu. Meats enhance the absorption of Iron that you receive from vegetables so make sure you Combine poultry and lean red meats with your veggies. Coffee and Tea interfere with Iron absorption so limit your intake of these beverages during meals. Try to eat As Many High Iron foods As possible without overdosing on calories. The average american diet provides Only 5 my of Iron per 1,000 calories so it s difficult to obtain the Rda of 18 my without eating a whole lot. For example 3 ounces of Turkey provides 5 my of Iron 3 ounces of lean beef 4 my a half cup of raisins 2 my and a half cup of baked Beans 3 my. Try adding liver oysters dried apricots and prune juice to your diet. Ask your physician for a blood test to determine what is known As your Ferritin level. If it s Low it could mean that you Are Iron deficient. Your physician May recommend Iron Pill supplements if your Ferritin level needs to be raised but female athletes should use these supplements Only with the approval of their physician. Serious athletes May want to consult a nutritionist for a computerized dietary analysis of their Iron needs and a More exact examination of their eating habits. Now on to amenorrhoea which is the cessation of Normal menstrual periods. It can result from extremely vigorous training when a woman s body fat drops too Low the pituitary gland realizes that the body does not have enough fat to support a pregnancy and initiates biochemistry that halts menstruation. Emotions also Factor into amenorrhoea. If a woman experiences a great Deal of stress during a Competition it can affect her menstrual Cycle. Female athletes who experience amenorrhoea should ease Back on their training a bit either in intensity or duration or make an Effort to gain some weight. Since menstrual cessation is unnatural for a woman who usually menstruate female athletes should not hesitate to Check with a physician to ascertain the cause of this irregularity. Amenorrhoea is nothing to shrug off because it also Means a decrease in oestrogen. This imbalance not Only causes Calcium loss in the Bones but also reduces the body s ability to absorb Calcium from foods. Both of these factors increase a woman s risk of eventually developing the crippling disease of osteoporosis. Think of the irony Strong Young women who train excessively May do their future health More harm than Good. By Gina Kolata new York times Omen who take multivitamin pills at the time of Conception have less than half the risk of having a baby with a serious neurological defect As do women who Are not taking these vitamins a new study has found. The study published in the journal of the american medical association supports previous findings indicating that vitamins taken at the time of Conception can prevent these neural tube defects. The defects can Range from Spina Bifid or open spine which can cause paralysis to Anen Cephal a lethal condition in which most of the brain is missing. About one baby in 1,000 is born with a neural tube defect. Or. Joseph Mulinare of the centers for disease control an author of the new study said he is waiting for More data from other studies before advising women on taking vitamins at the time of Conception. It would be premature to make that recommendation he said because the study is not conclusive. But he added people do think multivitamins Are pretty other experts said they were already advising women to take multivitamins before trying to become pregnant and that they hoped the new study would encourage More doctors to give this advice. But they stressed that it was unsafe to take extra doses of vitamins because some vitamins can cause birth defects when taken in Large quantities. The Spina Bifid association of America which supports research on neural tube defects and counsels families about these birth defects makes a Point of advising women that there is increasing evidence pointing to an association Between Vitamin use and a reduced risk of neural tube defects. There is absolutely no evidence of any harm from taking multivitamins said or. Mark i. Evans of Wayne state University in Detroit. I strongly advise All women in the childbearing age group to do he said he hoped study would encourage More obstetricians to give this pregnant women Are routinely tested to see if their fetuses have neural tube defects. Women carrying fetuses with Spina Bifid Are advised to have caesarean deliveries to minimize trauma to the baby s spinal Cord during birth. Many women choose to abort affected fetuses. Since the use of vitamins would not eliminate the problem of defects doctors would continue to offer the prenatal tests. The new study involved a comparison of 347 women in the Atlanta area who gave birth to babies with neural tube defects and 2,829 women whose babies did not have birth defects. Mulinare and his colleagues found that the risk of having a baby with these defects was 60 percent less for women who took vitamins before and at the time of tuesday january 31, 1989 Conception than it was for those who take vitamins. The researchers said there May have been some other factors involved. But the findings Are consistent with several other lines of evidence indicating that one cause of neural tube defects might be Vitamin deficiencies. For years researchers have speculated that a pregnant woman s diet might have something to do with neural tube defects. These birth defects arise Early in pregnancy at the end of the first month after Conception. At that time the neural tube which later forms the spinal column starts to close like a Zipper from the Middle of the fetus Back. If it fails to close properly at the top the fetus has Anen Cephal. If the tube fails to close toward the Bottom the fetus has Spina Bifid a condition that can result in partial paralysis. Neural tube defects can be detected prenatally because a fetal protein pours out of the opening of the spinal Cord and enters the Mother s blood. To test for the birth defects technicians first look for the fetal protein Alpha Fet protein in the pregnant woman s blood. Women with High Levels of the protein in their blood Are referred for sonograms and those with suspicious sonograms Are referred for amniocentesis in which doctors examine the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus and confirm the High Levels of Alpha Fet protein. Neural tube defects Are More Likely to occur in babies born to women of lower socioeconomic classes and women who have poor diets for other reasons researchers say. There was an epidemic of neural tube defects during the depression Evans said and the incidence has been falling Ever the stars and stripes Page 17
