European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse . Elbows into sports Medicine by Chuck Melvin associated press Joe Namath s Knees. Tommy John s Elbow. Dave Dravecky a cancer. They Veall been dramatic stories of courage watched closely by american sports fans. And in no Small Way High profile cases like these have been both the cause and the result of an explosion in the Field of sports Medicine Over the past 25 years. This Spring 470 team doctors gathered in Scottsdale ariz., for the second of three annual sports Medicine seminars with topics ranging from Quot biomechanics of the throwing athlete s shoulder Quot to Quot special dietary measures for the Twenty five years ago you d have been hard pressed to find such a seminar or enough interested doctors to make it worthwhile says or. John a. Bergfeld team doctor for the Cleveland Browns and co chairman of the March meeting. Quot there have been physicians concentrating in sports Medicine in Europe since the turn of the Century but not in the United states Quot Bergfeld said in a recent interview at his Cleveland clinic office. Quot in a not sure Why because we re a very sports minded physicians and trainers have been looking after american athletes for decades of course. But sports doctors in the United states did t begin comparing notes regularly until the mid-1960s, when Namath a Gimpy Knees focused nationwide attention on or. James a. Nicholas the new York jets team doctor. Quot that s when the term sports Medicine was really coined Here Quot Bergfeld said. Quot there was the Day to Day Joe Namath Knees Story and then he went to the super bowl. People began to read that there was this Man who was a sports Medicine specialist and they started saying gee maybe i need a sports specialist Quot Nicholas said that when he became a sports doctor in 1960, or. Don o Donoghue a teacher at the University of Oklahoma s medical school had written a textbook on athletic injuries that contained a majority of what was known about the discipline at the time. Of Donoghue a pioneering work with ligament damage which Nicholas and others used to revive the careers of scores of professional athletes was followed by a series of successes by or. Frank Jobe who succeeded sports Medicine Pioneer or. Robert Kerlan As the los Angeles dodgers team doctor. Jobe refined surgical techniques for repairing torn rotator cuffs and he also received attention for his knee surgeries on basketball players such As Wilt Chamberlain Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. Perhaps the single most famous Success Story in sports Medicine was Jobes reconstruction of Pitcher Tommy John s Elbow in 1975. Jobe took a ligament from Johns right forearm and used it to rebuild John s injured left Elbow. The left handed John won 90 games Over the next five years including three seasons with 20 or More wins and he not Edward Dooley a patient at Chicago a sport Medicine grimaces through tests continued pitching throughout the 1980s. His Story encouraged other injured athletes to persevere. A for someone like that to have that operation and win 20 games. Has done a tremendous amount for sports Medicine Quot Tom Candiotti now a Pitcher for the indians was quoted As saying in 1983. A someone like me should really be grateful for someone like common athletic injuries and where they strike athletic injuries and the sports in which they occur most frequently skiers a thumb strained ligament or dislocation from Falls in which thumb gets stuck in pole Tannus Elbow from too much playing or from using a bad stroke with heavy Racquet run Nat a pm inflammation of Tendon behind Kneecap it to know a football and skiing basketball Tennis Shin splint a a jogging concussion football and Rugby fractured Collarbone football Rugby Tom rotator cuff Othor muscle tears baseball pitchers Tennis football quarterbacks slipped disk weightlifting football Squash pulled hamstring softball baseball football also runners who fail to warm up property sprained ankle football baseball soccer basketball Squash Tennis stress fracture jogging not Candiotti underwent an operation similar to Johns in 1981. Scrutiny of athletes injured Knees and Ankles is helping doctors better understand joint malfunctions such As arthritis Bergfeld said and he yearns for the Day maybe 10 years from now when invention of a functional artificial ligament will Aid athletes and non athletes alike. Videotaped replays of injuries that seem morbid to the general Public have Given doctors insight into the Way joints react to stresses. Bergfeld frequently watches videos of his patients injuries to help determine How they occurred and whether they might have been prevented Quot i think we be Learned a lot by looking at films of injuries to see exactly what happens to that knee joint when it goes out a Bergfeld said. Bergfeld does no to wince in sympathetic pain when he watches tapes of his patients getting Hurt but he does share the anguish an athlete feels when he learns the severity of his condition it Bergfeld who first discovered a cancerous tumor in Dravecky s Arm in 1988. The san Francisco Pitcher finally retired after his surgically repaired Arm broke during an inspiring comeback attempt last year. Quot you know How hard they worked to get where they Are and How devastating an injury can be psychologically Quot Bergfeld said. Quot Dave has great inner diet benefits heart by Jeff Nesmith Cox news service an analysis of the dietary habits of 6,000 Middle age american men has revealed a dramatic relationship Between eating fish and the ability to avoid having a fatal heart attack. The study indicated that men who ate two or three modest helpings of fish a week were 40 percent less Likely to die of heart attacks than men who ate no fish at All said or Therese a. Dolecek a nutrition epidemiologist at Bowman Gray medical school in Winston Salem . Dolecek presented her findings to scientists attending a conference on the health benefits of Omega 3, the fish Oil derived substance thought to protect eskimos from heart disease. Scientists say an International consensus is emerging that dietary deficiencies in Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids play a significant role in Many diseases. More than 300 researchers from 23 countries spent four Days at the conference extolling the benefits of Omega 3 a not Only in prevention and treatment of heart disease but in connection with a variety of other ailments including cancer diabetes psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. Studies presented at the meeting included findings that the development of visual acuity in premature infants was improved by the inclusion of fish Oil in their formula that Omega 3 slowed the buildup of platelets and substances such As cholesterol on the Walls of blood vessels and that cardiac arrhythmia in rats and marmosets was reduced when they were fed Omega 3-enriched diets. Scientists from Albany medical College in new York and Massachusetts general Hospital reported that High doses of fish Oil led to significant clinical improvements among rheumatoid arthritis patients. The conference called for requirements that Omega 3 be incorporated into baby formulas and urged government health agencies to recognize Quot vitally important differences Between Omega 3 and other forms of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The Omega 3 researchers acknowledged that scientists in some More established disciplines remain sceptical about the importance of Omega 3. For example the american heart association declined in dietary recommendations issued last summer to org increased consumption of Omega 3, although it i recommend eating fish several times a week. Dolecek s study financed by the National hear lung and blood Institute was repeatedly cited As evidence that Omega 3 is a genuine and esser11 nutrient and not a Quot Snake Oil Quot cure or a food fad. She based her conclusions on a statistical Araiys data collected on the lifestyles of 12,000 men w studied in the late 1970s and 1980s after being to be at High risk of developing heart disease. Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes tuesday april 3,1990 c
