Scientists Needed Help Against Covid-19. They Asked Sports

The NBA and NFL generated rich data throughout the pandemic—and changed the way researchers thought about the coronavirus.

  Training protocols during a pandemic

As players return to the field, their health is a primary concern. What was once considered routine, is now a series of choreographed steps to mitigate the risks and control the spread of COVID-19.

  What Is The Best Sport For You? Try This Healthy Sport Index

Of course, the goal of this Index is not to tell you that some sports stink and that some sports are better than others. Sports are not Katy Perry songs, where some are clearly better than others. A sport that is good for someone else may not be good for you and vice versa.

 Hits to the Head May Result in Immediate Brain Damage

When a teenager is hit in the head, his brain can begin to show signs, within days, of the kind of damage associated with degenerative brain disease, according to an unsettling new study of young men and head injuries. The findings, which also involve tests with animals, indicate that this damage can occur even if the hit does not result in a full-blown concussion.

 How This Sport Is Changing Kids' Health Around The World

Football, the kind that actually uses the feet, may still be the most popular sport among kids globally, but few sports can match the explosive international growth of basketball over the past two decades.

 Managing private medical information by teams under scrutiny

Players are now trying to prevent teams from releasing injury information, which could have an impact on sports betting.

 Nobody in Sports Knows the Long-Term Effects of Covid-19

Athletes are returning to their sports uncertain about what happens if they contract the virus—or what happens next.

 Parents Should Limit Sports Participation for Children, Trainers Say

Young athletes are practicing too hard in just one sport, increasing the risk of injuries and burnout. New guidelines urge parents to reduce the intensity.

 Reducing Injury Risk in Youth Sports

Few parents enroll their children in organized sports with the expectation that they will get injured. Yet children often do get hurt, and sometimes those injuries can sideline young athletes for months or an entire season and may sour them on participating in the future. The effects of sports injuries may even linger into adulthood.

 Toxic sport cultures are damaging female athletes’ health, but we can do better

Our new research shows a lack of knowledge about the condition among coaches and athletes and that hierarchical power relations and stigma are contributing to it.

 Want To Get The Most Out Of Sports? Don't Stick To Just One

One major finding of the report was that teens who participated in two or more sports were much more likely to have healthier behaviors than those who participated in just one sport.

Women's Health and Sports

Women are constantly on the go both at work and home. Active in Sports at all levels, women now look at exercise as a vital part of life. Through the years many people feel that women's health needs have not been met by the male dominated medical profession. Recently, the medical profession has become less male dominated with more research being undertaken on women's health issues.

A Look At Sports And Health In America

Play ball! Fore! Swish! Americans love sports — watching them and playing them. But as participants, Americans' relationship with sports changes as we grow older. About three-quarters of adults say they played sports when they were younger. By the time people are in their late 20s, however, only 26 percent say they've played sports in the past year.

Dodgeball Should Not Be Part of Any Curriculum, Ever

D Making kids play team sports in PE is neither healthy nor educational.

Does Pinkifying the NFL Really Tackle Breast Cancer?

Pink links October, breast cancer, and the NFL. But so does the color of money. And many in the cancer community feel "Breast Cancer Industry Month" is doing more harm than good.

Examining the Purpose of Sport and Why it Matters

Hopefully the purposes of sport will continue to provide visibility and create space where social change and human rights can become a core purpose of sport.

For Elite Athletes, Periods Are Still A Question Mark

For all the advances that science has made in sport, there are few studies and little consensus about how the menstrual cycle affects athletic performance.

How Being A Sports Fan Makes You Happier And Healthier

It’s easy to be cynical about professional sports — especially the NFL. But despite the disturbing headlines the league earned this year, ranging from lax penalties for domestic violence to a growing awareness of the impact of traumatic brain injuries, there will always be at least one silver lining for professional football.

Research explains why so many people are obsessed with sports

This week, millions of Americans are obsessing over a game. The results of the game will directly affect just a few hundred players and team staff. But millions of spectators will live vicariously through the teams, their hearts pounding so furiously during tense moments that they might literally suffer heart attacks.

Sleep or Sports: Which Is More Important for Teens?

As pressures mount to shift to later school start times for teens many districts won’t because of sports. Athletes are trained to tough it out, push it to the limit, power through discomfort and fatigue. Districts encourage all students to participate in sports for their health and well-being. So what’s really in the best interest of teens?

Sport For All Campaign Needed to Attack Health Crisis

There’s no solution other than to make significant changes in the way we live our lives. Healthier diets are certainly part of the answer, but a big factor — and one too often overlooked — is that we simply have to move our bodies more. We’re way too sedentary.

Sudden Cardiac Death in Young Athletes - Is It Stoppable?

The sudden death of any young athlete is tragic and often comes as a shock not only to the individual’s immediate family and friends, but also to the affected community.

The Case Against High-School Sports

The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student—unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings?

The Never-Ending Battle Against Sport’s Hidden Foe

MRSA, the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once mostly found in hospitals, clinics and other health care settings. About 20 years ago, it began afflicting athletes in contact sports. Over time, hospitals and other medical facilities developed more stringent hygiene routines that successfully reduced the prevalence of MRSA. It is these best practices that professional teams and athletic departments have spent the last decade emulating. Sports teams, even at some high schools that have the necessary budget, tended to ramp up their preventive efforts with avant-garde measures.

The NFL Concussion Settlement Is Pure Evil

The story goes that the NFL concussion settlement is a historic victory for the players, but the facts show that the NFL is pulling off a historic con.

The NFL Says “No More” Violence Against Women. Seriously?

Call me skeptical, but after the series of horrific scandals the NFL has been dealing with this year I think these PSA’s, are just a pathetic attempt to salvage their badly tarnished image.

The Prosperity of Cheaters

We love giving lip service to the value of fair play, but with society so often sending a different message, our kids might think we're delusional to say that cheaters never prosper.

The Silent Sports Health Crisis, Female Athlete Triad

Among female athletes, a triad of conditions is causing long-term health dangers that remain poorly understood and outside any mainstream discussion.

The world’s top anti-doping scientist thinks we can end cheating in sports. Here’s why

“Biological passports” could end abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.

This Is Your Brain on Sports

The evidence that the spectating brain is also a playing brain has been mounting ever since the early 1990s, when a group of neurophysiologists at the University of Parma, Italy implanted electrodes in the brain of a macaque monkey to find out exactly which neurons fired when the monkey grasped a peanut and brought it to his mouth.

What a lifetime of playing football can do to the human brain

Football isn’t just a contact sport — it’s a dangerous game of massive bodies colliding into one another. And while it may seem obvious that this sport can do extraordinary damage to brains and bodies, it’s taken far too long for the NFL, the medical community, and football fans to fully reckon with this.

What's Lost When Only Rich Kids Play Sports

The income disparity in youth athletics has effects on health and success that stretch far into adulthood.