Sports Nutrition Workshop

This weekend I had the very exciting opportunity to meet Nancy Clark MS, RD, CSSD, FACSM and William (Bill) Evens PhD, FACSM.  For those who do not know, Nancy wrote one of the most widely used books concerning the topic of Sports Nutrition, Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook.  She and Bill have collaborated on other works and research.  Bill is the Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Senior Research Fellow Dept. of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and has specialized much of his research in the area of aging and has also written several books.  The workshop started Friday afternoon at St Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, GA and continued Saturday morning.

Much of what Nancy spoke about I already knew from reading her book and just keeping up on the topic of sports nutrition.  However, it did reinforce the fact that I probably need to do a better job of refueling after my own work outs.

Bill presented on Saturday and the information he gave was extremely interesting.  He certainly makes the case for encouraging more physical activity especially in the aging population.  What I found most intriguing was the study he did on the use of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs).  During exercise muscle fibers are damaged causing inflammation which actually helps in the rebuilding process.  He and his colleagues found that both Tylenol and Ibuprofen inhibit the inflammation (which decreases muscle soreness) however, this also blunts the muscles ability to repair itself.  He recommends icing, heat, massage, rest, and proper refueling/rehydrating as ways to decrease muscle soreness caused by exercise.

Chocolate milk seemed to be brought up quite frequently during the weekend as a an excellent food to use for refueling instead of pricy protein supplements.   It go me wondering if patients in hospitals might be more likely to drink a glass of chocolate milk vs the standard Ensure or Boost?  Personally, I think I'd rather have the milk.  Plus it would be more cost effective when the main concern is calories and protein in a patients diet and not their micronutrient intake.