Latest / 20-Minute Health Talk / ACL tears and the menstrual cycle: Is there a connection?

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ACL tears and the menstrual cycle: Is there a connection? · 20-Minute Health Talk

0:02
Dr. Amy West: Thinking about, you know,
0:03
things like ACL injuries. Right?
0:05
When I started med school,
0:06
people started saying,
0:07
like women are getting
0:08
these more often.
0:09
That's weird. Like, what?
0:11
What is it?
0:17
There's a few anatomical
0:19
reasons, maybe, but to me,
0:20
in the back of my mind,
0:21
I always said,
0:21
is there something
0:22
hormonal here?
0:25
That's doctor Amy west,
0:26
who has carried that question
0:28
for many years from her
0:31
college sports career.
0:33
You know, I played basketball,
0:33
played soccer,
0:34
I played all the sports that
0:35
you're likely to have
0:35
that happen to you.
0:36
Sandra Lindsay (Host): To her current position as
0:39
a physical medicine and
0:41
rehabilitation doctor
0:42
at Northwell Health.
0:44
Dr. Amy West: I essentially treat sports
0:46
injuries and aches and pains
0:48
people of all ages, athletes,
0:49
non athletes.
0:51
Sandra Lindsay (Host): She also specializes in
0:53
conditions affecting
0:54
female athletes,
0:56
a population that she notes
0:58
has been almost completely
1:00
overlooked in medical research.
1:03
Dr. Amy West: As a physician,
1:04
it's very difficult to practice
1:06
evidence based medicine when
1:07
there's no evidence to
1:08
base the medicine on.
1:17
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Hello,
1:17
and welcome to 20 minutes health
1:19
talk. I'm Sandra Lindsay.
1:22
On today's episode,
1:23
we'll dive into the world of
1:25
women's sports research
1:27
with doctor Amy west,
1:29
who is leading a pivotal study
1:32
that asks the question,
1:34
what impact, if any,
1:36
does the menstrual cycle have
1:38
uncertain injuries in
1:40
female athletes?
1:50
This is part two of our series
1:52
focusing on women's health.
1:55
All year long,
1:56
we'll be covering topics
1:58
affecting women,
1:59
from issues around ovarian
2:01
and lung cancer,
2:03
to federal funding for women's
2:05
health research,
2:06
to the lack of gender
2:08
specific studies,
2:09
which we covered in episode one.
2:12
Sadly,
2:12
this issue is still so pervasive
2:14
today that we have more
2:16
ground to cover.
2:26
Only 6% of all strength and
2:29
conditioning research
2:31
is based on women,
2:33
and less than 34% of all sports
2:36
medicine journals have ever
2:38
published the results of studies
2:40
that included women.
2:42
Dr. Amy West: That's just a pretty abysmal
2:44
number in general.
2:45
But then you look at that.
2:47
Even the studies that
2:48
do include women,
2:49
roughly a third of those studies
2:52
actually will publish their data
2:54
stratified by male and
2:55
female categories.
2:56
So even the studies that are
2:58
including women aren't really
2:59
parsing out the data such that
3:01
we can digest it into male
3:03
and female pieces.
3:05
Sandra Lindsay (Host): And the deeper you dig into
3:08
these stats, the worse it gets.
3:11
Dr. Amy West: Less than a half a percent of
3:13
research in this field is
3:15
focused on problems that
3:17
exclusively affect women.
3:20
So even if we are
3:21
studying women,
3:22
we're looking at a problem
3:22
that's not necessarily
3:23
exclusively female.
3:24
Sandra Lindsay (Host): So why are all these research
3:27
studies on sports performance
3:29
excluding women?
3:30
Doctor west summed
3:32
it up in three.
3:34
The menstrual cycle.
3:36
Dr. Amy West: A lot of times with research
3:37
in general,
3:38
women are sort of left out
3:39
because it's like, oh,
3:40
they're complicated to study
3:41
because they have these hormonal
3:43
changes and stuff,
3:43
and we don't want to deal with
3:44
that. It'll confound the data.
3:45
So they're like, left out.
3:46
Sandra Lindsay (Host): We asked doctor west how this
3:49
disparity impacts female
3:51
athletes like herself.
3:54
Dr. Amy West: It was always really scary
3:55
to me that, a,
3:56
as women were more
3:57
likely to get it.
3:58
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Here she's referring to an
4:00
injury to the anterior
4:02
cruciate ligament,
4:04
better known as the ACL,
4:06
which is one of the four
4:07
ligaments that connects your
4:09
thigh and shin bones.
4:11
Dr. Amy West: But b,
4:11
that it didn't seem like there
4:12
was much we could do about it.
4:13
And I was like,
4:14
I didn't like the idea
4:15
of being like,
4:15
the sitting doc for injury.
4:17
I was like, oh, my God, what?
4:18
This can happen at any moment
4:20
and just end my career,
4:20
and what can I do about it?
4:22
So I was like,
4:23
maybe I could look into studying
4:25
that and looking into that.
4:26
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Doctor west recalls many of her
4:29
teammates in high school and
4:31
college going down to the
4:33
devastating injury,
4:35
which can take up to a
4:36
year to recover from.
4:38
It typically happens as
4:39
a result of jumping,
4:41
a change in direction,
4:43
or sudden stops.
4:44
All movements common in
4:46
sports like soccer,
4:48
basketball and football,
4:50
to name a few.
4:51
Dr. Amy West: One of the greatest female
4:53
basketball players of all time,
4:54
her name is Cheryl Miller,
4:55
Reggie Miller's sister.
4:57
So she was playing in, like,
4:58
the eighties,
4:59
and she ended up an ACL injury,
5:01
ended her career.
5:02
So in that time period,
5:03
you know,
5:04
an injury like that
5:05
ended your career.
5:06
You did not come back from that.
5:07
And, you know,
5:08
what could have been in
5:08
that situation, right?
5:09
At least now we're seeing, like,
5:11
those injuries.
5:11
Women are back a year later
5:12
playing, you know,
5:14
same thing with, like,
5:14
pregnancy that used to take.
5:16
That was,
5:16
that was the end of your career.
5:17
And now we're seeing women
5:18
postpartum break records,
5:19
you know, so there's a lot of.
5:21
There are a lot of things that,
5:22
you know,
5:23
the advances in medicine as such
5:24
that have really benefited
5:25
women. So that's great.
5:27
So now we need to look into,
5:28
okay, how do we prevent,
5:29
you know,
5:29
these injuries from happening
5:30
and how do we optimize training
5:32
and recovery if there is one?
5:34
Sandra Lindsay (Host): As Doctor west noted at
5:36
the top of the show,
5:38
there is currently very
5:39
little data to go on.
5:41
But heres what we do know.
5:43
Women are three to six times
5:47
more likely than men
5:48
to tear their ACL.
5:50
Doctor west explained that there
5:53
are many factors that
5:55
play into this.
5:56
Some well established and others
5:59
light the menstrual cycle in
6:02
need of greater focus.
6:03
Dr. Amy West: Our acls are physically smaller
6:06
just in general.
6:08
So that also makes them prone to
6:10
rupturing potentially as
6:12
far as training goes.
6:13
So a lot of times a lot of
6:15
out of the injuries that we ACL.
6:17
Injuries that we see in women
6:18
are non contact injuries
6:20
And many,
6:22
many times it's related to
6:23
cutting or twisting,
6:25
jumping on the knee.
6:26
And in general women tend to
6:27
land in a more valgus position,
6:29
meaning they're more knock kneed
6:31
when they jump and land.
6:32
And part of that has to do
6:34
with gluteal strength,
6:35
part of that has to do with,
6:36
you know,
6:37
are women really training
6:39
how to do that?
6:40
Sandra Lindsay (Host): This, doctor west tells us,
6:42
is a major focus in our clinic.
6:44
Dr. Amy West: I spend a lot of time in my
6:45
clinic talking about butts and
6:47
what I mean by that is that your
6:49
glute muscles. Are actually,
6:50
especially in women,
6:51
are very important in preventing
6:53
injury in many respects.
6:55
In your back, your hips,
6:56
your knees because essentially
6:58
your glute muscles stabilize
7:00
your hips, the major joints,
7:02
including your back.
7:04
Part of the treatment of
7:05
rehabilitation for those
7:06
injuries is training that.
7:07
But then to prevent injury from
7:09
coming back is just to
7:10
strengthen those and stabilize
7:12
those and maintain
7:12
that strength.
7:13
So I think in recent years,
7:14
that's something that's changed
7:16
as far as building the
7:17
strength kind of,
7:18
and around the glutes and the
7:19
hips but also teaching girls how
7:22
to land. Cause in general,
7:24
boys tend to do that
7:26
a little better.
7:27
They just do that naturally
7:28
better.
7:29
And women don't necessarily.
7:31
So can we train that or can we
7:34
call attention to that so such
7:35
that girls are aware?
7:36
So that's another piece of it as
7:38
far as the training piece is
7:39
that sometimes we haven't been
7:42
necessarily trained
7:43
in the same ways.
7:44
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Now,
7:45
you may be asking yourself why.
7:48
Sadly,
7:49
the answer is anything
7:51
but scientific.
7:52
Dr. Amy West: Well, you know,
7:53
we talk about like ACL injuries
7:54
and stuff like that,
7:54
and it was sort of like,
7:55
in general,
7:56
it was like women's sports.
7:57
Who cares, right?
7:58
And I think maybe now we're
8:01
starting to see some
8:01
of that tide turn,
8:02
like the Caitlin Clark
8:03
phenomenon and all that going
8:05
on. People are, oh, like,
8:06
these women can actually play.
8:07
And it's like, yeah, you know,
8:09
we've known that.
8:10
I'm a big fan of crossfit and
8:11
have done that for many years.
8:12
And seeing women celebrated for
8:14
how much weight they lift
8:15
and things like that,
8:18
I think that's a really great
8:20
role for sports to play in the
8:21
public eye as well is showing,
8:23
hey,
8:23
these women are appreciated
8:24
for things they do,
8:25
not just because they're tiny.
8:28
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Still worse than the apathy
8:30
towards women's sports is the
8:33
obsession with women's
8:34
appearance rather than
8:37
their performance.
8:38
Dr. Amy West: For many years,
8:39
strength training was sort of,
8:40
for women,
8:41
was seen as something like not
8:42
to do because it can make you
8:44
bulky and scary and big,
8:45
which a is not true.
8:48
It's like saying you don't
8:49
want to, like,
8:50
drive a car because you're
8:50
afraid you're going to become a
8:51
NASCAR racer or something
8:53
like that.
8:54
You don't get to that level
8:55
without really training and
8:57
very specific means.
8:59
But also,
9:00
instead of worrying
9:01
about being bulky,
9:02
the concern really should
9:03
be about being weak.
9:05
And that's a much
9:05
bigger problem.
9:06
And it's a much more
9:07
common problem.
9:08
They get fractures
9:08
from small falls.
9:10
Theyre having trouble getting
9:12
their groceries in and
9:13
out of the car,
9:14
going up the stairs
9:15
is a problem.
9:15
So strength training can
9:17
help with all that.
9:17
I would really not worry about
9:19
that aesthetic piece.
9:20
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Not only can build in muscle
9:22
mass in these target areas
9:25
help prevent injury,
9:27
as doctor west explained
9:29
earlier,
9:29
it's a predictor of longevity
9:32
and overall health.
9:33
Dr. Amy West: Low muscle mass
9:35
is sort of indicative of many
9:39
other health problems also
9:42
physical immobility,
9:44
something called sarcopenia.
9:45
As we age it also helps build
9:48
bone density as we age as
9:50
estrogen levels decline,
9:51
bone density makes more prone to
9:54
osteoporosis and things
9:55
like that.
9:55
So the best way to prevent that
9:57
is to. By building muscle mass.
10:00
And also, you know,
10:01
the stronger you are,
10:02
the more able you are to do
10:04
things independently
10:05
as you get older,
10:06
which is obviously important.
10:07
Sandra Lindsay (Host): By now,
10:08
we see a grim picture form in
10:11
women may feel societal
10:12
pressures that prevent
10:14
them from.
10:14
From training in a way that
10:16
could protect them from injury.
10:18
But even if they do train,
10:21
it's not clear what
10:22
type works best,
10:24
given the lack of research
10:26
on female athletes.
10:28
Doctor west explains,
10:30
the main issue is.
10:31
Dr. Amy West: That
10:31
because men and women
10:33
are different,
10:35
we can't necessarily apply the
10:36
same. Rules across the board.
10:38
So when you see a study result.
10:40
It'S hard to say that this is
10:42
something that would apply to
10:44
the patients that you see.
10:45
In my case
10:48
does it apply. To women,
10:49
but also does it apply to a
10:51
woman who's 14, a woman.
10:52
Who'S 35, a woman who's 65?
10:54
Those are very different people
10:57
very different hormonal
10:58
situations.
10:59
So it's hard to say when.
11:02
We do have the data,
11:04
how does.
11:05
This apply in real life?
11:11
Sandra Lindsay (Host): This brings us back to doctor
11:13
West's long held curiosity about
11:16
female hormones and sports
11:18
injury prevention.
11:19
Dr. Amy West: The menstrual cycle is basically
11:21
like two phases.
11:22
The first 14 days is the
11:24
follicular phase, essentially.
11:26
That's another more estrogen
11:27
dominant part of the cycle.
11:29
Sandra Lindsay (Host): During this phase,
11:31
your hormone levels are low,
11:33
which helps your body handle
11:35
more intense workouts.
11:37
You can also build more muscle
11:40
and even perform at a higher
11:42
level, doctor west tells us.
11:44
Dr. Amy West: And then the luteal phase is a.
11:46
More progesterone dominant
11:48
part of the cycle.
11:49
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Here,
11:50
your estrogen and progesterone
11:52
levels rise,
11:54
which has a few consequences.
11:56
First,
11:57
your body can't handle
11:59
as much strain.
12:00
You're also not storing as much
12:02
energy from the food you eat
12:05
because your body isn't using
12:07
carbohydrates as effectively.
12:09
During this phase,
12:11
doctor west advises increasing
12:13
your carb intake and focusing
12:16
more on recovery.
12:18
Dr. Amy West: When we look at these two things
12:20
we have to then say, well,
12:23
how does training certain
12:25
types of exercises,
12:26
how does that affect
12:27
your body when.
12:29
Your body's more primed for
12:30
stress versus when it's not,
12:32
as it cannot take.
12:33
On stress as easily.
12:34
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Doctor west tells us there are
12:36
two theories about this as it
12:38
relates to ACl injuries.
12:41
Dr. Amy West: Estrogen peaks right before
12:42
ovulation, which is.
12:43
Like roughly around day 14.
12:45
So just before that,
12:47
it has been documented that
12:48
that's when ACL injuries are
12:49
more likely to occur.
12:51
Estrogen makes ligaments
12:52
more lax, essentially,
12:54
the ligaments get looser and
12:55
therefore they're more likely to
12:56
tear. And that's one thought.
12:58
The other thought is that in
13:00
the. Late luteal phase,
13:01
so the second half of
13:02
the menstrual cycle,
13:03
the progesterone dominant.
13:04
Part of the cycle, when your.
13:06
Body'S not able to take on as.
13:07
Much stress,
13:08
if women aren't adjusting their
13:10
training and recovery at the
13:13
latter part of the
13:14
menstrual cycle.
13:15
Does that set them up to have
13:16
more injury at the sort of the
13:18
beginning of the next one?
13:19
So again, we don't know.
13:22
And maybe it's a little
13:23
bit of both.
13:24
So maybe it's a perfect
13:25
storm of things.
13:27
So that's one of the things
13:28
we're kind of looking into or
13:30
trying to parse out is what are
13:32
the factors across the menstrual
13:34
cycle that may lead to more
13:35
injuries happening at
13:36
a certain time?
13:37
Because I don't think it's
13:37
just simply one thing.
13:48
Sandra Lindsay (Host): She hopes to move research
13:50
closer to an answer with a new
13:52
study for which she is the
13:54
principal investigator working
13:57
with the Nicholas Institute of
13:59
Sports Medicine and
14:00
Athletic Trauma,
14:02
which listeners may recall from
14:04
our 2023 episode on
14:06
Sports Medicine.
14:07
Doctor west will track
14:08
the menstrual cycle,
14:10
sleep injuries and other data
14:13
points of female college
14:15
athletes for one school year.
14:18
Dr. Amy West: We're now working with
14:18
Pace University,
14:20
which is in West Chester with
14:21
all their female athletes there.
14:23
So we will be distributing whoop
14:26
devices to all of the female
14:27
athletes there who agree
14:28
to participate.
14:29
Sandra Lindsay (Host): The whoop tracker doctor west
14:32
mentions will be worn 24 hours
14:35
a day, seven days a week.
14:37
She plans to hand out the
14:39
devices to approximately 180
14:43
participants in her study at the
14:45
start of the school
14:46
year this fall.
14:48
The woman will range in age from
14:50
17 to 23 and are accomplished
14:54
athletes in various sports.
14:56
Dr. Amy West: It gives you information about
14:58
your sleep, about your recovery,
15:01
about your strain for the day,
15:02
so your kind of like exercise
15:04
load for the day and you can
15:06
track menstrual cycle and all is
15:08
a lot of things you can track in
15:09
here your thoughts and feelings
15:10
as well, if you so choose.
15:11
Sandra Lindsay (Host): The wearable tracker allows you
15:13
to set up yes and no questions
15:17
that pop up every morning
15:19
on the whoop app.
15:20
Dr. Amy West: And they basically answer like,
15:22
do you feel sick today?
15:24
Mental health questions,
15:25
things like that
15:27
are you menstruating today?
15:29
And they just answer yes,
15:30
no questions.
15:31
And we're going to be looking at
15:32
that data and correlating it
15:33
with the injury data from the
15:34
athletic training staff there
15:36
and looking to see if we can
15:37
make any correlations between
15:41
the injuries, the injury rates,
15:43
but also the types of injuries
15:45
with the data that we
15:47
get from the device,
15:48
either about menstrual cycle,
15:49
their sleep, their recovery.
15:50
We're also going to be looking
15:50
at things like travel schedule
15:52
and other kind of interventions
15:53
that happen throughout the year
15:55
that we're going to find out
15:56
from the athletic
15:57
training staff.
15:57
Is there anything different
15:58
that occurs?
15:58
Any trainings cycles
16:00
that are different?
16:01
We're gonna have a ton of data
16:02
from the girls and then we're
16:03
gonna look at the information
16:04
from athletic trainers and put
16:05
it all together and see if we
16:06
can find any trends
16:08
with injuries,
16:09
injury rates and types of
16:10
injuries with any of
16:11
those factors.
16:12
So it'd be kind of cool even.
16:13
Sandra Lindsay (Host): If the data collected shows no
16:15
correlation between menstrual
16:17
cycles and injuries.
16:19
Doctor west said that would
16:21
be an important finding.
16:22
Dr. Amy West: Even if we don't find anything
16:25
that is actually something
16:27
because there's no data right
16:28
now about any of this stuff,
16:29
right? So if we can say, hey,
16:30
we looked at this and we didn't
16:31
find any trends, like,
16:32
that's actually important
16:34
information to have.
16:35
Sandra Lindsay (Host): But if the results do find
16:37
those correlations,
16:38
Doctor west said this could have
16:41
implications across the NCAA,
16:44
the governing body that
16:46
regulates college athletics
16:48
across the United States.
16:50
Dr. Amy West: If we find any correlations
16:52
between either the injury rates
16:53
or the types of injuries with
16:56
either menstrual cycle or travel
16:59
or recovery or training
17:03
protocols, practice schedules.
17:05
Things like that.
17:05
If we can find any correlation
17:07
there.
17:07
Then that's a statement that
17:08
we can make to say, okay,
17:10
having back to back games for
17:13
three weeks in a row,
17:14
you're more likely to get
17:14
injured. Therefore,
17:16
what can we do to change that?
17:18
So do we adjust the training
17:21
schedule? Do we say to the NCAA,
17:22
hey.
17:23
This travel schedule
17:24
isn't ideal?
17:27
So having some kind of statement
17:28
at the end of this about the.
17:30
Injuries and the types,
17:30
injury rates and types of
17:31
injuries as it correlates to.
17:33
Any one of these data points
17:33
would be helpful.
17:34
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Beyond the data,
17:36
doctor west pointed to several
17:38
additional benefits that could
17:40
result from the study.
17:42
First and foremost,
17:43
it gives these athletes valuable
17:46
information about their health.
17:48
Dr. Amy West: To me,
17:48
it's like there's no better way
17:50
to empower someone than to give
17:53
them control over their
17:54
own health.
17:55
And you know, by doing this.
17:58
Project,
17:58
we're able to kind of put some
17:59
of the control in the girl's
18:01
hands and get.
18:01
By giving them information about
18:02
their bodies. And then also,
18:04
you know,
18:05
allowing them to adjust certain
18:06
things in their day to day that
18:08
may affect how they're. Feeling,
18:10
if they get injured or not,
18:11
how they're recovering.
18:13
So that's a really nice tool
18:14
to be able to give them,
18:15
and they're.
18:15
Very appreciative
18:16
of it thus far.
18:17
It's been amazing because the
18:20
girls actually a seem very
18:21
excited to do it.
18:23
And they actually been thanking
18:25
us as the research staff.
18:26
So myself and doctor Susan
18:28
Kwiesen, who's been amazing,
18:30
amazing help in this.
18:32
Theyre thanking us,
18:34
thank you so.
18:34
Much for letting us do this.
18:35
And that's. To me,
18:37
I always kind of knew that that
18:39
would be the reaction.
18:40
Sandra Lindsay (Host): She added that many of the
18:41
college female athletes
18:43
she works with,
18:44
both in this study and as a
18:47
team physician for Hofstra
18:48
University,
18:49
know little to nothing about
18:52
the menstrual cycle.
18:53
Dr. Amy West: If they only understood
18:54
a little bit.
18:55
About what's going on in their
18:56
bodies and can they sort of use
18:57
that to their advantage?
18:59
That's another kind
19:00
of piece of this.
19:01
We're not making excuses.
19:03
We're not saying
19:07
You'Re less than or because
19:08
you have these problems.
19:09
We're saying, no,
19:10
you can actually use these
19:12
changes to your advantage.
19:13
Sandra Lindsay (Host): There is yet another benefit she
19:15
hopes these athletes
19:17
capitalize on,
19:18
one that the device manufacturer
19:21
has noted in previous studies.
19:23
Dr. Amy West: By using this device,
19:24
they're able to.
19:25
Reduce alcohol use in
19:27
the student. Body,
19:28
because the students
19:28
see what the.
19:29
Alcohol does to their sleep
19:30
and to. Their performance,
19:31
and they say, wait a.
19:31
Second,
19:32
they could see it in real time.
19:33
So they drink less alcohol,
19:35
which is ultimately
19:36
a great outcome,
19:37
or that they actually do better
19:39
in school because they say,
19:40
wait, if I do this and that,
19:42
I sleep better.
19:43
So therefore they perform better
19:45
in school and athletics. So,
19:47
you know, then we can.
19:48
That in and of itself is a tool
19:50
that we can hand to people.
19:51
So you know, part of this, too,
19:54
some of the data we'll be
19:54
collecting is how do the
19:56
students like using this?
19:57
How do the coaches like having
19:59
access to this the athletic
20:01
training staff. So even, like,
20:03
the whole idea of, like,
20:05
tracking, like,
20:06
you can't change what
20:07
you don't track.
20:08
Sandra Lindsay (Host): But gauging the influence of the
20:10
menstrual cycle on training and
20:12
conditioning was a tough
20:14
sell to start.
20:15
Dr. Amy West: Honestly,
20:15
when I was trying to get.
20:16
This study up and running,
20:17
I got.
20:18
Some pushback from people
20:19
saying, like,
20:20
why would these girls even
20:21
want to do this?
20:22
Sandra Lindsay (Host): As it turns out,
20:24
the girls were more than
20:25
willing to sign up.
20:26
Dr. Amy West: Women want to know about these
20:28
things, and as providers,
20:29
we should want to know.
20:30
Know about these things as well.
20:31
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Given her sports background,
20:33
one that she continues today
20:35
as an Olympic powerlifter,
20:38
we asked doctor west what it
20:40
means to her to be the one
20:42
behind a study like this.
20:44
Dr. Amy West: I mean,
20:44
it's all kind of full circle
20:46
moment for me, right?
20:46
So you know,
20:48
it started as just like I said,
20:51
like as a kid,
20:52
just like being scared
20:53
of this stuff.
20:54
And I've always been like a
20:55
person of action. It's like,
20:56
okay, I don't like this.
20:57
How can I change that?
20:57
Or how can I improve that?
20:59
We've hit some bumps along
21:00
the way, but, you know,
21:01
the fact to see it actually
21:02
happening now is very gratifying
21:06
and I'm just excited to
21:07
see what comes of it.
21:09
It's kind of cool that Northwell
21:10
gets to be the people who
21:13
are leading this charge.
21:14
And who's to say,
21:16
with more research
21:17
into this field,
21:18
someone like Caitlin Clark,
21:21
could we optimize her
21:22
performance even more?
21:24
Or the future Caitlin Clarks of
21:26
the world by understanding
21:27
their bodies better,
21:28
can we make these athletes
21:31
perform even better than they
21:33
are already performing?
21:34
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Whichever way the data falls,
21:36
doctor west believes the results
21:39
will not only help female
21:41
athletes, but women everywhere.
21:43
Dr. Amy West: Ultimately, like,
21:44
this data is important to
21:46
collect at this level,
21:46
but more importantly is how it
21:49
translates to the
21:49
everyday person.
21:50
Because if you have a
21:53
body and you use it,
21:54
you're technically an athlete.
21:55
Most of the people I see in my
21:56
clinic are not people who you
21:58
would say are athletes
21:59
necessarily,
21:59
but they have to use their body
22:01
to function in the world.
22:02
So the musculoskeletal system is
22:05
the biggest organ system
22:06
in your body.
22:06
So it behooves you to take care
22:08
of it because you need it
22:10
to have any kind of
22:11
quality of life.
22:12
Sandra Lindsay (Host): As she prepares for the start
22:14
of her new study,
22:16
doctor west continues to work
22:18
with patients to help them
22:20
enhance their quality of life.
22:22
And when it comes to preventing
22:24
injuries to your ACL,
22:26
doctor West reiterated the
22:27
importance of strength training
22:29
for all women.
22:31
Dr. Amy West: Instead of, like, focusing,
22:32
a lot of women focus
22:33
on fat loss.
22:33
And instead of focusing
22:34
on fat loss,
22:35
you really should be focusing
22:36
on muscle gain.
22:37
If you focus on that a,
22:39
you'll have some more like,
22:40
concrete goals to aspire to
22:42
other than just like,
22:43
what the scale says.
22:44
But then also you'll find that
22:46
the fat loss will follow.
22:47
So I highly encourage them to
22:50
really focus on that
22:51
piece of it.
23:01
Sandra Lindsay (Host): Thanks again to doctor Amy west,
23:04
sports medicine physiatrist with
23:06
Northwell Health and principal
23:08
investigator on the new study
23:10
we discussed today.
23:18
This has been part two of our
23:20
year long series on
23:22
women's health.
23:23
We encourage you to listen to
23:25
episode one in this series
23:27
featuring doctors Stacy Rosen
23:29
and Nisha Parikh,
23:31
who discussed new federal
23:33
funding for women's
23:34
health research.
23:37
Until next time,
23:38
I'm Sandra Lindsay,
23:40
and this has been another
23:42
exciting edition of 20
23:44
Minutes health Talk.