The Active Female: Health Issues Throughout the Lifespan

597 Pages·2014·8.26 MB·English

by  Reid L. Norman

Jacalyn J. Robert-McComb
Reid L. Norman
Mimi Zumwalt
Editors
The Active Female
Health Issues
Throughout the Lifespan
Second Edition
123
The Active Female

Jacalyn J. Robert-McComb
Reid L. Norman (cid:129) Mimi Zumwalt
Editors
The Active Female
Health Issues Throughout
the Lifespan
Second Edition
Editors
Jacalyn J. Robert-McComb, Ph.D., Reid L. Norman, Ph.D.
F.A.C.S.M., A.C.S.M., P.D. Professor and Chair
Professor of Exercise Physiology Pharmacology and Neuroscience
Department of Health, Exercise Texas Tech University Health Sciences
and Sport Sciences Center School of Medicine
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Lubbock , TX , USA
Center School of Medicine
Lubbock , TX , USA
Mimi Zumwalt, M.D.
Associate Professor
Head of Sports Medicine
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
and Rehabilitation
Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center School of Medicine
Lubbock , TX , USA
ISBN 978-1-4614-8883-5 ISBN 978-1-4614-8884-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-8884-2
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013953599
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I would like to dedicate this book to all the signifi cant females
in my life: my grandmother who helped to raise me but now
has passed, my mother who fought to bring me here from
Vietnam, and especially my daughter who provides me with
more joy than words can express. I dearly love and appreciate
them all!
Mimi Zumwalt, M.D.
We would like to dedicate this book to female athletes and
active girls and women of all ages.
Jacalyn J. Robert-McComb
Reid L. Norman

Pref ace
M edical practitioners and health care providers/educators must continue to be
vigilant of the growing and ever-changing health issues relating to females
who lead an active lifestyle by participating in sports and exercise. There
have been recent landmark legislations changing the social perception that
girls and women not only can but should be physically active. With any
change in the social milieu, there are always evolving health issues associated
with the journey. Continuing medical education for physicians, nurses, allied
health professionals, wellness educators, and certifi ed professionals in sports
medicine is vital to the economic and public health care system. Education
has been recognized as the most important tool that we can utilize to prevent
illness and disease throughout our lifetime.
In 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act
assuring that all females would have the equal opportunity to participate in
interscholastic and intercollegiate sports. The effect has been a tremendous
increase in the participation of girls and women in interscholastic sports from
approximately 300,000 to greater than 2.2 million in the late 1990s [1].
Participation in recreational exercise for health and fi tness, from young
girls to elderly women, has substantially increased in the last four decades
and has become a prominent part of public life more so than ever before [2].
Physical activity has been recognized as a therapeutic means to decrease ill-
ness and increase health/well-being for females of all ages and racial groups.
In the US Public Health Services release “Healthy People 2000,” one of the
recommendations was to increase the physical fi tness of all women in an
effort to reduce the health disparities between males and females, and also
among different ethnic and racial groups [3].
W hat makes female health issues unique? Girls and women are different
from boys and men, not only physically and physiologically but also psycho-
logically. Body image issues are more prominent in young girls than young
boys and body dissatisfaction seems to start very early in life. Collins et al.
[4] reported that 42 % of a sample of 6–7-year-old girls indicated a prefer-
ence for different body fi gures which are thinner than theirs. Similarly,
Thompson et al. [5] found that 49 % of fourth-graders indicated that their
ideal body would be thinner than their current fi gure. Anatomically, young
girls’ bodies begin changing at puberty. This may become a hindrance to
sport performance. Internal and external pressures placed on females to
achieve or maintain unrealistically low body weight may affect their normal
vii
viii Preface
life cycle. Monthly menstrual cycles, childbearing and menopause are experiences
in the female life cycle that are unique to girls and women. The lack of
menses caused by extreme energy defi ciency may even seem desirable to
young females, yet there are long-term health consequences that initially are
not so obvious to the poorly informed.
I n 1992, The Female Athlete Triad was the focus of a consensus confer-
ence called by the Task Force on Women’s Issues of the American College of
Sports Medicine [6]. The three components of the triad are: disordered eat-
ing, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. However, these are not disorders confi ned
to elite athletes, nor are they limited to females competing in sports. These
disorders are also found in young girls and elderly women who have never
participated in collegiate or intercollegiate teams. These disorders represent a
growing health concern for females of all ages and physical skill levels.
A lmost a decade ago, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), recog-
nizing the lack of inclusion of women in health research and realizing that
many health issues are unique to and/or affect women differently from men,
established the Offi ce for Research in Women’s Health with the goal to
improve women’s health status across the lifespan [7]. A couple of years
earlier, the Female Athlete Triad Coalition was formed in 2002 as a group
of national and international organizations dedicated to address unhealthy
eating behaviors, hormonal irregularities, and bone health among female
athletes and active women. The Female Athlete Triad Coalition represents
key medical, nursing, athletic, health educators, and sports medicine
groups, as well as concerned individuals who have come together to pro-
mote optimal health and well-being for active women and female athletes
( w ww.femaleathletetriad.org ) .
The importance of physical activity to health and well-being continues to
grow nationwide. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans released in
2008 is the fi rst-ever publication of national guidelines for physical activity
[8]. The position stand on the Female Athlete Triad was updated in 1997 [9],
and now it refl ects our current understanding of the issues unique to girls and
women: the interrelationships among energy availability, menstrual function,
and bone mineral density. Healthy People 2010 and 2020 [10, 11] refl ect the
strong state of the science supporting the health benefi ts of moderate and
vigorous physical activities and muscle-strengthening activities for girls and
women.
Lubbock , TX, USA Jacalyn J. Robert- McComb
Reid L. Norman
Mimi Zumwalt
References
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Rosemont, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; 2001.
Preface ix
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