In 2013, the medicalization of aging and "performance enhancing therapies" became a heightened issue, raising questions about doping, rule-making, and the future of sport. The following suite of articles provide a good look at what I feel will be the biggest issue in sport for years to come.
- Men's use of Testosterone on the Rise: A look into the medicalization of getting older.
- Man and Superman: Is there such a thing as a 'level-playing-field' in sport? Why are some things allowed and others not?
- U.S. Track's Unconventional Physician: Seems ironic that the prevalence of hypothyroidism is so much higher in certain groups of elite runners than other parts of the population.
- EPO vs. a Cortisone Injection and the Future of Sport: As science and technology improve, drawing the line between what's allowed in sport and what is not will only become harder and harder.
- The six habits of highly effective Triathletes: A look at what some of the world's best do to manage the mental side of the game.
- Expert from the Sport's Gene: Why the 10,000 Hour Rule Doesn't Always Make Winners: Not nature or nurture, but nature providing the foundation to see how far nurture can take an athlete. Bottom line, nurture your nature!
- Training to Failure: Good Idea or Bad: The implications of "going to the well" or "seeing god" in workouts.
- A Conversation with Aries Merritt and Andreas Behm: Great insight into the training (i.e., life) of a world champion; uncovers everything from diet to underlying motivation to keep going.
- Eating Practices of the Best Endurance Athletes in the World: For endurance athletes considering a long-term low carb diet, this is a must read.
- Life or Death Situation: A poignant essay examining the torturous complexity when textbooks become reality for a leading bioethicist who specializes in end-of-life autonomy.
- The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder: Investigate reporting examining how major drug companies have used creative marketing tactics to exploit youth, parents, and teachers in the arguably unneeded rise of medicating ADHD.
- How Happiness Boosts the Immune System: Thorough report looking at the science of happiness and health and the virtuous cycle between the two; if you do what you love and love what you do, happiness will lead to health, and health promotes happiness.
- Physicians Learn to Ask About Exercise: Patients are conditioned to ask for the latest quick fix and docs are schooled to prescribe it, but perhaps that's changing in small pockets as exercise is being prescribed prior to traditional medication for select conditions.
- Uncomplicating Matters on the Way to Health: Take health into your own hands by focusing on the 3F's: feet (use them to move) fingers (don't use them for tobacco), and forks (eat food).
- Diagnosis Human: A look into the medicalization of everything...is being human a disease?
- The Beautiful Adventure: A wonderful ode to fully living life, which is what health is all about in my opinion. "May the great mystery make sunrise in your heart."
- How Exercise Can Calm Anxiety: Perhaps there is more of an underlying reason "endurance junkies" feel the need for 6 hours of solitude on a Sunday long ride.
- Your Fat has a Brain, and It's Trying to Kill You: More on the role of exercise as a potent treatment for so many metabolic disorders. "You could never design a drug better than exercise."
- Inside the Endurance Conspiracy: Interview with Tony DeBoom on purpose, passion, and finding total health through always pursuing what makes him tick.
