Contents

## **Preface XI**



Preface

Survival of the human species is in no small way associated with the tremendous exercise attributes of Homo sapiens honed by evolutionary pressure over millions of years. What other mammal can not only survive but thrive in environments from the bitter cold of the Arctic to the blistering heat of the Sahara. What other animal can push itself to such physical extremes as the human. Although our bodies have adapted over millions of years of evolu‐ tion, we are still prone to injury and breakdown. Sports, particularly professional sportspeo‐ ple push their bodies to the limit and over the limit in some cases, resulting in injury and tissue disruption. The first section of this book looks at what happens when injury strikes

An enormous exercise capacity and the ability to travel large distances to hunt and gather food was one of the Homo sapiens major attributes. Performing such exercise not only al‐ lowed the early humans to survive by collecting food but probably also contributed to the physical health of these humans. We are only now just starting to uncover some of the major benefits of maintaining a physically active lifestyle and learning about the undesirable con‐ sequences of being inactive. Indeed, recently the American College of Sports Medicine intro‐ duced the term 'Exercise is Medicine' to highlight the association between exercise and health. In the second section of this book a number of chapters deal with the effect of exer‐ cise on health and performance, particularly in sports people (Exercise and Immunity, Iron Supplementation and Physical Performance, The Positive and Negative Aspects of Reactive Oxygen Species to Sports Performance). Another chapter investigates current issues and new approaches to exercise training, particularly in athletes (Real and Simulated Altitude Training and Performance). We hope that the new information within these chapters is of use to the sports physician, coach, physical conditioner, athlete and student, and that the book becomes a useful resource in the field of sports and exercise medicine. I personally

and describes some of the current issues and novel therapies for sports injuries.

wish to thank my two co-editors, Dr. Nick Draper and Dr. Yaso Kathiravel.

Department of Social Science, Parks, Recreation, Tourism & Sport,

Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand

**Michael Hamlin**

## Preface

Survival of the human species is in no small way associated with the tremendous exercise attributes of Homo sapiens honed by evolutionary pressure over millions of years. What other mammal can not only survive but thrive in environments from the bitter cold of the Arctic to the blistering heat of the Sahara. What other animal can push itself to such physical extremes as the human. Although our bodies have adapted over millions of years of evolu‐ tion, we are still prone to injury and breakdown. Sports, particularly professional sportspeo‐ ple push their bodies to the limit and over the limit in some cases, resulting in injury and tissue disruption. The first section of this book looks at what happens when injury strikes and describes some of the current issues and novel therapies for sports injuries.

An enormous exercise capacity and the ability to travel large distances to hunt and gather food was one of the Homo sapiens major attributes. Performing such exercise not only al‐ lowed the early humans to survive by collecting food but probably also contributed to the physical health of these humans. We are only now just starting to uncover some of the major benefits of maintaining a physically active lifestyle and learning about the undesirable con‐ sequences of being inactive. Indeed, recently the American College of Sports Medicine intro‐ duced the term 'Exercise is Medicine' to highlight the association between exercise and health. In the second section of this book a number of chapters deal with the effect of exer‐ cise on health and performance, particularly in sports people (Exercise and Immunity, Iron Supplementation and Physical Performance, The Positive and Negative Aspects of Reactive Oxygen Species to Sports Performance). Another chapter investigates current issues and new approaches to exercise training, particularly in athletes (Real and Simulated Altitude Training and Performance). We hope that the new information within these chapters is of use to the sports physician, coach, physical conditioner, athlete and student, and that the book becomes a useful resource in the field of sports and exercise medicine. I personally wish to thank my two co-editors, Dr. Nick Draper and Dr. Yaso Kathiravel.

#### **Michael Hamlin**

Department of Social Science, Parks, Recreation, Tourism & Sport, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand

**Section 1**

**Sports Medicine**

**Section 1**

**Sports Medicine**

**Chapter 1**

**Novel Therapies for the Management of Sports Injuries**

With the contemporary active lifestyle and widespread professionalism in sport, the need for high-end injury therapies is growing. Conservative principles in managing various sports injuries usually do not meet the need of athletes and their coaches. In order to achieve better and faster recovery after injuries, significant effort has been made in the recent decade among researchers. Local growth factor application, targeted therapies using recombinant proteins and tissue engineering represent promising groups of future therapeutic options

Healthy tendons and ligaments get injured either by a single application of force or by a re‐ peated or sustained action that alters their mechanical characteristics. Genetic disorders, ag‐ ing, decreased vascularity, endocrine influences, nutritional status, inactivity, immobilization, and exercise may cause tendon degeneration, thus rendering the tendon or ligament more susceptible to injury when force is applied. Hypovascularity is hypothesized to play the major role in this degeneration, both directly by causing an ischaemic environ‐ ment for the fibroblast and indirectly both by contributing to the production of free radicals and by allowing for tissue hyperthermia to occur. Conservative management, such as rest, corticosteroid injection, orthotics, ultrasound, laser treatment, or shockwave treatment pro‐ vide pain relief but, when they fail, surgery is required. Local growth factor application and tissue-engineering strategies, such as the development of scaffold microenvironments, re‐ sponding cells, and signalling biofactors are currently generating potential areas for addi‐

Cartilage tissue also comprises of limited intrinsic potential for healing due to the lack of blood supply and subsequent incomplete repair by local chondrocytes with inferior fibrocar‐ tilage formation. Surgical intervention is often the only option, but the repair of damaged

> © 2013 Kelc et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Kelc et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

tional prospective investigation in tendon or ligament regeneration.

Robi Kelc, Jakob Naranda, Matevz Kuhta and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Matjaz Vogrin

**1. Introduction**

with promising results.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53593
