Sports and Exercise Medicine: Present and Future

Sports and exercise medicine is a newly emerging medical speciality in association with sports and physical education. As the lifestyle of the average population has changed drastically with sedentary type and lack of physical exercise, thus, inviting various lifestyle-related diseases in society, this speciality has been gaining tremendous popularity in medical practices. This discipline is a combination of sports medicine and exercise medicine (therapy). Clinical and interventional physiology which is the resultant of these two components, plays an important role in injury management and for the promotion of health and wellbeing, devoid of any side effects. In the present editorial, with the objectives, an attempt has been made to discuss the present scenario of the discipline of sports and exercise medicine along with its future prospects, as in spite of its numerous benefits, not enough attention has been given to the holistic improvement of the healthcare system.

Introduction

Sports and Exercise Medicine (SEM) has been gaining tremendous popularity being considered a separate medical speciality in several countries in the recent past [1.2]. “Exercise is medicine”- this motto has become widely accepted nowadays. The speciality of SEM focuses on the treatment of sports injuries rehabilitation, health promotion, and prevention, by promoting regular physical activity and therapeutic use of exercise [2-5]. On the other hand, it incorporates knowledge of physiology, sports and exercise sciences, kinesiology, and biomechanics for maximum performance enhancement [3]. In a nutshell, sports and exercise medicine is the application of sports and exercise as medicine for the treatment of various complications and the well-being of total health, both physical and mental. Exercise is already being used as “therapeutic exercise” in physiotherapy for treatment purposes. Yoga and Aasanas are now a very popular form of treatment for various diseases and complications. Thus, it is fully justified to draw attention to its present status and future strategies.

Present important domains of sports and exercise medicine

Sports performance: There are two extreme ends of human physical status. On one hand, sports have become extremely competitive, with high-performance athletes, increasing sports-specific injuries many folds. Sports medicine is helpful in treating them. On the other hand, physical inactivity in a sedentary population invites various diseases, like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, etc. thus requiring regular physical exercise to keep the diseases at bay. Therefore sports and exercise medicine are beneficial in both these diverse conditions [6,7-9] In between there is another third category of people – the recreational athletes whose physical and psycho-physiological loads and stress are different from the high-performance athletes [9]. The experts of SEM are well-trained to handle all these adaptations [6,7,10,11].

Identification of sports talents

Another important role of the experts of SEM is to hunt sports talent for optimal performance in various international competitions. For these, they use the knowledge of exercise physiology, kinanthropometry, biomechanics, nutrition, and other related discipline. Queen’s College Step Test (QCST) is widely used to estimate the VO2 max (maximum oxygen carrying capacity), and various kinanthropometric and body composition measurements, and the application of biomechanical knowledge are used to search the sports talents for specific sports events.

Doping menace

Doping menace has become a significant challenge to the SEM personnel. In spite of widespread information on the negative impact of doping on the health of athletes, this unlawful menace is still being practiced [12]. The experts of SEM can educate the athletes about its ill effects on physiology, health, and well-being. In this regard, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code has become mandatory [12]. Ethical considerations should strictly be followed to effectively control the doping menace.

The SEM physicians have a major role in spreading awareness about the detrimental effects of doping to athletes and other athlete support personnel (ASP), especially to coaches, trainers, family or parents, relatives, and friends as these are the groups of people from whom the athletes usually take advice on supplements, who themselves are not quite knowledgeable too [9,13-16].

Travelling physician and working in altered physiological conditions

Every sports team should have SEM specialists working as team physicians and should travel with the team for competition or training, and acting as medical and scientific guardians [4,10,11].

Future prospects of SEM

The development of SEM facilities would ensure the huge promotion of sports and exercise and overall physical activity among athletes as well as the general public, better human performance and health, reduction in injuries and illness, and prevention of disabilities. Adequate funding of research in sports and human performance is an equally important aspect to concern. Medical physiologists also have a major and active role in SEM and related fields such as functional and lifestyle medicine [17]. Sports physiotherapists have also a crucial role in the development of SEM. Taking health resources into account might be a more effective way to promote a healthy lifestyle. In this respect, the American Heart Association is performing a promising role in identifying health resources [18]. Various cross-sectional and prospective studies showed plausible associations between an individual’s lifestyle, and cardiovascular imaging biomarkers [19] and events [20]. In addition to physical activity, Life’s Essential 8 health resources include a healthy diet, sufficient and good sleep, normalizing body weight and not smoking as behavioral components.

Very recently ChatGPT, a generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), has made significant changes in exercise and medicine [21,22]. AI-based interactive exercise has proven more effective in improving cardiopulmonary fitness than conventional exercise, especially in the case of obese persons [23]. In addition, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has made a remarkable contribution to cardiac rehabilitation using VR enhances exercise capacity, reduces stress and anxiety, and improves the quality of life [24]. It has also been shown to positively impact cognitive function in older adults [25]. VR-based exercise has been reported to improve upper extremity motor function in patients undergoing rehabilitation after a stroke [26,27]. VR technologies are expected to play a pivotal role in future rehabilitation research.

Conclusion

SEM, being the combination of sports medicine and exercise medicine, is essential not only for the fight against physical inactivity, and non-communicable diseases and for maintaining or enhancing health and fitness; but also for overall medical care of active and exercising individuals. It has a very bright future prospect with the application of AI and VR in sports as well as sedentary populations.

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