From primary care physicians to cardiologists and dermatologists, explore answers to common questions from verified healthcare experts. Ask your non-emergency health questions and find informed answers from verified doctors like Aaron Baggish, Jordan Metzl, and Katherine Wojnowich.
When introducing solid foods to your baby, it's best to start with one food at a time and introduce vegetables first. Popular starter foods are sweet potato and avocado. At about nine months, you can consider introducing nuts such as peanuts, walnuts, or cashews. Transcript: "So what are the best starter foods for my baby? Great question. First, you want to make sure that your baby is old enough to be able to eat solid foods appropriately, be able to digest them, and just work the mechanics. And so typically, we recommend starting a solid foods at six months. In terms of what to start with, really it's going to be an individual choice. Some popular choices might be something like sweet potato or avocado. You always want to start with one food at a time. A, just so that the baby can get used to that kind of taste. B, if there's any concern for allergies, you want to make sure you know what's causing it so that you can eliminate that from the diet. And so that's why we want to do one at a time. Another good tip is that you want to try to introduce vegetables or less sweet foods first because once fruits get into the mix, kids like to eat those. And they are less inclined to eat vegetables. Once you have introduced two foods independently, you can mix them together as long as your baby tolerates that. And so that's where, once you know that they do OK with broccoli, for example, you know that they do OK with apples, you could combine that together if you wanted to. But I would say probably, like I said, two pretty popular ones would be something like avocado, which is great. It has healthy fat, so it's going to encourage appropriate body development, muscular development, brain development, and it's tasty. Or something like sweet potato, which again is tasty and well tolerated, but not too, too sweet. But again it's an individual choice. And like I said, I would probably try not to introduce fruits first just because then kiddos tend to not like the vegetables nearly as much. And I've done this three times now. So I have three kiddos at home. And we made baby food for all of them, and I will tell you, certainly, that they they prefer the sweet stuff as opposed to the not sweet stuff. And so we typically would mix, like I said, like apples or bananas with a vegetable once they could tolerate that. As they continue to progress, probably around nine months, is when you can consider adding in a nut like peanuts or walnuts or cashews. They found that when you introduce that in that early range, they're less likely to be allergic. So those are some options for you."
Growth plate damage can occur from trauma or overuse and is classified according to the psalter Harris classification. The long term effects depend on the type of injury, age of the individual and whether surgery is needed. Most growth plate injuries improve over time without many long-term complications. Transcript: "Damage to the growth late often can occur from trauma or overuse. Now the long-term implications really depend upon the type of injury and the age of the individual. We use a classification system called the psalter Harris classification to classify fractures type one, involves a separation of the growth plate, type to a fracture line that's above the growth plate. Type 3 is a fracture line into the joint itself. Type 4 is a line that goes above and below the growth plate. Tap type 5 is a compression of that joint itself. Now type ones that's sort of like your overuse issues think gymnast wrist or literally shoulder. Those are often managed with activity modification and some bracing type 2 is the most common type of fracture. We see in the clinic these may or may not be displaced and depending upon the alignment it may have to be put back into position. These can often be managed without surgery through casting and activity modification type 3. Four and five really are more complicated, there are much rarer, which is a good thing, three and four involved. The Joint itself where five involves a growth plate and their compression. These often need an expert because they met my most likely will need surgery and need close monitoring. The second thing we talked about was the age of the individual for someone who is much younger and injury to the growth plate. Might impede their growth of that joint. So it's not uncommon for Physicians and practitioners to repeat X. I raised six months later to make sure that the joint is not fusing too early and then you have to decide the age of the individual to figure out if you need to do anything to sort of correct that. So although the injuries are a little disruptive in regards to their management for the most part growth plate, injuries do improve over time without many long-term complications or implications."
Vo2 max is very important for high-cardiac output sports such as running, rowing, and triathlon. For team-based sports, a combination of Vo2, sprint speed, endurance, and technique is more important. Elite athletes in endurance sports typically have peak Vo2s in the 70-80 range, whereas for team-based sports it's usually 55-60. Transcript: "Hey, Ed. Great question. Dr. Baggish talking a little bit about vo2 max and professional athletes. So indeed, I've had a chance to test lots and lots of elite competitors across different sporting disciplines. And probably first thing to address is the fact that not all sports are created equal with respect to the importance of vo2 max. Vo2 max as you know well is the body's ability to use oxygen. And for high-cardiac output sports, endurance sports, things like running, rowing, Nordic skiing, triathlon, high Vo2 max indeed does correlate pretty well with an athlete's ability to compete at a high level. So for instance, when we're talking about ranges typically at the elite level of endurance sports, we're expecting to see athletes with a peak Vo2 in the 70 to low 80 range. And then obviously Vo2 needs to be coupled with sport-specific efficiency and technique. But really to compete at a high level in endurance sports, the Vo2 is typically in the 70 to 80 mils, per kilogram, per minute range. That being said, there are sports where Vo2 is less important. Team-based sports, things like football or soccer in the US, hockey, lacrosse, there the typical elite athletes really rarely have Vo2 is in excess of 55 or 60. But what really is important for their sport is a combination of the Vo2 as well as sprint speed and endurance and obviously the technique required for their sport. So hope that's helpful. And love Vo2 max questions. So keep them coming."
The decision to retire when an athlete has a heart problem is a very personal one and should involve discussion between the athlete, their doctor, and other important people in their lives. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the individual's willingness to accept an element of risk. Transcript: "Hey, Greg, Dr. Baggish here. Fabulous question, and one we could talk all day about. Having worked with a number of elite-level athletes who end up developing heart problems, what I can say is that the decision to retire is really a very individual thing. I think, most importantly, when an athlete is told they have a heart problem, it starts a discussion. And the discussion is one in which the athlete and the doctor really talk about the risks and benefits of continuing to train and to compete. And, at the end of the day, the decision really is the athlete's. And we routinely encourage the athletes to talk to all the important people in their lives, their family, first and foremost, their agents, their sponsors, all the people that really help them make decisions. And ideally, then they can make the decision that's the best fit for them. And really, for some folks, the decision to stop is one based on not being willing to accept an element of risk. And for other athletes, the decision to plug away and continue training, competing is the right one, so very individualized decision. Oftentimes, a heart event can be scary, and it's enough for an athlete to want to stop. But that's not always the case. Great question and look forward to more. Thanks so much."
Swimming is a technical sport and there is a lot of training involved to prevent injury. Shoulders and back muscles are common areas of injury, so scapular stabilization exercises, posture, breathing and technique should be focused on. Additionally, coaches should provide a program with sleep, nutrition, rest and mental focus. While it is not possible to prevent every injury, following these principles can help minimize the chance of injury. Transcript: "Can swimmers really prevent being injured? You know, it's a complex question, right? Because swimming is a very technical sport. There's a lot that goes on and Records to the mechanics of moving and there's a fair amount of training that now. I think there's a movement towards lots of yardage to more quality type of training that I think has been extremely helpful and I think focusing on common areas where swimmers get hurt specifically the shoulders, and the back room. Horton. One of the most common scenarios. I see our swimmers coming in with childre pain, which is quite common and any age, group swimmers, even Collegiate, swimmers or the Olympic swimmer itself and having a balance between the shoulders specifically the back muscles can play important component in preventing shoulder type of pain. So a lot of shoulders I recommend working on scapular stabilization exercises, thinking about the posture that you have in regards to To your overall posture outside and inside of the water when you're doing core dry land, type of training, think shoulder connect that to the lower spine. Think about breathing as well. Because buoyancy plays a role in how you breathe plays a role in how your movement and work with your coaches on technique. Really, fundamentally getting good technique and making sure you're balanced in the water. Not not off-kilter, or not rotating, too much can pay. There's long-term in preventing type of injury and also thinking about your training program throughout the year. So, so a good coach will lay out a program that builds towards a goal at the end of that season whether that's short course, a long course a good programs going to bring in things like sleep nutrition rest thinking about the mental aspect of training how you're focusing overall and sometimes if you need a rest you need a rest. So you don't have to swim seven days a week building in. Covery is just an important. So can we prevent swimmers from being injured? Sure. Are we going to prevent every single injury in the world? No, that's not probably possible. But I think by adhering to some very specific principles we hopefully can mitigate or minimize the chance of injury."
Creatine is an amino acid found in meat and seafood that helps with muscle recovery, increases heat tolerance and helps replenish glycogen stores when taken with carbohydrates. For endurance athletes, taking creatine can be beneficial as it can help reduce muscle damage, increase heat tolerance and improve the rate of glycogen storage replacement. Transcript: "Is there a better time to talk about the use of creatine and endurance Atlas than just right after I finished my mornings, when practice on this lovely Sunday morning in Las Vegas. Well, for the record I'm a sprinter and creating does benefit the most athletes whose activities are focused on speed power and short intense, bursts of exercise in other words as printers like me, and I always train with creatine, in my water bottle is one of the supplements. Now, what does creating do? You know what is creating? It's an amino acid. It is Mostly muscles and the brain and we get it when we eat meat and seafood. In addition to that pancreas kidney and liver can synthesize creating. They can synthesize about one gram of creatine per day, which is much less than what most of the people most of the athletes take as a supplementation between 5 and 20 grams a day. Now, we're not going to be talking about those of creatine now. But what does creatine do? And what happens when we take creatine that enlarges the pool of the creatine in the cell and creating is used for research synthesis of ATP. At the nausea triphosphate and adenosine triphosphate is the source of energy for muscles that allows muscles to keep performing. So, that is what creating actually does and what could be a benefit of creatine to endurance athletes. Well, there are three benefits that has been shown number one. It has been shown that creatine can help with recovery but reducing muscle damage after intense, bouts of exercise which sometimes endurance athletes do as well. It can reduce my muscle damage. Number two, there was a study that showed Would that if athletes could perform in extreme heat, take creatine that heat tolerance increases and number three, which is very important. We all know the relevance of the glycogen storages at the time when we recover and soda plant, mission of those storages requires, the use of carbohydrates. Now, when creating was added to carbohydrates the amount or the rate of by which glycogen storages were replaced, was significantly increase. It is interesting to say, That if creatine was taken a loan that did not change, the Reformation of glycogen storages, as well as important to emphasize. That addition of creatine to carbohydrates is what made the difference in agriculture, glycogen storages. Hello there for endurance athletes. Please take creatine, there will be some benefits for you as well."