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New York Times
11 hours ago
- Health
- New York Times
This Strength Workout Will Make You a Better Runner
Starting to run is simple: Lace up your sneakers, go outside, put one foot in front of the other. But continuing to run without injury requires a little more effort. For that, you also have to strength train. 'The old notion was run, run, run,' said Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. But running alone doesn't build enough muscle strength to keep you injury-free as you age, he said. Runners need strong muscles to absorb the stress and impact of pounding the pavement. Increasing your muscular power may also improve speed and endurance, Dr. Metzl said. Lauren Roberts, a physical therapist in Ontario who primarily works with runners, said the most common concerns she sees are patellofemoral pain syndrome (known as runner's knee), Achilles injuries, IT band syndrome and shin splints. Many of those issues can be prevented by strengthening the surrounding muscles and joints, Ms. Roberts said. The exercises in this routine are designed to help build strength in your quads and posterior chain — the muscles on the backside of your body — and improve joint mobility and functional strength. Aim for two strength training sessions per week. Ms. Roberts suggested taking a day of recovery between a longer run and a strength session. You can adjust the frequency of your strength workouts based on your running goals. If you're training for a marathon, for example, Ms. Roberts recommended dropping down to one strength session a week at the start of your last month of training and none during your two-week taper before the race. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
21-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Do You Need to Drink Electrolytes?
There is a large, growing and very competitive market for electrolyte powders, drinks and tablets. In 2024 the electrolyte drink market was valued around $38 billion. The products are designed to be consumed before, during and after exercise — and manufacturers claim they'll optimize your hydration, health and performance. There are even options to supplement your daily hydration, whether or not you are exercising. But do you really need to replenish the electrolytes lost in your sweat? And are sports drinks, electrolyte powders and salty supplements actually the best way to do it? What do electrolytes do? Electrolytes are minerals — such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium — that carry an electrical charge that influences how water moves in your body. 'They help maintain the fluid balance,' explained Dr. Amy West, a sports medicine physician at Northwell Health. They help move fluid into and out of your cells and regulate blood pressure, heart rhythm, muscle and nerve function. While they're found in supplements and sports drinks, they're also in the foods we eat every day. 'When we talk about potassium, it's in a banana,' said Heidi Skolnik, a nutritionist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. 'When you eat a pretzel, there's sodium on it.' As you sweat, you lose both fluid and electrolytes and if you lose enough fluid, you can become dehydrated. The volume of blood in your body drops and 'your heart has to pump harder to get the same amount of blood circulating,' Ms. Skolnik said. Do you really need to replace them? When you lose an exceptionally large quantity of water and electrolytes, as you might if you're having a serious bout of diarrhea, you need to replace both. In those situations, doctors often recommend a rehydration solution like Pedialyte, which typically has more sodium and potassium than your average sports drink. But experts say you probably don't need to reach for a sports drink during your regular workouts. Even if those workouts are strenuous or happen in hotter weather, drinking water when you're thirsty is enough to keep you hydrated. The sugar and carbohydrates found in many sports drinks certainly may help competitive athletes maintain their energy, but the electrolytes have little impact. In the 1990s, standard medical advice recommended sodium-rich drinks for athletes during any exercise that lasted more than an hour. But more recent research has found that even as you lose sodium through sweat and urine, your body maintains the concentration of sodium in your blood. In several small studies athletes didn't tend to report a performance difference between working out with water and electrolyte-infused drinks, even after five hours of running in 86-degree heat. It's been well-established for at least a decade that electrolytes don't do much for performance, said Ricardo Da Costa, an associate professor in sports dietetics at Monash University in Australia. 'But the marketing strategies from the sports drinks companies are more potent than the researchers.' 'Everybody thinks that they need to replace lost electrolytes right away,' said Tamara Hew-Butler, a sports medicine scientist at Wayne State University. 'You don't. You will make it up generally in your meals.' Most of the time, you are fine just drinking water when you're thirsty. If you're spending hours outside in the heat for several days and start feeling dehydration symptoms, like lightheadedness, you might reach for a sports drink or supplement, especially if you aren't getting enough electrolytes in your diet, said Robert Kenefick, a professor of biomedical and nutritional sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. In rare cases, you can have too much fluid but not enough sodium in your blood, a condition called hyponatremia, which can cause nausea, fatigue and, in the most severe cases, seizures or death. It's more likely to happen if you have certain medical conditions such as heart, liver or kidney problems. For athletes, it can happen if they drink so much fluid before, during and after long workouts that it dilutes the electrolytes in your blood. However, most sports drinks don't contain enough sodium to prevent it, said Dr. Da Costa. Is There a Downside? Aside from the cost, experts say there's little downside to consuming electrolyte drinks. As long as you're otherwise healthy, they do not have enough electrolytes to overload your system (called hypernatremia), Dr. Kenefick said. And the sweet taste could motivate you to hydrate. Like most supplements, however, electrolyte products are not well regulated and can even be contaminated, Dr. Hew-Butler said. In 2015, she and her team found unsafe levels of arsenic in Muscle Milk and Gatorade powders that had been provided to college athletes. The athletes showed no signs of having been harmed by the exposure. You won't see 'arsenic' on a supplement label, but you should check for the amount of sugar in the drinks, which can be almost as high as some sodas. As you are reading the label, Dr. Kenefick cautioned buyers to be skeptical of what it promises. 'The beverage market is very competitive and everyone's looking for an edge,' he said. 'A lot of the beverages that are out there are using electrolytes as a marketing tool.' Emma Yasinski is a freelance science journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Undark and more.
CTV News
17-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Dr. David Altchek, Mets medical director and Tommy John surgery pioneer, dies at 68
NEW YORK — Dr. David Altchek, who performed more than 2,000 Tommy John surgeries and was the New York Mets longtime medical director, died Thursday. He was 68. His death was announced by the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he was co-chief emeritus. Altchek told associates last year he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was the Mets head team physician from 1991-2001 and medical director from 2005-24, physician of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1999-2003 and North American medical director of the ATP Tour. Altchek was co-chief of HSS's sports medicine and shoulder service from 2005-14. 'While Dr. Altchek's intelligence and innovations certainly benefited his patients — and sports medicine in general — his biggest impact was his warm, friendly, caring personality,' said Glenn S. Fleisig, biomechanics research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. 'Colleagues, friends, and patients all loved David and are thankful for the time we had with him.' A son of orthopedic surgeon Martin Altchek, David attended Middletown High School in New York, received his undergraduate degree at Columbia and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1982. He interned at The New York Hospital and became a resident at HSS, where he had a fellowship under Dr. Russell Warren, HSS's surgeon in chief from 1993-03 and a longtime team physician of the New York Giants. 'My first Tommy John surgery was in 1993, and I did the procedure that Dr. Jobe, Dr. Frank Jobe prescribed,' Altchek said during a 2024 interview with The Associated Press. 'It took 2 1/2 hours and I was exhausted. And I realized then that we had to do something about Tommy John surgery. We had to make it a little bit easier.' Working with residents and fellows, Altchek developed what was called a docking procedure and tested it on about 100 elbows. 'It worked and it worked amazingly well,' Altchek said. 'We really did not change it at all for 20-something years.' Altchek estimated last year he had performed more than 2,400 Tommy John surgeries. He was a preferred surgeon for the Tommy John procedure in recent years along with Texas Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister and Los Angeles Dodgers head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache. 'Renowned worldwide for his surgical expertise, he was equally admired for the compassion and care he showed to our players,' Mets owner Steve Cohen and wife Alex said in a statement. Part of Altchek's job was to reassure a player his baseball career was not over. 'You tell them this is unfortunate, but this is your MRI. This is probably why it happened — meaning you threw outside the envelope of your tissue quality," he explained. 'But we have a procedure that can repair your ligament and reconstruct it in a kind of belt, suspenders way that once it heals the likelihood of you going back to pitching at the same level or above is 95%.' Altchek received Columbia's John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement in 2003. He is survived by his wife, the former Anne Salmson, whom he married in 1981, sons Charles and Christopher, and daughters Chloe and Sophie. Charles is president of Major League Soccer's third-tier MLS Next Pro minor league and was the Ivy League men's soccer player of the year while at Harvard in 2005 and 2006. By Ronald Blum.
Al Arabiya
17-07-2025
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Dr. David Altchek, Mets medical director and tommy john surgery pioneer, dies at 68
Dr. David Altchek, who performed more than 2000 Tommy John surgeries and was the New York Mets' longtime medical director, died Thursday. He was 68. His death was announced by the Hospital for Special Surgery where he was co-chief emeritus. Altchek told associates last year he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was the Mets head team physician from 1991-2001 and medical director from 2005-24, physician of the US Davis Cup team from 1999-2003, and North American medical director of the ATP Tour. Altchek was co-chief of HSS's sports medicine and shoulder service from 2005-14. 'While Dr. Altchek's intelligence and innovations certainly benefited his patients – and sports medicine in general – his biggest impact was his warm, friendly, caring personality,' said Glenn S. Fleisig, biomechanics research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. 'Colleagues, friends, and patients all loved David and are thankful for the time we had with him.' A son of orthopedic surgeon Martin Altchek, David attended Middletown High School in New York, received his undergraduate degree at Columbia, and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1982. He interned at The New York Hospital and became a resident at HSS where he had a fellowship under Dr. Russell Warren, HSS's surgeon in chief from 1993-03 and a longtime team physician of the New York Giants. 'My first Tommy John surgery was in 1993 and I did the procedure that Dr. Jobe – Dr. Frank Jobe – prescribed,' Altchek said during a 2024 interview with The Associated Press. 'It took 2 1/2 hours and I was exhausted. And I realized then that we had to do something about Tommy John surgery. We had to make it a little bit easier.' Working with residents and fellows, Altchek developed what was called a docking procedure and tested it on about 100 elbows. 'It worked and it worked amazingly well,' Altchek said. 'We really did not change it at all for 20-something years.' Altchek estimated last year he had performed more than 2400 Tommy John surgeries. He was a preferred surgeon for the Tommy John procedure in recent years along with Texas Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister and Los Angeles Dodgers head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Part of Altchek's job was to reassure a player his baseball career was not over. 'You tell them this is unfortunate but this is your MRI. This is probably why it happened – meaning you threw outside the envelope of your tissue quality,' he explained. 'But we have a procedure that can repair your ligament and reconstruct it in a kind of belt suspenders way that once it heals the likelihood of you going back to pitching at the same level or above is 95 percent.' Altchek received Columbia's John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement in 2003. He is survived by his wife, the former Anne Salmson, whom he married in 1981, sons Charles and Christopher, and daughters Chloe and Sophie. Charles is president of Major League Soccer's third-tier MLS Next Pro minor league and was the Ivy League men's soccer player of the year while at Harvard in 2005 and 2006.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did 'Materialists' Put You Onto Limb-Lengthening Surgery? Here's What It Actually Takes to Gain 6 Inches, According to a Surgeon
People will do just about anything for love. They'll spend hours swiping through dating apps, message strangers halfway across the globe, or agree to blind setups based on a mutual friend's hunch and a vague description. They'll revamp their wardrobe, lease a flashier car, or drop cash on the latest gadgets just to boost their curb appeal. But in the new dramedy Materialists, the search for a soulmate gets taken to new heights. Pedro Pascal's character undergoes leg-lengthening surgery to gain six inches, hoping it'll give him a competitive edge in the modern dating game. And while this might sound like Hollywood satire, the procedure is very real (and increasingly common). Every year, hundreds of men sign up for the grueling, months-long process, which involves breaking the legs and gradually stretching them to gain a few extra inches—all in pursuit of some added height, a little more confidence, and maybe, just maybe, a better shot at romance. Dr. S. Robert Rozbruch, chief of the Limb Lengthening and Complex Reconstruction Service and Director of the Osseointegration Limb Replacement Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery, told Men's Journal that leg lengthening is a major part of his job. "You're talking to somebody who has a lot of experience with limb-lengthening reconstruction, for a variety of reasons, mostly reconstructive, but stature lengthening is a part of what we do," he says. "If it's done in a responsible manner, i.e., a non-frivolous manner, it's a very powerful procedure, and can be very effective at improving the right patient's quality of life." Simply put, leg lengthening, or stature lengthening, is a surgical procedure designed to increase a person's height. While it's commonly used to correct differences in leg length or treat certain deformities, it's also performed on people with constitutional short stature. This refers to those who are naturally shorter than average, but don't have a medical condition like dwarfism or growth hormone deficiency. The goal for these patients is usually a subtle height increase of about three inches for psychological or aesthetic reasons. Individuals with dwarfism or other medical conditions, on the other hand, may seek more dramatic results. One of the most common concerns people have before leg-lengthening surgery is the pain factor. The surgery itself sounds gruesome enough, but add an extra six months of recovery, and most people won't even consider stepping foot in a doctor's office for a consultation. But according to Dr. Rozbruch, the pain isn't nearly as bad as you might think. "Most patients are off narcotic pain medication within about a week," he says. "We treat patients with multimodal pain management, a mixture of Tylenol and an anti-inflammatory medication, and usually a narcotic." It hasn't always been this way, though. While modern motorized nails have made recovery easier, it was far rougher when external fixators were the norm. To paint a visual, these are metal frames worn outside the body, anchored into the bone with pins or wires that go straight through the skin and muscle. And yes, it's just as uncomfortable as it lengthening surgery involves implanting a STRYDE nail into the femur (thigh bone) or tibia (shin bone), with the femur being the most common as it generally heals faster and produces less scarring. This rod gradually lengthens the bone, about one millimeter four times a day, according to Dr. Rozbruch. "They're lengthening in total anywhere from three-quarters to one millimeter a day, depending on their age and depending on how well they're doing," he says. "It's cumulative, so if we're using the maximum lengthening as an example, eight centimeters, it will typically take about three months to get that length." After their initial hospital stay, which usually only lasts a day or two, patients undergo intensive daily physical therapy to stretch their joints and muscles and prevent stiffness for the first several months. "We treat them for just the routine post-op for the first day," he says. "We teach them physical therapy exercises to make sure they understand how important it is to stretch their knees and hips to maintain flexibility. And we teach them how to do the lengthening process. We teach them where to put the remote control device on their thigh so it communicates with the motorized nail inside the bone and has the ability to rotate a magnet inside the nail and move the gears and actually affect the lengthening." The full process, from initial surgery through bone healing and rehab, takes several months, and the rods are removed about a year Materialists, Pedro Pascal's character, Harry, reveals he and his brother got the procedure. In the film, he says: 'Women just approach us and talk to us now, which never happened before. I haven't struck out since. But you can also tell the difference at work, and at restaurants, and airports. You're just worth more.' The line might feel like satire, but there's truth baked into it. For men who choose to undergo the procedure, the motivation isn't always just about aesthetics. Dr. Rozbruch says the decision is deeply personal and not taken lightly. Before he'll operate, he makes sure his patients are psychologically healthy and has them get a psych evaluation. "I think patients who really seem to benefit from this are people who are psychologically healthy, who are very affected by their short stature, and it creates a feeling of dysphoria, sadness, and a lack of confidence," he says. "I think it's important to rule out psychological disorders like body dysmorphia, unrealistic expectations about what your body can look like, and what this can accomplish for you. Patients who have appropriate expectations and are properly motivated have done really, really well." Did 'Materialists' Put You Onto Limb-Lengthening Surgery? Here's What It Actually Takes to Gain 6 Inches, According to a Surgeon first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 11, 2025
