Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
Active Women Have Special Health Needs
DENVER (Nov. 10, 2004) - Athletic women who run and play sports may be more physically fit, but they also have different health concerns and medical needs as a result of their active lifestyle. The new Active Women's Health program at University of Colorado Hospital's University Sports Medicine Center specializes in addressing and treating the health needs of active women.
"It is important that active women and girls see specialists who are experts at understanding the relationships between nutrition, kinesiology, gender-specific anatomical differences, women's goals for sports and lifestyle factors that will impact their body and their health later in life," said Dr. Deborah Saint-Phard, director of the Active Women's Health program and a physiatrist specializing in women's sports medicine and non-surgical spine disorders.
Saint-Phard, who competed in the 1988 Olympic Games, the 1987 World Track and Field Championships and the Pan American Games in the shot put event, knows firsthand the health challenges active women encounter.
"Active women are often susceptible to stress fractures, slow bone healing related to nutritional disorders, restrictive or disordered eating patterns, amenorrhea and underlying osteoporosis," Saint-Phard said.
Saint-Phard also notes certain sports injuries are higher in women. Women who play basketball and soccer are at five to eight times greater risk for tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee. Several factors add up to increased risk for this injury, including wider pelvic girth, which puts the knee at a greater angle and more strain on the ACL; training errors in muscle development, which could protect the ACL; differences in landing, which may place more strain on the ACL, and anatomical build and the role of estrogen also factor in.
The importance of proper nutrition and calcium intake in women's earlier years is critical to bone health. Active women should utilize specialists in women's health issues such as nutrition, sports medicine and endocrinology to ensure their active lifestyle is not negatively affecting their health and well-being.
The Active Women's Health program consists of numerous experts in sports medicine, bone health and disorders, orthopedics, psychiatry, endocrinology, pediatrics, family medicine, physiology and nutrition. The medical staff is comprised of former Olympians, skiers, marathon runners, former ballet dancers and former football players. For more information, visit www.uch.edu/awh.
University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region's only academic tertiary care and referral center, and has been recognized as one of America's best hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report. Located in Denver and Aurora, Colo., the hospital is part of the University of Colorado Denver campus, one of three campuses in the University of Colorado system. For more information, visit the Web site at www.uch.edu.