Health & Safety

Dr. Lindsay Baker, a senior scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute answers a few frequently asked questions about   why it is important for young athletes to stay hydrated and consume carbohydrates so they are healthy, safe and have an athletic edge.

 

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Researchers have found an association between physical fitness and the brain in 9- and 10-year-old children: Those who are more fit tend to have a bigger hippocampus and perform better on a test of memory than their less-fit peers.

Sports injuries are the result of three factors: age, degree of sport specialization, and training intensity:

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  Here are some suggestions on how parents can help prevent childhood obesity, promote healthy eating and physical activity, and increase awareness of childhood obesity among individuals of all ages and walks of life.

As the U.S. launches its first-ever National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month today, scientists say the problem may be even more widespread than was thought.  Researchers have found that parents tend to underreport their children's weight.  Estimates of obesity and body mass index (BMI) based on parent-supplied data may miss one in five obese children.

Recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on the evaluation and treatment of sport-related concussions in children and adolescents based on the latest consensus of experts.

The National Federation of State High School Associations' (NFHS) free online concussion safety course  "Concussion in Sports - What You Need to Know" has been taken by over 1 million people since it was introduced in 2010.

The number of sport-related concussions is highest in high-school aged athletes, but the number among younger athletes is significant and on the rise, according to a first-of-its-kind study reported in the journal Pediatrics.  The number of concussions among athletes ages 7 to 13 in the top five team sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer and ice hockey) doubled over a four year period, and the concussion rates among those playing ice hockey and football are eight- to ten-times higher than the overall  rate.

U.S. high school athletes suffer an estimated 9,237 time-loss heat illnesses every year that are serious enough to keep them out of sports for one or more days, according to a new, first-of-its kind report from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC), with football players most prone to heat illness.