Exercise and Seizures

"There is one rare type of epileptic seizure that has been shown to be induced by exercise per se. These are tonic (continuous motor activity) seizures, which have been reported to occur during a variety of sports activities. Fortunately, this type of seizure can be controlled in most instances by anticonvulsant drugs.........

 "As for other types of seizure disorders, physicians remain divided in their opinions as to whether exercise increases the risk of seizure occurrence. A report by Gotze et al.  suggests that exercise does not increase the risk of seizures in epileptic children or adolescents. In fact, Gotze  argues that exercise appears to reduce the incidence of seizures in epileptics by increasing the threshold for seizures. In support of these claims, reviews on epilepsy and sports have concluded that there is a reduction in the number of seizures during exercise" Page(s): 482, Exercise Physiology , McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Factors Related to exercise , hypothesized to increase risk of seizures

• physical fatigue
• hyperventilation 
• hypoxia
• hyperthermia
• hypoglycemia
• electrolyte imbalance 

There is a division in the medical community , in this topic and therefor a case-by-case decisions should be made.

The Importance of Sleep

 Since for me school is literally right around the corner and combating sleep fatigue is something that is always an issue I'm going to talk about it. 


According to the NIH- Getting enough sleep is essential to our health and well being. A lot of things can affect how much and how well we sleep, such as drugs, alcohol and medication. Mental or physical illness can have an impact on quality of sleep, and so can stress or doing shift work. Some people have sleep disorders like sleep apnoea (or apnea), where their breathing is interrupted during sleep, or restless legs syndrome (akathisia). Some people have to get up several times in the night to go to the toilet. The average adult sleeps less than 7 hours per night.  Most healthy adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep per night to function at their best.  






Below I have a link to a website which will help calculate ideal sleep times based on what time you plan on waking up.

http://sleepyti.me/

How to treat "Runner's Knee"

I read online that 42% of all overuse injuries affect the knee joint and one those injuries is patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), or simply "runner's knee," which is the most common overuse injury among runners. It occurs when a mistracking kneecap (patella) irritates the femoral groove in which it rests on the thighbone (femur). 


At the first sign of pain, cut back your mileage. The sooner you lessen the knee's workload, the faster healing begins,  As you rebuild mileage, use a smaller stride on hills


Below are some quick tips to improve your knees by concentrating on the muscles affecting your knee. Quads, Hamstrings, Calves. 

•  Foam Roll the outside of your thighs 
•  Direct soft tissue work (massage) of the outside muscles of your thigh 
•  Improving general quad strength (via quad sets i.e tensing your quad muscles and doing isometric hold for about 5- 10 sec, leg extensions and TKE = Terminal Knee Extensions ) Youtube/Google any of these to get a better description.  For Sets and Reps about 3 x 12 
•  Improving the control of your butt muscles ( via Hip Bridge aka Supine Bridge ) doing both two leg version and single leg version for about 2 x 25 
• Stretching the quads and calves ( via Standing Quad Stretch , and Standing Calve Stretch) doing 2 sets of 30sec holds for each leg 

Another useful stretch is the Standing Hamstring Stretch , do this for 2 sets of 30 secs for each leg

Another Exercise to strengthen your thighs and butt is the Lying Straight Leg Lift , perform 3 sets of 10 reps each leg , if you want more of a challenge work up to 10 sets of 10 reps each leg.  

The above tips should help strengthen those muscles and loosen those that are pulling your kneecap into a compromised position. One more tip for those who want to try something radical try running barefoot some people have noticed the pain completely disappearing when running barefoot / using minimalist style shoes i.e Vibram's 5 finger shoes.  Good Luck :) and Cool Running's