ACL tears in Women's Sports
Would love to see you dive into the science behind ACL tears, specifically in Women's Sports. There are soo many female soccer players who have suffered ACL tears that prevent them from playing in this 2023 World Cup. Nike just unveiled its first cleat designed for females, which aims to reduce ACL injuries with a new stud pattern. Science needs more female-centered discourse, as existing studies have identified hormone differences as a cause. With the World Cup happening, now is a great time to bring eyes and brains to this issue. Catarina Macario broke all of Stanford's scoring and points records in 2019. She is the USA's most promising young star, yet she is unable to compete for the USA due to a June 2022 ACL injury. The player whose records she beat, 2x World Cup winner Christen Press, is still recovering from a June 2022 ACL tear, now requiring a fourth surgery. Alexia Putellas is the 2x Ballon D'Or winner, also sidelined by an ACL injury. The list goes on. For personal context, I played for Stanford women's soccer on the program's first NCAA Championship team, and I just tore my ACL in June after coming out of retirement at the end of 2022. I am super interested to understand why this affects so many females - because all of the doctors I've seen the last few weeks do not have good answers. They know that females are more at-risk, but not how to design effective protocols to address the sex-specific issue. It's a perfect time to amplify this discussion for the sake of all female athletes. This injury is devastating and I would like to see a future where we understand how to prevent these tears, as well as how to come back most effectively when they do happen. Sources: - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC164356/ - https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/new_evidence_may_explain_sex_difference_in_knee_injury_rates - https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38029597/women-world-cup-soccer-stars-torn-acls-mead-macario-miedema - https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38027756/uswnts-andi-sullivan-crushed-christen-press-injury - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AokgEkCSlWA - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/sports/soccer/womens-world-cup-soccer-torn-acl.html - https://theathletic.com/4574742/2023/06/02/alexia-putellas-barcelona-champions-league/ - https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1183097981/nike-is-coming-out-with-a-soccer-cleat-specifically-for-women Love your show. Thank you!!!
Timing of Cold-Water Immersion: Mid-Workout Effects?
Howdy Dr. Huberman, This questions is mostly just out of curiosity. I’ve heard of people studying the effects of post-workout, early morning, and even night-time/ pre-workout timing (which turned out as not ideal times for most uses). Has there been any studies on mid-workout immersion? I bet it sounds silly at first but allow me to add some context. I am a mountain runner, and one of my favorite things to do in the summer is run up to an alpine lake (some cold enough they have icebergs), take a dip, then come back down. it’s an extraordinary feeling that lasts all day. I have tried cold-showers/ sitting in the river when waking up, post-workout, etc and the effects don’t just don’t feel quite as lasting and potent as mid-workout. I’m just curious if anyone has looked at this, particularly the benefits (or maybe any hinderance…) of mid-workout immersion. It doesn’t seem feasible for most applications so I’m not surprised I haven’t heard anything. It would be funny if it was the ideal method though….