Nutrition in Combat Sports

310 S.F. Martinez
event, a review of available medical personnel is paramount, with a designated
physician, emergency medicine technicians with oxygen, transport, spine precaution
capabilities, and an identified hospital for necessary care. Waiver forms used
for the event should protect not only the event organizers from liability but also
medical personnel. [9] Frequently, the medical personnel are volunteers with potential
liability exposure. Exclusion criterion must be identified for prospective athletes.
Termination parameters for the contact competitions should be discussed with
officials before the event. National and international competitions should allow for
appropriate drug doping monitoring.
Although there are no hard data delineating the injury demographics of modern
Chinese martial arts, it is apparent that more serious injuries occur with contact competition
in the external “hard” styles and include head and neck injuries, fractures, severe
joint and soft-tissue contusions, lacerations, and sprains. [10–12] A wide variety of factors
may come into play as injury contributors: age, experience, general health, conditioning
level of the athlete, mismatch between competitors, precautions in weight loss
observance, and a history of head injury or concussion. This brief manuscript is not
intended to cover all medical aspects of Wushu but to provide the reader with a glimpse
of some of the more common areas of concern. Less frequently encountered visceral
(e.g., abdominal, pelvic, and thoracic) injuries are not discussed.
17.8 Head and Spine Injuries
Very few situations cause more anxiety to the treating physician than a fighter with a
change in mental status or the possibility of a spinal cord injury. Significant precautions
and adequate medical support are necessary to insure the safety of the martial artist. The
physician should have limited evaluation equipment: ophthalmoscope and otoscope,
reflex hammer, portable airway or oral barrier for CPR use, stethoscope, and possibly a
pocket Snelling chart to assess vision. The fighting venue should have a back board,
cervical collar, and cardiopulmonary equipment on hand. Given the dire consequences
of these injuries, a short synopsis on this topic is provided below. The reader is referred
to Chapter 6 for a more in-depth review on head injury in combat sports.
17.8.1 Head Injury: Concussion
Concussions are most common in contact competition [10–12] ; they are rare but possible
with Taolu. The alteration in mental status caused by a concussion frequently
resolves relatively spontaneously and usually represents a functional change; less
frequently, there is a demonstrable structural lesion. Sustaining a concussion makes
the athlete more susceptible to a future concussion, and the injury may carry longterm
sequelae (decreased verbal learning, decreased attention span, decreased
processing speed, reduction in neuropsychology scoring). Complications include
second impact syndrome, post-concussion syndrome, posttraumatic seizure, chronic