{"id":4170,"date":"2020-07-01T16:01:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T09:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/are-you-swimming-anemic\/"},"modified":"2022-01-07T14:07:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T07:07:03","slug":"are-you-swimming-anemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/are-you-swimming-anemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Swimming Anemic?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ARE YOU SWIMMING ANEMIC?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Deena Williams, SwimSwam<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">January 24, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Eating. A swimmer\u2019s second favorite thing to do! We like to talk about food. We like to chatter about what sounds good to eat before we swim, we dream about it during practice and discuss what we would like to eat as we leave the pool. Though somehow in the shuffle of cravings, the basic concept of food as fuel gets lost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Maintaining a healthy diet to balance the strenuous workouts expected to compete is its own training challenge. And as every swimmer or swim parent knows, combining the right caloric intake and nutritional balance isn\u2019t easy. A quick solution to immediate, post-practice hunger doesn\u2019t have to be traditional, but it should be healthy or nutritious. Not taking the time to do so can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiency. Worst case scenario those choices can also contribute to the development of anemia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ARE YOU SWIMMING ANEMIC? WHAT IS ANEMIA?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Anemia is when your body either doesn\u2019t have enough healthy red blood cells or your red blood cells aren\u2019t functioning properly. There are several types of anemia, these are the two most common:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Iron Deficiency Anemia- This occurs when you do not have enough iron in your body due to diet, body changes, blood loss, or gastrointestinal tract abnormalities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vitamin Deficiency Anemia- May result when you have low levels of B12 or folic acid. This type of anemia is typically due to poor diet.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">IRON AND SPORTS<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Iron deficiency is a common problem for athletes, especially female athletes. That is not to say men aren\u2019t at risk for iron deficiency or anemia just not at the same correlation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Iron is the key component to athletic performance success. It is iron that transports oxygen to your cells and carries carbon dioxide away. It is not just your body but your brain that also relies on iron for oxygen transport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Imagine not having enough oxygen and trying to swim! Sprinting would be challenging enough, but what if you are a middle distance swimmer?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A combination of factors place swimmers at risk:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Inadequate vitamins, minerals or iron in their diet. Swimmers who eat a plant-based diet are at greater risk of iron deficiency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vigorous training increases the body\u2019s demand for red blood cells and increases the demand for iron, especially for high-intensity endurance athletes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Blood loss, whether due to injury or menstruation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sweating! Iron is lost during sweating. Heavy sweating leads to an increased risk of deficiency.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is believed that in the United States 10 million people are iron deficient and at least 5 million people have developed iron deficiency anemia. It is an illness too often overlooked and discounted by modern diagnosis. My own diagnosis took twenty years to finally receive. By then my sports career was long over, and I was just plain old sick. Anemia symptoms are sly. They slowly overcome you. All athletes and coaches should be aware of the symptoms of vitamin deficiency and anemia. These types of illnesses can have serious long term effects in and out of the pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">SYMPTOMS OF ANEMIA<\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Brittle nails<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dizziness or lightheadedness- especially going from sitting to standing<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Shortness of breath. Sometimes confused with stress or anxiety because it seems like a long sigh<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Always cold- especially your hands or feet<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Overall weakness<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Pounding or \u201cwhooshing\u201d in your ears<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Extreme exhaustion. Not just being a little tired from practice but you can\u2019t stay awake<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paleness<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sore and achy legs or feet<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Inflammation or soreness on your tongue<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sore throat or gagging feeling in the back of your throat<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sore neck and shoulders<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Headaches and tension headaches<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Muscle cramp<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Diarrhea or stomach cramps<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Irritability<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Increased or fast heartbeat<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Anxiety<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Chest pains<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Normal iron levels range between 30 percent and 45 percent, but premenopausal women should be near 50 percent. It is possible to be within normal levels and still symptomatic.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Foods that help maintain iron levels<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Animal products- lean beef, poultry, fish, eggs, and liver.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fortified Cereals- grits and Cream of Wheat are both high in iron.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Legumes and nuts such as cashews, pumpkin seeds, beans, chickpeas, soybeans, black beans, lentils, and sesame seeds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Combining foods high in Vitamin C with Iron-rich foods will help increase your absorption.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One of the major factors to stiving off anemia and vitamin deficiency is the food that we eat. Every day we make food choices that impact our overall health. This is about perspective. As swimmers we spend hours deciding on the tech suit we buy or the type of goggles we use but eat on a whim. Athletes must learn to eat with intent. Choosing food as fuel as opposed to something quick or convenient is as important as the yardage you put in each practice. It may be more important because you can\u2019t get sick from not swimming enough laps but you can if you don\u2019t eat right.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">GETTING DIAGNOSED<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Are You Swimming Anemic? If you are experiencing any symptoms or are curious about your vitamin, mineral or iron levels contact your family physician or team doctor. Remember many symptoms are similar to over-training or other illnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Click\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/swimswam.com\/are-you-swimming-anemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the original article.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ARE YOU SWIMMING ANEMIC? Deena Williams, SwimSwam January 24, 2020 &nbsp; Eating. A swimmer\u2019s second favorite thing to do! We like to talk about food. We like to chatter about what sounds good to eat before we swim, we dream about it during practice and discuss what we would like to eat as we leave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[219],"tags":[1166],"class_list":["post-4170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","tag-are-you-swimming-anemic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7979,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions\/7979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aquashopvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}