{"id":39993,"date":"2022-06-08T17:27:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T23:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/doctors-urged-to-rethink-how-they-treat-speak-with-extreme-athletes\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T23:27:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T23:27:21","slug":"doctors-urged-to-rethink-how-they-treat-speak-with-extreme-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/doctors-urged-to-rethink-how-they-treat-speak-with-extreme-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors urged to rethink how they treat, speak with \u2018extreme athletes\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Steph
Steph Davis and Ian Mitchard BASE jump in Utah. (Courtesy of Steph Davis, via The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Doctors took a look at Ian Mitchard\u2019s body four years ago and assumed his career was over.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Steph Davis brought him along to a talk she gave to doctors: She wanted them to see what was possible.<\/p>\n

To be fair, it\u2019s probably the conclusion many would reach after Mitchard crashed while paragliding alone. He broke his back, ankles and a couple other bones. The worst damage was to his feet, which were crushed so badly that those doctors thought amputation was the only solution.<\/p>\n

The injuries were, of course, horrific, but the worst part of the ordeal was the doctors\u2019 bleak outlook, Davis, Mitchard\u2019s wife, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hadn\u2019t seen injuries on that scale before,\u201d Davis said. \u201cHe was getting excellent medical care, but we weren\u2019t getting a lot of super optimistic stuff, and that\u2019s hard to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis and Mitchard, after all, had made a career out of doing what most would consider the impossible. They flew wingsuits in addition to BASE jumping, and she was also a professional rock climber, sometimes without a rope.<\/p>\n

Both Davis and Mitchard didn\u2019t want to hear opinions that Mitchard would need to stop living a lifestyle that helped them fall in love. They already knew the risks, to a painful degree. Mitchard is Davis\u2019 third husband. Her first, Dean Potter, the ropeless rock legend, died in a wingsuit crash. Her second, Mario Richard, also died in a wingsuit crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of time doing things that technically should be impossible,\u201d Davis said. \u201cFlying off a cliff should not be possible for humans, but we find a way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the center of Davis\u2019 talk at the International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress in early May that was organized by the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Davis is a professional speaker, and she markets specific talks on her website, but she developed something special for the doctors, physical therapists and researchers who convened in Boulder.<\/p>\n

She talked about the power of the mind, and how mental strength could overcome perceived physical weaknesses, including a human being\u2019s inability to fly or, in Mitchard\u2019s case, overcome gruesome injuries that may leave most of us unable to walk again. In fact, her talk was almost a plea for doctors to treat extreme athletes differently. Mitchard, while still recovering to this day, returned to the sport they both love. Other friends in their sport have done the same thing.<\/p>\n

It may be more important than ever that doctors rethink how they treat so-called extreme athletes, because they aren\u2019t as extreme as they once were: More and more of us are doing the kind of outdoor adventure sports that years ago only people such as Mitchard would attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the reason I was interested to speak with these doctors,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThey are so focused on the human body that I thought it was interesting for them to hear how you can use your mind and mental abilities to change what is possible physically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis was mostly preaching to a converted flock. Every two years, a group of medical experts get together at this congress to discuss ways to treat extreme athletes. They discuss new research, new treatments and new ways of thinking about the \u201ccrazy\u201d humans who do the \u201ccrazy\u201d stunts that make good movies, such as \u201cFree Solo,\u201d the film about Alex Honnold\u2019s first-ever free climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, which won the Oscar in 2019 for best documentary.<\/p>\n

\"Adventure
Adventure athlete Steph Davis free-soloed the North Face of Castleton Tower in Castle Valley, Utah, in May 2008. (Courtesy of Steph Davis, via The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Much of what they talk about is how traditional medicine doesn\u2019t fit these \u201ccrazy\u201d people. Davis, in her keynote speech, was there to remind them, and inspire them, to continue to think differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a provider come up to me after my talk, and she told me, \u2018I can give them data, but I can\u2019t give you information about yourself,\u2019\u201d Davis said. \u201cI just thought that was so profound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do as I do<\/div>\n

It is not a coincidence, Dr. Omer Mei-Dan said in his understated way, that he is a leader in extreme sports medicine. He started and continues to organize the conference, works as a sports surgeon with the University of Colorado School of Medicine and is the author and editor of the first extreme sports medicine textbook.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also an extreme athlete, sometimes to the degree that it\u2019s difficult to tell what comes first.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s world-renowned for his expertise in wingsuit flying, rock and ice climbing, downhill mountain biking, kayaking and BASE jumping. He\u2019s sponsored by Red Bull. He, like Davis, understands the mentality of an extreme sports athlete and knows many doctors simply don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Their personality characteristics, he said, such as their drive, pain tolerance and courage (even stubbornness) are their most common trait.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod knows I had so many surgeries on myself,\u201d Mei-Dan said. \u201cThese are not the type of people who get hurt and then you tell them, \u2018Now you should not get back into climbing.\u2019 That won\u2019t work. I did feel that as an athlete. Sometimes I was \u2026 I don\u2019t know if \u2018judged\u2019 is the right word \u2026 but I was looked at through a certain lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thing is, doctors should not look at extreme athletes that way anymore, Mei-Dan and his colleagues said, especially as more people looked to the outdoors as a source of entertainment, exercise and comfort during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Fourteeners were already packed pre-pandemic, but even more are taking up harder pursuits such as climbing and challenging mountain biking races and skiing in the backcountry. That\u2019s especially true in Colorado. Ultramarathons were once an anomaly, and now the most popular races have a lottery to get in, including the 100-miler in Leadville and the Hardrock 100 in Silverton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen much more of that because of COVID,\u201d Mei-Dan said. \u201cIt pushed a lot of people to play in the outdoors, in a good way. But not a lot of them were physically ready to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a problem for doctors, here especially, because many physicians still do not understand the intricacies of adventure sports and how to treat the injuries they cause, Mei-Dan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t know the mechanism of injury from biking 100 miles a day, or how you are supposed to open a parachute,\u201d he said. \u201cDoctors need to research more, and sometimes they have to ask (questions such as show me how you open a parachute), or there\u2019s a chance they will not be able to treat their patient well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are names for more common sports-related injuries, such as tennis elbow, and even snowboarder\u2019s ankle is in the more common vernacular in Colorado. But kayakers typically get a specific kind of shoulder injury, mostly a dislocation. This is why Mei-Dan appreciates his own experience in kayaking and other sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every sport has its own injuries,\u201d he said. \u201cDoctors who aren\u2019t familiar with that sport may just see it as an injury instead of a specific way to treat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trauma is trauma, but many, if not most, injuries are the more boring types, such as overuse. Overuse, of course, is relative, which is why Jenna Walton Noel, a physical therapist at the UCHealth Steadman Hawkins Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Clinic, has seen more patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have taken up running a lot more, even if they\u2019ve never done it, and they did that without the knowledge that a more experienced runner would have,\u201d Noel said. \u201cSo we are seeing a lot of running overuse, or biking falls, especially mountain bikes. There\u2019s all these new sports that they haven\u2019t done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

In speaking with other colleagues, she sees a lot more overuse such as tendinitis than they see in other, less-active parts of the country where more people experience lower back pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Colorado, too, there are a lot of people who are expert recreational users,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe they aren\u2019t competing or super elite, but they are in, say, the backcountry every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also sees the same unwillingness among recreational Coloradans to listen to their bodies and back off when needed that she sees in more elite athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have an acute injury, there\u2019s a protective phase, and a lot of that means active rest,\u201d Noel said. \u201cBut for someone who is used to pushing their body to the limit, that can be a tough thing to educate them on. Rest is active healing. It\u2019s much easier to convince Joe Schmo, who sits on the couch, that it\u2019s OK to sit on the couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel values her own experience practicing the sports she treats, although she admits she\u2019s not a great rock climber. She serves on the medical staff for U.S. Figure Skating and was a figure skater herself. Mei-Dan, she said with a laugh, was her surgeon for one of her hip injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it makes it relatable for me,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving the same experience in a sport makes it easy for me to be someone else\u2019s cheerleader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said she doesn\u2019t see the same pessimistic attitude about injuries from physical therapists, and Noel agreed with that to a degree. Physicians, she said, need to fix an injury structurally.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I need to treat the person,\u201d she said. \u201cI need to know their past experiences, their emotions and what they want to do in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treatments for the rest of us<\/div>\n

The research doctors brought to the conference in early May had a lot to do with treating extreme athletes, but as it turns out, much of that medicine is applicable to the rest of us as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things we have learned working with elite athletes,\u201d said Dr. I\u00f1igo San-Mill\u00e1n, an associate research professor in physiology and nutrition at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. \u201cFeatures on our cars nowadays came from the best cars in the world, the Formula One cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

San-Mill\u00e5n researches ways to improve metabolism and also works in oncology. Seeing how elite athletes work with superior metabolic function taught him how to treat dysfunctional metabolic systems, a problem with a decent chunk of the U.S. population, one reason why so much of the population is prediabetic or has Type 2 diabetes. He is the personal physiologist of Tadej Poga\u010dar, the Slovenian cyclist who won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021. San-Mill\u00e5n was also a pro cyclist himself for two years.<\/p>\n

San-Mill\u00e5n brings up Kilian Jornet, a runner and mountain climber who climbed Mount Everest in 17 hours and once broke course records for the Hardrock 100 by a couple hours (winning it four times). Jornet loves to study physiology and how to make it work for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, they won the genetic lottery at birth,\u201d San-Mill\u00e5n said, \u201cbut you have to develop your body as well, with training and nutrition and recovery. You have to put everything together. That\u2019s how we can learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors, led by Mei-Dan, have learned how to treat athletes in all stages of their life and in all abilities by learning about elite mindsets. Many of us try to do that, too, by asking them why they do all those crazy things in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there is mental health, too, right?\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s all tied together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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