Why this homepage?
The first contributions to this website were made in 2011. At that time, the scientific data on the effects of sport on health was already overwhelming, but had not yet reached the medical profession or those affected.
In recent years, however, a large number of well-researched articles on the benefits of exercise and sport have appeared in many renowned magazines and books, including reports for and by the US Department of Health and Human Services. So everything has actually been said – but unfortunately most people still haven’t got the message.
Even if only a few people are addressed and motivated by this site, my efforts have been worthwhile!
What could make it interesting
if an endocrinologist contributes to the topic in cooperation?
As an endocrinologist, you deal with hormones. Diseases occur when a hormone-producing, endocrine gland fails or only works to a limited extent – in the case of hypofunction – or when a hormone-producing organ produces too many hormones – in the case of hyperfunction. Serious to life-threatening clinical pictures can develop if, for example, the adrenal glands or the thyroid gland produce too little or too much hormone. It is clear to us that the right amount of hormones is what counts! As with medication, it’s the dose that counts. However, this also applies to exercise and sport! You should never lose sight of this aspect.
Endocrinologists have been aware of the links between exercise, obesity and, for example, type II diabetes mellitus for decades. Successful lifestyle changes have made obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes “disappear” in many of our patients. Sport and diabetes
However, we were repeatedly disappointed in practice when patients were unable to implement the recommendation to do more exercise and sport. Reports ranged from the frequent lack of advice in the gym(see also quality of trainers) to constant overstraining due to the recommended training measures and the resulting complaints. Unfortunately, the motivation triggered by the information about the benefits of sport and exercise had also disappeared.
Many discussions with my daughter, who is a sports scientist, have brought me closer to the training sciences myself. Typically, the most interesting discussions arise when there is an overlap between two fields of knowledge. The detailed chapter on lactate What is the significance of lactate? was also written in this context.
If, on the one hand, we understand what a lack of movement does and, on the other hand, we are able to provide patients with assistance that is adapted to their needs, this mixture could lead to interesting possibilities.
At the same time, I would like to try to open up this homepage to contributions from others. Interesting discussions could arise in many places. (I am currently receiving tutoring on the subject of how to create a blog).
Passing on experience
A further motive for the creation of this website is to pass on experience from more than 40 years as an internist/endocrinologist. Considering that endocrinology is threatened with extinction in Germany, there should be a corresponding need, especially in view of the overlap with sports science.
In the age of evidence-based medicine, experience – including that of experts – is subject to critical scrutiny. Where is the study that proves the expert’s statement?
However, if there are no good studies and data on an issue, then I would rather have an expert opinion than nothing. In addition, in the everyday stress of dealing with patients, there is often a lack of time to confirm correlations that have been repeatedly noticed and documented with a study that is as prospective as possible so that it can be published. The dispute with the ethics committee alone, with its occasionally excessive requirements, prevents many colleagues from preparing data for publication, not to mention the often frustrating and even annoying disputes with the reviewers of scientific journals.
Our study on fat burning during endurance training, which was carried out in collaboration with sports scientists Stefen Lotz and Eva Heinen from my daughter’s studio, my colleague Beyer from the endocrinology practice and Dr. Fabian Stöcker, a member of the sports science faculty at the Technical University of Munich, is an example of the many efforts involved: Many pages to the ethics committee to allow athletes to be subjected to spiroergometry on a bicycle with simultaneous blood sampling. The results of the tests themselves were ready in three weeks, the publication after 3 months. Accepted after about 1/2 year. That was in June 2018, last proofs in January, still not published. Annoying if you think the results are important. I will post the data on this homepage as soon as they are published.
Should we then keep all the data analyzed in practice to ourselves? Or should we look for a way to make this data accessible to others? I have opted for the latter approach and would like to make some of our data accessible in addition to general summarized information
- on body composition
- Back in 1993, my colleague Dr. Beyer and I organized the first workshop on body composition in Nuremberg as part of the 1st Workshop of the Applied Endocrinology Section of the German Society of Endocrinology in Nuremberg. Years earlier, we had already been working intensively on the topic in theory and practice.
- My daughter, Eva Heinen, presented some of the results in her diploma thesis in 2006. The results described there are gathering dust in the university archives and are practically unknown. In my opinion, the aspects relating to the fat-free mass of adipose tissue are extremely important. There was also a standardization of the fat mass index and the definition of a muscle mass index, which enables a size-independent comparison of a person’s muscle mass with the norm.
- for energy utilization during endurance training
- when the publication has finally appeared
- for hyperventilation (planned)
- on the problem of thyroid hormone substitution after mostly unnecessary thyroid operations (planned)