Understanding Sports-Related Health Issues

Dear Colleagues,

Sports and physical activities are vital components of a healthy lifestyle, but they are also associated with a range of health issues that athletes, coaches, and medical professionals need to be aware of. Understanding these issues requires interdisciplinary perspectives that draw from fields such as sports medicine, physiology, psychology, nutrition, and biomechanics.

Understanding these issues requires an interdisciplinary approach. For instance, sports medicine can help in the diagnosis and treatment of sports-related injuries, while physiology and biomechanics can help in understanding how the body functions during physical activity and how proper body mechanics and equipment design can reduce the risk of injury. Psychology can help in exploring the psychological challenges that athletes may face, such as competition stress, injury, and retirement. Nutrition can help in optimizing dietary intake for optimal performance and injury prevention.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest research on sports-related health issues. It intends to consolidate knowledge from different fields to enhance our understanding of sports-related health issues and promote interdisciplinary collaboration in research and practice. Additionally, this Special Issue will discuss practical applications for improving athletes' health and well-being. These applications may include strategies for injury prevention, optimizing performance, and promoting ethical practice.

Overall, sports-related health issues are a reality that cannot be ignored. However, by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, researchers and practitioners can develop a comprehensive understanding of these issues and develop effective strategies to address them. This Special Issue aims to contribute to this understanding and promote the health and well-being of athletes, which is of paramount importance.

Possible Topics:

• The impact of sports on mental health: exploring the psychological challenges of competition, injury, and retirement;
• Nutrition and sports performance: optimizing dietary intake for optimal performance and injury prevention;
• Biomechanics and injury prevention: understanding how proper body mechanics and equipment design can reduce the risk of injury;
• Sports-related concussions: diagnosis, treatment, and long-term consequences;
• Heat illness and hydration: understanding the risk factors and prevention strategies for heat stroke and dehydration;
• Overtraining syndrome: the causes, symptoms, and management of this common issue among athletes;
• Exercise-induced asthma: managing respiratory issues in athletes;
• Sleep and sports performance: the impact of sleep on physical and cognitive performance in athletes;
• Environmental factors and sports performance: how altitude, humidity, and temperature affect athletic performance;
• Ethics in sports medicine: exploring the ethical dilemmas that arise in sports-related health issues, such as performance-enhancing drugs and athlete autonomy;
• Concussion in sports: prevention, diagnosis, and treatment;
• The role of nutrition in sports performance and injury prevention;
• Overtraining syndrome: symptoms, prevention, and treatment;
• Mental health in sports: challenges and strategies for athletes and coaches;
• Sudden cardiac death in athletes: risk factors, prevention, and management;
• The impact of sports on bone health and osteoporosis prevention;
• Heat illness in sports: prevention and management strategies;
• Strategies for preventing and managing common sports injuries (e.g., ACL tears and ankle sprains);
• Female athlete triad syndrome: understanding the interplay of nutrition, menstrual function, and bone health;
• The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports: risks, consequences, and ethical considerations;
• Endurance-related health issues (e.g., acute kidney injury and skin injuries).

This Special Issue will provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to share their knowledge and expertise on the complex and multi-faceted aspects of sports-related health issues. By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives and practical applications, we hope to enhance our understanding of the impact of sports on health and well-being, and promote strategies for injury prevention, optimal performance, and ethical practice.

Dr. Daniel Rojas-Valverde
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.