Triathlete´s Nutrition and Overtraining

I have a patient that helps to understand the subject of nutrition and overtraining.  I asked for permission to speak about her in this blog.

Due to cancer, she got removed her entire intestine, except 60 cm. of jejune.   She is being living in that condition for more than two years already.  In order to keep her caloric and nutritional requirements she needs to eat at least every two hours, and drinks water more often.  She has needed twice Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), because she is unable to keep up with nutrients when living a “normal life.”

http://www.experiencefestival.com/wp/videos/ucvlog-video-glossary-what-is-total-parenteral-nutrition-tpn/haWyRCPLlnU

What we learned from her condition is that when she needed the Total Parenteral Nutrition her mood was low, with a heart rate of 100 per minute, tired and sleepy most of the time. She enters within a cycle where she is unable to repair her body and as a consequence she cannot absorb nutrients.  She does not show a dramatic malnutrition before TPN except for mild anemia, which it is not even related to chronic disease.  From day five to a week after TPN, everything becomes different; her hemoglobin which values are in the 12-13 increases to 14, and she feels “recharged.”  Her Ferritin hits the 500. Her electrolytes are within normal limits except for magnesium that could decrease to below 1, even with IV magnesium given at least once a week and oral magnesium daily (below 1 of magnesium presents cramps and once she had a convulsion).  My patient has become the living model of overtraining for us.  I am not advertising TPN for athletes.  The message to take from what I say is that nutrition and recovery place a major role in overtraining and secondarily what one does as training.

It is interesting that in the notes confiscated to Dr. Ferrari, he had every third week, depending on training, “vitamins.” “They appeared to be ordinary training logs, with each week's workouts detailed in Ferrari's own hand.  The investigators noticed asterisks on specific days, but there was no key to help them decipher the marks” Interestingly, TPN was not considered doping then; now it is.

http://es.scribd.com/doc/32068763/Paging-Doctor-Ferrari-by-Bill-Gifford

We have seen the case of Lasse Virén. "Viren's astounding achievement led many observers to conclude that Viren had done something illegal to have so dramatically boosted his performance. Long after the events of the 1976 Olympics, it was determined that Viren had likely aided his performance through blood doping, acts that were not then illegal under Olympic rules: blood doping would not be banned until 1986."

http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Ba-Ca/Blood-Doping.html

Please see the previous blog.  DETAILS makes the difference: NUTRITION AND RECOVERY