More Than Bone Deep

Pelex recently launched Pelex Sports, a practice dedicated to female athletes. Female athletes are at an increased risk for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports also known as (RED-S). This is when the body is not making enough energy to meet the demands placed on it by the amount of exercise or sport being performed.

This commonly overlooked and underdiagnosed condition has caused several female athletes suffer from adverse health complications such as recurrent stress fractures and injury, amenorrhea, metabolic health complications, cardiovascular issues, and osteoporosis.

Pelex teamed up with Body Dynamics this past week to discuss the importance of diagnosing and identifying RED-S in female athletes early to avoid injury and optimize performance.

Below you can check out a re-cap of our discussion!

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At Pelex Sports, we are reinventing sports medicine for female athletes

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Dr. Wolff’s Takeaways

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1) RED-s is overlooked and hard to diagnose: RED-S manifests as several different physical and psychological symptoms. RED-S can manifest as recurring injuries that take forever to heal, colds or coughs that take a while to go away, slow digestion, and feeling tired.

2) Nutrition: Disordered eating does not mean “eating disorder” and can include things like not eating enough, picky eating or skipping meals.

3) Exercise-induced Amenorrhea: RED-s can lead to a dysregulation of key reproductive hormones. These reproductive hormones can signal your period to “shut down” to conserve energy. These reproductive hormones play a vital role in bone density, fertility, and mood disorders.

4) Birth Control: An Imposter. OCP’s and other forms of birth control are a combination of synthetic reproductive hormones that can trigger a period, but biological hormones will remain low and go unaccounted for.

5) At Pelex Sports we provide comprehensive and diagnostic screening for RED-S and work with a team of experts to provide a multidisciplinary approach.