You may be doing your body good by taking that morning run or working up a sweat at the gym. But when you also work up a thirst and take a swig from your trusty refillable water bottle you may actually taking a swig of harmful germs.
New research shows that an incredible amount of bacteria — including E. Coli and salmonella — may be lurking in and on your water bottle.
Laboratory tests by Treadmill Reviews, a Minneapolis-based firm, analyzed 12 water bottles used by athletes and not washed for a week and found they had such high levels of bacteria that drinking from them would be like “licking a toilet seat.”
They tested four types of reusable bottles: A slide-top, screw-top, squeeze-top and straw-top. The researchers evaluated the amount of contamination in terms of “colony forming units,” or CFUs, of bacteria per square centimeter. Here are their findings:
The bottles contained an average of 300,000 CFU of bacteria. That’s six times as much bacteria as you’d find on your pet’s food bowl. And much of the bacteria was the kind that makes you sick.
The slide-top bottles contained the highest amount of bacteria: A whopping 933,340 CFU. They also had the most gram-positive germs which have been linked to skin infections, pneumonia and blood poisoning.
Squeeze-top bottles were next with 162,000 CFU followed by screw-top vessels with 160,000 CFU. These also housed 99 percent of the harmful bacteria.
Straw-top bottles were the clear winners with only 25 CFU. But that’s only 2 CFU less than the average home toilet seat. It is thought that these are safer because water drips down to the bottom of the straw rather than hang out at the top attracting moisture-loving germs.
“Based on our test results, we suggest opting for a straw-top bottle, both for the prevalence of bacteria and the lack of harmful germs,” says the fitness Website. They suggested that stainless steel water bottles are a better choice than plastic which may also contain Bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA, a chemical that can lead to cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses.
But by far the best option, says the website Aquasana.com, is to use glass water bottles and run them through the dishwasher or wash thoroughly by hand after every use.
By comparison, other household germy hot spots include:
Toothbrush holder, 331,848 CFU.
Pet bowl, 47,383 CFU.
Kitchen sink, 3,191 CFI.
Cutting board, 6.8 CFU.
“Harmful bacteria and viruses lurk in moist locations such as the kitchen and bathroom and can be easily transported into your mouth by using an old toothbrush, sponge or other common household item,” Dr. Donald Marks tells Newsmax Health.
The New Jersey-based infectious disease expert, who also holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, makes the following recommendations to avoid home contamination:
Sponges and wash clothes. You may think you are cleaning cups and saucers with these items but they can contain thousands of bacteria per square inch so you’re just spreading germs around. Put wash clothes in the washing machine and run the sponges through the dishwasher. Better still, replace sponges every two weeks,
Kitchen drain. Your kitchen drain contains more germs than your bathroom toilet. With the hot water running, pour a little baking soda down the drain daily.
Kitchen towels. A recent study showed that 7 percent of kitchen towels were contaminated with MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Wash them in hot water twice weekly.
Refrigerator water filters. These filters collect bacteria and mold over time. The rule of thumb is to change them twice annually. If you have a large family of water drinkers, every three months is a better time frame.
Toothbrush. Your toothbrush is a magnet for bacteria that can come from toilet spray, splashes from the sink when you wash your hands, or from your own mouth. Replace it every three or four months and never share a toothbrush. You may consider soaking it in an antibacterial solution after every use.
Jessica Boyce has signed a national letter of intent to attend school and join the UTEP rifle team starting for the 2017-18 season, head coach Hannah Muegge announced Thursday.
“Moving our sights to next season, I strongly feel Jessica will be a great asset for us as we look to continue to improve upon our team goals and strengthen our team culture,” Muegge said. “Jessica has set some great goals as she aims forward to the collegiate level and the team is very excited to welcome her aboard.”
Boyce is on track to graduate from Maple Mountain High School (Spanish Fork, Utah) and intends to major in psychology.
Below is a brief bio on Boyce:
Boyce developed her love for competitive shooting by participating in the Utah High School Rodeo 3P sporter event in 2013, qualified for and took part in the 2014 High School National Finals.
2014-15 Utah High School Rodeo Rifle State Champion; began competing in precision rifle with the Springville Jr. Rifle Club in the fall of 2013. Also is a member of the Utah Precision Marksmanship Society and holds the range record in air rifle at the University of Utah.
Boyce competed in many NRA postal and sectional matches, receiving both local and national recognition, qualified for the Junior Olympics in 2015 (air rifle), 2016 (air rifle and smallbore) and 2017 (smallbore)
She helped her team take second place at the 2015 Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Western Regional Matches … also took place in the event in 2016 and 2017; posted the seventh-best individual score to advance to the finals in 2017. That effort earned her an individual invitation to compete in the CMP 3P Nationals.
Boyce has spent the past four years has teaching hunter education classes and mentoring younger shooters at her club. Boyce loves to read, be in the outdoors and travel with her family, and has a great love for animals.
She intends to major in psychology at UTEP. Boyce is the daughter of Steven and Krista Boyce and the big sister to Katie, her shooting partner.
A much-improved UTEP women’s golf team will look to surprise the field at next week’s Conference USA Championship, which tees off on Monday in Fort Myers, Fla.
“Because of the season we’ve had, we’ve got to win to continue on to regionals,” coach Jere Pelletier said on Thursday. “There are quite a few teams this year that are ahead of us. I think we are ranked sixth or seventh. But we have surprised them before, and I think the mindset is we don’t have anything to lose. We’ve just got to get out there and play and hopefully we can surprise them again.”
Six years ago, the Miners entered the C-USA Championship rated seventh among league teams but captured their first league title, overthrowing no. 13 Tulane and no. 42 Tulsa in the process.
UTEP has put together a strong season that included one tournament title and three runner-up finishes in the fall. The Miners appear to have regained their stride in the last two spring tournaments, tying for third place at the Little Rock/Arkansas State Invitational and tying for sixth at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic.
The Miners have strength at the top of their lineup in sophomore Lily Downs (75.2 scoring average), senior Alisa Rodriguez (75.4) and junior June Ting (75.7). Downs and Ting have both claimed tournament titles this season. All three have picked up six top-20 finishes in 2016-17.
“You’re hoping everybody is peaking at the same time and playing their best,” Pelletier said. “We seem to be playing pretty good right now. Alisa, Lily and June have been steady all year. The key for us in the conference is going to be to get one of the other two players to play well. My senior Sofia [Castiello] is starting to play good, and my freshman Abbie (Anghelescu) has shown some real signs of improvement this spring and I think she’s going to play well.”
A total of 11 teams will participate in the championship at the par-72, 6,194-yard Verandah Golf Club. Eighteen holes will be played each day, Monday through Wednesday. Old Dominion enters as the favorite with a no. 63 ranking by GolfStat. UTEP is rated no. 126. Live stats will be available at www.golfstat.com.
The tournament was also in Fort Myers a year ago.
“Alisa and Sofia played [the course] well last year,” Pelletier said. “Lily played pretty well. And right now Lily seems to be playing the best of all three of them. I think it’s going to be a dogfight to see which one comes in first.”
The UTEP track and field team return to action as they head to the Golden State for the Mt. SAC Relays (May 13-14) and the Jim Bush Collegiate Invitational (May 15).
It will be the first action for the Miners since competing in the Texas Relays two weeks ago.
Mt. SAC
Heading to Torrance, Calif. will see the 5 distance runners for the Miners on Friday. Daniel Cheruiyot in the 3,000m steeplechase set for a 4:30 p.m. PT start. Cheruiyot earned a fifth-place finish at the Texas Relays on March 29.
Three Miners will compete in the 10,000m run, Winny Koech and Gladys Jerotich will set to run at 6:00 p.m., followed by Antony Kosgei in the men’s open at 6:40 p.m. Cosmas Boit will compete in the 5,000m run set for 7:40 p.m.
UCLA Invitational
The second destination will see the Miners compete at the UCLA Drake Stadium on Saturday. Starting the day at 8:30 a.m., will be Abedola Akomolafe, Fayon Gonzales and Cierra Chenault in the hammer throw. Lucia Mokrasova and Tyler Ragin will compete in the long jump set for 10:00 a.m. Israel Ramsay returns to the high jump after placing second at the C-USA indoor championships.
Sophomore sensation, Tobi Amusan will race in the 100m dash set for 3:20 p.m. Amusan holds the nation’s fastest time in the 100m hurdles with a time of 12.63. Lilian Koech will run in the 800m, after posting the third-fastest time (2:08.51) in the C-USA this season registered at the Texas Relays. Competing in the 400m dash will be Ada Benjamin, Florence Uwakwe, Imani Adams and Madison Gibson.
On the men’s side, Emmanuel Korir makes his return to the track after winning the 800m NCAA Championship on March 10. The freshman has made an immediate impact on the track setting an indoor school record in the 800m (1:46.75). Korir also recorded a world best 1:14.97 during the indoor season in the 600m. The distance runner will compete in the 800m at 3:45 p.m., along with sophomore Jonah Koech.
Competing in the 1,500m run will be Michael Saruni and Evans Kiprono. Saruni had an outstanding performance at the Texas Relays where he set the second-fastest outdoor school time in the 800 (1:45.82). The mid-distance runner competed against the 2012 Olympic silver medialist (Leonel Manzano) and the collegiate record holder (Donivan Brazier) in Austin. Saruni and Kiprono will be set to run at 5:05 p.m.
�ACL injuries have become a youth sports epidemic and are the No. 1 sports injury we operate on at our outpatient surgical center,� says Jennifer Beck, MD, associate director of the Center for Sports Medicine at the Orthopaedic Institute for Children, in a media release.
�The injury is most common in sports that involve sudden changes of direction�such as football and soccer�but fortunately there are some basic things athletes can do to lessen the chance of injury.�
Beck notes in the release that most ACL injuries are not the result of contact with another player but rather occur during sudden twisting motions (such as when the feet are planted one way and the knees are turned another way), or when landing from a jump. Factors that can contribute to ACL injuries include biomechanical issues such as muscle strength and leg alignment, as well as sport technique and preparation.
Young athletes can reduce their risk for ACL injuries by performing training drills that require balance, jumping, power, and agility.
�Drills such as these also help�improve neuromuscular conditioning and muscular reactions and have shown to ultimately decrease the risk of ACL injury,� Beck adds.
Other exercises could include focused stretches, leg raises, leg lifts, prone hip extensions, and sidesteps.
Along with these tips, the OIC Center for Sports Medicine advises parents and coaches to ensure that young athletes don�t skip the warm-ups, drink enough fluids, use proper equipment, and never play through pain.
�We want children to have fun, but it is also important to have a common sense approach to playing and to not ignore injury,� Beck shares. �While rest, ice, and ibuprofen can help reduce basic soreness, if pain persists parents should contact a physician. Failure to address a sports injury properly and promptly can lead to lifelong problems.�
[Source(s): Orthopaedic Institute for Children, Business Wire]
The majority of clients that present to the clinic with anterior knee pain over the coming year will more often than not have a patellofemoral (PF) problem.
It may be a slight bit of biomechanical mal-alignment that has stirred up the knee cap – this is the good, or they may have started to wear the cartilage behind the knee cap and as a result it has softened – chondromalacia � this is the bad. They may even have worn a hole into the knee cap cartilage and they now have a chondral defect, or worse still an osteochondral defect – the downright ugly.
These problems affect runners, cross fitters, group exercise enthusiasts (PUMP classes) and simple recreational walkers who spend a lot of time on hills and stairs.
How These Extremes Are Managed Will Differ
The biomechanical irritations and the chondromalacia versions can be managed conservatively with a combination of local treatment modalities and correcting the biomechanical faults. The more serious chondral/osteochondral defects often need some surgical intervention as often the pathology is too advanced to respond to conservative treatment alone.
Understanding the exact mechanical contributions of the knee cap in relation to the femur is critical for the therapist to effectively manage these problems.
At the local PF level, the fault is usually a malposition of the patella in the femoral trochlear groove. Often the knee cap is being pulled too far laterally and superiorly in the groove, creating an uneven contact situation between the knee cap and the femur. The PF compression force during loaded knee flexion (squats, lunges etc.) is no longer optimal and usually a smaller portion of the patella cartilage is taking all the load. This wears the cartilage down and creates pain and pathology. This is most noticeable as the knee flexes to 30 degrees and onwards as it is this knee flexion angle where the knee cap enters the femoral trochlear groove.
The more distant (but often dominant) faults lie at the hip/pelvis and at the feet. Below is a breakdown of common biomechanical faults that may contribute to PF pain syndromes.
1. Overpronation
If the foot pronates (rolls in) for too long or too much, the pronated midfoot forces the tibia to remain internally rotated. The femur follows the tibia and also internally rotates. This creates a mal-alignment at the knee whereby the PF arrangement is altered and the knee cap shifts laterally. We are all familiar with the Q angle of the knee and how this affects the PF alignment.
Common causes of overpronation may be structural flatfoot problems that can be corrected with orthotics and shoe selection. However, tight soleus (that limits dorsiflexion) or a tight and overactive peroneal system that everts the foot and flattens the foot can also be a cause.
Stretching and loosening the soleus and peroneals along with strengthening the anti-pronation muscles such as tibialis posterior, flexor hallucis longus and flexor digitorum longus may help fix this problem.
FADDIR represents a flexed, adducted and internally rotated hip joint at foot strike. This is often caused by tight and overactive hip flexors such as TFL and the adductors and weakness in the abductors (gluteus medius) and external hip rotators (gemellus, obturator muscles). This hip posture forces the femur to roll inwards and as a result the knee is deviated medially and away from the vertical line drawn up from the foot. This also increases the Q angle and PF misalignment results and perpetuates the local knee imbalance of tight and overactive lateral quadriceps and lateral hamstrings along with ITB tightness. As a result the VMO weakens.
Loosening the overactive TFL, adductors, lateral quad, ITB and lateral hamstring whilst strengthening the gluteus medius, hip external rotators and VMO may help this biomechanical mal-alignment.
3. Pelvic Trendelenburg
Defined as lateral pelvic shift whereby at stance phase the opposite side of the pelvis drops down below the height of the pelvis on the stance side. This is usually caused by a weak gluteus medius complex that is unable to hold the pelvis stable during stance phase. The implications again are that this causes the knee to roll in and increase the Q angle. The solution is to muscle up the gluteus medius.
This often forgotten about imbalance creates a situation whereby the individual finds it difficult to attain hip extension at the end of stance phase. The hip remains locked in a degree of flexion.
The knock on effect is that the knee also stays locked in some flexion. With the knee in flexion, the knee cap is now compressed against the femur, compression on the underside of the kneecap may result. To fix this the therapist needs to stretch/loosen the hip flexors and strengthen the gluteus maximus to promote more hip extension.
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