What Is Sports Medicine?
- Sports Medicine is a sub-specialty focusing on disease prevention, diagnosis and improving physical functioning through rehabilitation.
- While Sports Medicine physicians do treat athletes in helping them achieve peak physical performance, majority of patients treated are not athletes, but people desiring improved physical performance.
- In this sense, the practice of Sports Medicine could be called “Activity Medicine” or “Physical Medicine” or “Rehabilitation Medicine”.
- Many of the patients treated by Sports Medicine physicians are car accident, slip-and-fall and concussion patients.
- Like athletes who seek peak performance, these patients look for improved performance and quality of life.
Sports Medicine Training
- The majority of Sports Medicine physicians train in general practice before doing further training in Sports Medicine (some train in, physical medicine & rehabilitation, orthopaedic surgery, neurology, emergence medicine or internal medicine).
- Concussion is one of the most common conditions treated by Sports Medicine physicians.
- Sports Medicine physicians are well positioned to treat the consequences of post-concussion syndrome, drawing on a strong foundation in general practice, and further training in sports medicine.
- Many of the most commonly reported complaints made by patients to their primary care providers are conditions that are very common in post-concussion syndrome:
- Headache
- Neck pain, back pain and musculoskeletal pain
- Fatigue
- Insomnia and sleep-wake disturbances
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Dizziness
- Visual problems
- Concentration and attention problems
- Hormonal dysfunction
- Nutrition
- Weight loss
- Cardiovascular issues
- Autonomic dysfunction
- Moreover, they have a broad understanding in managing these conditions in the context of patients’ other health conditions, medication regimens, and in the biopsychosocial model of illness/injury.
Further Training in Post-concussion Syndrome Management
- Improving physical performance through rehabilitation and training is dependent on many aspects of one’s health:
- Musculoskeletal
- Neurological
- Psychological
- Lifestyle & habits
- g., diet, exercise, sleep, hydration, etc.
- Cognition
- Disease management and interventions
- g., headache pain relief, joint pain relief, injections for pain relief, etc.
Physicians specializing in post-concussion syndrome management get even further training in:
- Vestibular assessment and treatment
- Headache medicine
- Biomechanical assessment and rehabilitation
- Performance coaching
- Applied Neuroscience and psychology
- Psychotherapy
- Cognitive assessments and training
- Binocular vision assessment and treatment
- Other specialized behavioural interventions (e.g., Biofeedback-based interventions, etc.)
- Fatigue and sleep assessment and rehabilitation
- Functional medicine
The Toronto Medical Clinic is quarterbacked by Dr. Taher Chugh, a sports physician, who has all of the above specialized training and experience in concussion management.
