Exercise science/nutrition?

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grahambranchno9

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Hello all,

I'm a junior at a top 20 school pursuing a BBA while completing the pre-med prerequisites with hopes of attending medical school. Medical school seems like a great fit for me: I'm bright, driven, interested in the human body, and deeply committed to positively impacting the world. Here's the thing...I'm also very interested in sports training, bodybuilding, nutrition, supplementation, etc. Especially appealing to me are the areas of nutrition and supplementation as a means to improved performance, health, and longevity. Recently I've become more focused on the science behind these areas. I've also played soccer all of my life up to the college and semi-professional levels.

How can I best combine these two? What sort of physician would deal with these areas? Or would I have to scrap medicine and pursue a PhD in exercise physiology/nutrition?

Thanks

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Couldn't you go into sports medicine? I think it is like a subspecialty of orthapedics, but I'm not sure. I actually don't know hardly anything about it, but you might look into it. I don't think that PhD is a bad idea either though. You might even look into Physical Therapy/Athletic Training.
 
Couldn't you go into sports medicine? I think it is like a subspecialty of orthapedics, but I'm not sure. I actually don't know hardly anything about it, but you might look into it. I don't think that PhD is a bad idea either though. You might even look into Physical Therapy/Athletic Training.

Totally agree. OP certainly thinks highly of himself hmmmmmmm? :laugh:
 
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While I think that would be very rewarding, my interests in the area of nutrition and training lay solely in ehancing performance, rather than rehabilitation. Conversely, I'm also very interested in surgery and emergency medicine.

Thanks
 
Ladies and Gentlemen:

We may very well have the next physician promoter of Hydroxycut in our midst! :p
 
You sound just like me. I'm very into physical fitness (I do personal training, into sports nutrition, supplementation etc. etc.). I am currently leaning towards ortho and hopefully sports medicine eventually. Something in rehab also excites me as well. Good luck, glad to see others like me exist!
 
Sports Medicine is a subspecialty of orthopedics as far as I've seen. Physiatry of physical medicine might also give you chances to work with injured athletes and such. Another setting would be family medicine of course. You could work with athletes and coach normal people on nutrition and fitness. This is something we desparately need...more primary care physicians need to focus on drastically changing some of their patients lifestyles. My pops had a cookie-cutter diet and fitness plan from his doc that did little to nothing combined with statins for his LDL levels. He finally did his own research and found some real information about nutrition and exercise and now he doesn't need his pills. We need docs who are willing to do research outside the USDA website when it comes to patient nutrition. A guy with your fitness background and interests might be able to fill this need.

There are probably more settings you could work in, but if you really do want to be a doctor you might not find people are willing to pay you your salary to help them prepare for a bodybuilding contest or increas their vertical leap before the next bball season. In this case athletic training, physical therapy, or perhaps the PhD route would work better. I have heard of DOs being used by olympic athletes for their knowledge in OMM as well. I'm not sure about all that manipulation business, but that is another thing to keep in mind. Just don't go to chiropractic college ;)
 
Last week I responded to a similar question:

You might also take a look at who is publishing in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and then google to find out more about them (many universities and research facilities have online biographies for their investigators). See http://ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=3465 for an example. Note that many people publishing research on nutrition for athletes are not physicians but are basic scientists (who sometimes conduct studies with human subjects).

Registered dietitians are usually employed as consultants to professional sports teams with regard to the training table and individual nutrition counseling of athletes. The advice given is generally based on research done by PhD scientists in physiology.

One is doing nutrition research, the other utilizes the scientific findings combined with knowledge of health communications and modivation techniques to change/modify athletes dietary habits to improve function.

Physicians, it seems to me, don't play a large role in athlete education or in athletic performance research as it relates to nutrition. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I'd be happy to see it.
 
A year ago I was also faced with the same predicament. I didn't know which to choose so I am doing a one year masters program in human nutrition at Columbia. I am very happy that I chose to do this program because it is specifically for those interested in medical school and you learn about all kinds of cool stuff. You should seriously consider looking into this program.
 
Last week I responded to a similar question:

You might also take a look at who is publishing in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and then google to find out more about them (many universities and research facilities have online biographies for their investigators). See http://ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=3465 for an example. Note that many people publishing research on nutrition for athletes are not physicians but are basic scientists (who sometimes conduct studies with human subjects).

Registered dietitians are usually employed as consultants to professional sports teams with regard to the training table and individual nutrition counseling of athletes. The advice given is generally based on research done by PhD scientists in physiology.

One is doing nutrition research, the other utilizes the scientific findings combined with knowledge of health communications and modivation techniques to change/modify athletes dietary habits to improve function.

Physicians, it seems to me, don't play a large role in athlete education or in athletic performance research as it relates to nutrition. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I'd be happy to see it.


This is so true - which I feel needs to change. I've been looking into the sports nutrition field for a couple months now after Listening to Dr. Antonio on the TPSN Sports Nutrition show. Great stuff and I would recommend anyone interested in the field to listen to his show. I actually contacted Dr. Antonio about physicians in the fied and here was his repsonse:

Glad you enjoy The Performance Nutrition Show ! Carla and I have fun with it...trying to lighten up the world of science:)
As far as your question, there are few 'formal' ways to learn sports nutrition (there are maybe 3 PhD programs in the country); also, there isn't a clinical practice in medicine (in sports nutrition). I can count on one hand the number of M.D.s who are well versed in this field. So if you decide to pursue it (as an adjunct to medicine), you'll be very marketable.

Your best bet to learn sports nutrition is to attend our conference (www.theissn.org); see the newsletter below. And to keep up with the existing and new scientific literature. (Turn into a Pubmed fanatic).
 
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