Transgender Weightlifter

Powerlifting is an interesting sport; requiring focus, drive, and most importantly strength. The combination of these three has the ability to produce a champion. That is exactly what Laurel Hubbard accomplished at the 2017 World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand. Laurel competed in the women's 90kg class (Armen, 2017) and was able to set a new world record with a snatch of 131kg and clean & jerk of 141kg. Her combined total came out to be 280kg, with the second best being 200kg according to the New Zealand Olympic Weightlifting. That is an 80kg difference. To put this into perspective for those of us who live in the United States, that is a 176lb difference between 1st and 2nd place. This is a huge accomplishment to Laurel and the sport of women's powerlifting. The only problem is that Laurel was born a man. 

There is a huge ethical debate on whether Laurel should have been able to compete in the first place. I do not think Luarel should have been given the opportunity to compete in women's weightlifting, due to the fact that she was born a man and has competed in competitive men's weightlifting prior to her transitioning. The main problem being the athletic advantage Laurel possess with being able to produce testosterone. There is a lot of research on how testosterone improves strength and body mass, with one research article stating that having higher levels of testosterone increases leg strength significantly (Storer et al., 2003). Transgender women also recieving estrogen therapy, still maintain elevated testosterone levels; with tho only significant difference being blood pressure in accordance to estrogen therapy(Deutsch et al., 2015). 

This ethical dilemma has been around, but has been becoming more relevant as more individuals go through transitionsing. On the basis of fairness, should transgeneder women/men be allowed to compete in their desired sport? According to NCAA, title 9 does not allow an individual to be excluded on the basis of sex to participating in a sport. Should we re-look at the sporting rules in order to help with this issue? Or should there be regulations in any way, shape, or form within athletics in accordance to individuals being allowed to participate. 

References:

“2017 World Masters Games.” Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand, 12 May 2017, olympicweightlifting.nz/2017-world-masters-games/.

Deutsch, Madeline B, et al. “Effects of Cross-Sex Hormone Treatment on Transgender Women and Men.” Obstetrics and Gynecology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4442681/.

Hammer, Armen. “Transgender Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard Sets Masters World Records.” Fitness, 2017, www.floelite.com/articles/5064690-transgender-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-sets-masters-world-records.

Jjackson. “Title IX Frequently Asked Questions.” NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA, 27 Jan. 2014, www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/title-ix-frequently-asked-questions#title.

Storer, Thomas W., et al. “Testosterone Dose-Dependently Increases Maximal Voluntary Strength and Leg Power, but Does Not Affect Fatigability or Specific Tension.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 Apr. 2003, academic.oup.com/jcem/article/88/4/1478/2845141.

Anti-vaxxers against HPV vaccines

Our Physiology class dealt with the idea of stress and how stress affects various parts of the systems in our bodies. Along with stress, there are other components that can affect the ability of a woman to reproduce and have a healthy baby. When untreated, a woman with a sexually-transmitted disease/infection (STD/STI) has a very low chance in becoming pregnant and having a successful birth. Most STIs are treated with vaccines, but there is a small population that are anti-vaxxers, meaning that they believe vaccines cause more harm than the actual infection itself. I became very curious about this topic and wanted to investigate more. 

The American Sexual Health Association (ASHA) advocates for women to receive frequent vaccines if they have an STD. An untreated STI results in pelvic inflammatory disease PID that contributes to tubal damage and the inability to fertilize an ova. Other consequences that PID causes are the painful and uncomfortable experience during a pregnancy, if there is one, and during the delivery. The well being of the newborn is also affected. 

Allison M. Whelan, in her article, Lowering the Age of Consent: Pushing Back against the Anti-vaccine Movement, describes how it is important for children to take action in their own health, if their parents are anti-vaxxers. The article suggests that children should be able to consent for their own health as early as the age of 12 without the consent of a parent. This age was recommended because it is around the age that these pre-teens are becoming more sexually curious. Legislation has not yet passed this law due to tensions between anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers. 

Connecting all of this together, if a young teen of the age of 12  gets infected with an STI and is left untreated due to her parents being anti-vaxxers, the likelihood of her having a successful pregnancy when she is older, is slim. This a moral conflict because the parents of this girl are consenting to her health. What is the right thing to do here? When is it appropriate for a parent to decide what the child needs? When is appropriate for the child to decide for herself?

References:

http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/sexual-health/reproductive-health/

Whelan, A. M. (2016). Lowering the Age of Consent: Pushing Back against the Anti-Vaccine Movement. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 44(3), 462–473. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1177/1073110516667942

The Music Dilemma

Music is played daily and surrounds human life almost everywhere we go. Music can change our mood and even help with athletic performance. But is listening to music affecting you that much? Some evidence shows that music that is related to faster tempo music will increase your heart rate as well as blood pressure (Bernardi et al., 2005). With an increased heart rate and blood pressure, this will have a better effect on oxygen delivery to the muscle. Another study investigated grip strength and muscle fatigued when a high tempo music (>130 beats/min) was played vs. when the music was ceased. Grip strength had a longer duration with respect to time when the high tempo music was played. The fatigue factor was prolonged due to the individuals' mind being distracted but this was only beneficial during periods of low-intensity workouts (Harmon & Kravitz, 2007). With this being said, emotion and music are closely related as you can see within previous research.

With all this being said, an article written in the New York times expressed how the USA track and field committee banned the use of headphones and personal music players as a way of safety and the potentiality of a performance enhancer. I understand why the performance enhancement is taken into consideration, but safety should be taken into concern in a larger context. On average, there are around 3287 car crashes daily; with 25% of crashes being related to distractions (Macur, 2007). Driving durations have also been increasing as well (Dalton, 2007). Is it reasonable to say that banding music within a long-distance race in for the safety aspect should be moved over to our driving laws? With races happening every so often, safety is a concern with racers not hearing their surroundings. Driving happens every day. Emotional driving plays a big factor as well with research showing anger induction due to high tempo music (Zwaag, 2011). Should there be a band or limitation on the type of music or even volume in which music is listened to decrease unnecessary deaths due to distractions?

References:

Bernardi, Luciano. “Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, and Respiratory Changes Induced by Different Types of Music in Musicians and Non-Musicians: the Importance of Silence.” Heart, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 1 Apr. 2005, heart.bmj.com/content/92/4/445.

Dalton, Brian H, and David G Behm. “ Effects of Noise and Music on Human and Task Performance: A Systematic Review.” Occupational Ergonomics, 2007, cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/6/8971/files/2014/12/Dalton-Behm-2007-t7dnhm.pdf.

Harmon, Nicole M, and Len Kravitz. “The Effects of Music on Excursive .” Effects of Music 2007, 2007, www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/musictwo.html.

Macur, Juliet. “A Marathon without Music? Runners with Headphones Balk at Policy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/sports/01iht-run.1.8142612.html.Teendriveadmin. “100 

Distracted Driving Facts & Statistics for 2018.” TeenSafe, 26 Dec. 2018, teensafe.com/100-distracted-driving-facts-statistics-for-2018/.

Zwaag, Marjolein D. van der, et al. “Ranking vs. Preference: A Comparative Study of Self-Reporting.” SpringerLink, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 9 Oct. 2011, link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-24600-5_47.

Thyroid cancer risks after radiation exposure

Radiation is the emission of energy through electromagnetic waves. We get some amount of radiation every time we’re in the sun, and to an extent it’s good for us and helps us out. Radiation is also used in radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer. What happens in radiation therapy is that at high doses, radiation therapy can actually kill cancer cells or slow their growth by damaging their DNA. Radiation therapy is helpful in dealing with cancer cells, but what happens when you don’t have any cancer cells and are exposed to high levels of radiation? It does the same thing but to your normal cells. Ionizing radiation, the radiation that is emitted from nuclear reactors, has mainly one big impact on the human body, which is to weaken and break up DNA enough to cause cell death or mutation that could potentially lead to cancer. This is the type of radiation that is released when nuclear power plant accidents happen like Chernobyl, and Fukushima. So what are the potential effects to the human body, specifically in the long run? An article I found talks about how there could be a risk of thyroid cancer after being exposed to radiation. It compared the risk after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and the Chernobyl accident. External exposure to radiation can induce cancer, but so can internal exposure to radioactive iodine which can increase the risk of thyroid cancer. Using Chernobyl as a lesson, countermeasures were put in place to reduce the radioactive ion uptake when Fukushima happened. Following Chernobyl, there was a positive relationship that was found between childhood thyroid cancer occurrence and thyroidal iodine-131internal dose, but the dose response relationship was not easily determined. The actual external exposure in Fukushima was low though because of the shielding effects of the building that people stayed in, so it was difficult to understand the health impairments caused by radiation. Since they were unsure of how much exposure people got in relation to how close they were, they decided to perform ultrasounds of all the children’s thyroid glands. They found that there are very few health effects that were expected but did ultrasounds on 370,000 people 18 years and younger and found suspicious results after the second examination. They have been able to detect it better after Fukushima thought. Overall, there is a risk of getting thyroid cancer, but the risks were greater after Chernobyl than after Fukushima since they got better at detecting it and were better prepared for what to do when Fukushima happened.   

Reference:

Yamashita, S., Takamura, N., Ohtsuru, A., & Suzuki, S. (2016). Radiation exposure and thyroid cancer risk after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in comparison with the chernobyl accident. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 171(1), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncw189