NATUREMED CLINIC
INTERNAL MEDICINE
FOR ATHLETES
"Optimizing the health and performance of athletes"
We specialize in treating athletes, going above and beyond typical medical care and using everything modern medicine has to offer to optimize health and athletic performance. We see professional as well as amateur athletes in the Boulder, Denver area and from overseas. All our treatments are legal and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) approved.
Athletes are often under-served in medicine because doctors assume there is nothing wrong with someone "so healthy." Athletes have very different metabolic and nutritional needs as compared to the general population.
Typical problems we are effective in treating:
Gastrointestinal problems: Parasites, food allergies, fructose intolerance, gluten intolerance, and malabsorbtion are common. Hospital labs typically miss parasites becasue they are difficult to detect. Giardia and blastocysytis hominis are very common infections in our althletes population. Swimming in fresh water is a risk factor for intestinal parasites. Poor digestion can lead to discomfort and malnutrition is some cases.
Allergy: When allergies affect performace you need fast solutions. We stay up to date on natural and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) approved prescription medications for affective allergy control.
Fatigue and energy problems: Overtraining syndrome, malnutrition, adrenal burnout, and various nutritional deficiencies are common. Thyroid disorders are also fairly common.
Fractures: Stress fractures often have an underlying cause such as low estrogen, vitamin D deficiency or mineral deficiencies (calcium, magnesium, silica).
Poor recovery: This is usually caused by hormone imbalances, overtraining or nutritional deficiencies. Occasionally low antioxidant levels in the body can increase the prevalence of muscle pain.
Sports anemia: This is defined as suboptimal iron stores affecting red blood cell production and hemoglobin levels. Often it can affect performance. Intravenous iron can correct this very quickly.
Exercise induced asthma: This is a very treatable condition. Intravenous magnesium is very helpful. Magnesium acts as a bronchodilator and makes the airway less reactive. There are other options as well.
Cold and flu prevention: This is serious business because missing an important race or valuable training time is not acceptable to serious athletes. We have effective treatments for this.
Exercise performance enhancement: The best thing for our mile high athletes is supplemental oxygen, intravenous antioxidant and vitamin cocktails, and intravenous iron. Supplemental oxygen allows you to train as if you were at sea level while still getting the benefits of living at altitude. Intravenous iron can also be very helpful if iron stores are low. We stay up to date on the latest science regarding nutritional supplements and will discuss evidence based options.
