What's new in… Sport and exercise medicine

Sport and exercise medicine is the UK's youngest medical speciality, having been granted speciality status in 2005. For many years sports physicians have provided medical support to elite sportspersons. However, there is now a concerted effort to deliver sports medicine to recreational sportspersons, and to develop the emerging concept of exercise medicine - making health-enhancing physical activity available to the whole nation. People who train seriously and compete in their sport are frequently injured. The most common injuries are to muscle, tendon or bone. In recent years the mechanisms underlying the capacity of musculoskeletal tissues to regenerate from injury have been elucidated. With increased understanding of the pathophysiology of injury, directed therapeutic technologies such as platelet-rich plasma, which utilizes the body's own healing mechanisms, have been developed. It is not just injuries from which people engaging in exercise can suffer. Although the benefits of regular moderate-intensity exercise on morbidity and mortality are uncontestable, people who engage in more intensive exercise can develop difficulties with the respiratory, cardiac and endocrine systems, but these problems can usually be dealt with by a sport and exercise medicine physician. Finally, health-enhancing physical activity by the UK population is being encouraged in order to prevent morbidity from obesity and type 2 diabetes.