Safety is a big concern in mountaineering

Mountaineering is the aggregate activity which combines hiking, mountain climbing, and skiing.  It is done as a hobby, a sport, and even as a profession.  It initially began as solely the attempt to climb uncharted mountains and to reach previously unclimbed mountain peaks.  Throughout the years however, it has branched into smaller categories addressing the different special aspects of mountain climbing.  These categories are skiing, snow-crafting, and rock-crafting. They are categorized depending on whether the activity is done over ice, snow, or rock.  Whichever category it is though, mountaineering is always requires a high level of physical fitness, adequate knowledge about gear and safety, and will power.

The international governing body for mountaineering is the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme or UIAA.  It is responsible for addressing different issues regarding mountaineering such as general safety and protection, medical matters, and new or young mountaineers.

Safety is a big concern in mountaineering because of the many hazards that go with it.  Generally, these hazards are classified into 2 categories: subjective hazards and objective hazards.  Subjective hazards are the dangers that exist due to the presence and activity of the mountaineers.  These include such dangers such as equipment failure, inadequate or incorrect technique, and fatigue or exhaustion.  These dangers are very much in the control of the mountaineer and could be greatly diminished with the proper training and preparation.  Objective hazards on the other hand are the dangers that exist whether or not the mountaineer is present.  These include avalanches, rock fall and landslides, and inclement weather.  Thus, mountaineering routes are usually identified as either objectively safe or objectively dangerous.

To decrease the impact of these hazards, shelters are usually used by mountaineers.  There are many different types of shelter that are available, the most common of which is the base camp.  A base camp is usually situated at the base of the mountain.  It is the main staging area before the actual attempt to climb the mountain.  The same base camp is usually used by all mountaineers for a particular mountain because it is regarded as the safest and best point to start the climb.  A single base camp is usually sufficient for most mountains. For the higher ones though, several other camps may be set-up.  For example, some of the routes that are used to climb Mount Everest has a base camp and up to 4 other camps.

Other shelters that are used by mountaineers are tents, mountain huts, bivouacs, and caves.  Tents are the most common form of shelter that is used. Many designs are available and range from straightforward tarps to heavy models that could withstand some harsh weather conditions.  

Mountain huts are shelters that are professionally built to provide food and refuge for mountaineers.  These are fully equipped structures that usually have a full time staff and a full coverage of necessities such as food and drinks. For this reason, mountain huts are also sometimes called mountain hostels. They are usually run by mountaineering clubs and associations although even non-member mountaineers are allowed access.  Club members usually get perks such as discounts on their purchases.

Bivouacs on the other hand are makeshift resting arrangements which provide only the minimum requirements of shelter.  Thus, a bivouac may simply be an area where a mountaineer can lay down his sleeping bag and sleep.  Bivouacs are best used only in mountains that do not have extreme weather conditions because they do not provide good protection against exposure to the elements.

Ice hockey & it’s objective

Ice hockey is a team sport that is officially played on an ice rink.  It is a very fast paced and very physical kind of sport that requires players to be in top physical condition.  Because of the requirement for ice, the sport of ice hockey is most popular in countries that have prolonged and regular seasons of ice.  Thus, ice hockey is most popular in countries such as Canada and the United States in Northern America.  In Europe, it is very popular in countries such as Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland.

Ice hockey is played on an ice rink called an ice hockey rink.  This rink is rectangular in shape but its corners are rounded.  The entire rink is surrounded by “boards” which measure 1 meter in height.  The length of the rink measures 61 meters while the width measures 30 meters.

During the normal course of the game, each team has 6 players active on the ice.  These 6 players include the goal tender, the center, 2 wingmen (the left and the right), and 2 defense men (also the left and the right).  All players are required to wear ice skates and the proper safety gear such as a helmet, heavily padded gloves, shoulder and elbow pads, and mouth guards.  The goal tender has the option to wear additional safety equipment such as a neck protector, chest and arm guards, and leg pads.

The objective of ice hockey is to score more goals than the other team.  A goal is scored when the puck is shot through the opponent’s goal net.  The puck can be controlled by the players with the use of a hockey stick.  This hockey stick can measure a minimum of 150 centimeters to a maximum of 200 centimeters.  It has 2 parts: the shaft and the blade.  The shaft is slender while the blade is flat.  The curved point at which the blade meets the shaft is called the taper.  The blade is the part of the stick that is used to get into contact with the puck.  It usually measures anywhere from 26 to 38 centimeters in length.

Checking is a defensive element in ice hockey that differentiates it from other sports.  There are many forms of checking, the most common of which is body checking.  A body check is performed when a player uses his body to knock the opposing player into the boards or onto the ice.  Body checking is so common that it is sometimes referred to as simply “checking”.  Other forms of checking are: hip checks, shoulder checks, sweep checks, cross checks, and press checks among others.

Although ice hockey is popular in many countries (there are 68 countries with membership to the International Ice Hockey Federation) international play has been dominated by just 7 countries.  A total of 177 medals have been awarded in the World Championships held by the IIHF.  Of these, 162 have been won by Canada, the United States, Finland, Slovakia, Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.  These 7 countries have also won 58 out of the 64 medals that have been awarded in Men’s Ice Hockey at the Olympics since 1920.  On the women’s side, these countries have won all of the medals awarded at the Olympics and at the IIHF World Championships.

Competition in golf: stroke play and match play

Golf is a precision sport that involves the use of a ball and a club.  It is a game where the competitors (called “golfers”) try to win the game by being able to shoot the ball into the hole using fewer strokes than the other golfers.  Unlike most sports, where one team or one player tries to score more than the other in order to win, golf actually needs the player to score less than his opponents in order to win.  There are two general types of competition in golf: stroke play and match play.  Stroke play counts the total number of strokes used by a golfer.  Thus it is won by the player with the lowest total strokes played in the tournament.  Match play counts the number of holes won by a golfer.  A hole is won by the golfer who used the least number of strokes to get the ball into the hole.  Thus Match play is won by the golfer who wins the most holes in a tournament. 

Another unique quality of golf that differentiates it from other sports is that it does not use a standardized playing area.  Most sports have specific sizes for their courts that need to be followed no matter where the game is played.  Golf however is played on different golf courses which all have unique characteristics of their own.  The only constants are the number of holes per course which are either 9 or 18.

The main equipment used by a golfer in a game is the golf club.  These clubs are made up of a shaft fitted with a grip on one end and a club head on the other.  There are several types of clubs: the woods, the irons, the hybrids, and the putters.  The woods are the longest clubs and have the biggest size heads.  They are usually used for tee shots and for other long distance fairway shots.  These clubs are called woods because they used to be made out of Persimmon wood.  Modern technology has now made it possible to make these clubs from steel, titanium, and even carbon fiber but it has formidably retained its wooden name.  The biggest of the wood clubs is referred to as the driver.  It is usually composed of a feather light shaft fitted with a hollowed out titanium club head.  The length of the wood has a direct relation to the distance that it can propel the ball.  For this reason, woods have steadily been increasing in length over the years.

The irons are the most versatile of the golf clubs thus they are the most often used ones.  The face of their club head is at a flat angle and their shafts are shorter than those of the woods.  They are used for a variety of shots including shots that approach the green, shots from the rough, shots that go over trees, and shots made from the base of hills. 

Hybrids are clubs that are somewhere in between the woods and the irons.  These clubs are slowly gaining popularity because of their ease of use.  

The putters are designed specifically to let the golfer roll the ball along the putting green towards the hole.  Thus it has the shortest shaft among all the clubs and is always the last club to be used in each hole.  It has a loft of about 5 degrees but it should not exceed 10 degrees.  Just like the woods, putters used to be made of wood but are now made out of metal.

Celiac disease

Celiac disease is a type of autoimmune disorder that affects the small intestine.  It is known by several other names such as coeliac disease, endemic sprue, celiac sprue, gluten enteropathy, non-tropical sprue, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitive enteropathy. It generally occurs in people with a genetic predisposition to it and it may occur at any age starting from middle infancy.  

Symptoms of this disease commonly differ for every person affected by it.  They may occur directly in the digestive system or in other vulnerable parts of the body.  For infants and very young children, digestive symptoms are more prevalent.  These may include chronic diarrhea, vomiting, too much bloating, constipation, pale and fatty stool, weight loss, and irritability.  Adults on the other hand rarely develop digestive symptoms for celiac disease.  The more common symptoms of this disease seen in adults are:  anemia, fatigue, joint pain, osteoporosis, and anxiety.  Others may also develop seizures, numbness and tingling in the hands or feet, missed or irregular menstrual periods for women, infertility, and canker sores that are found inside the mouth.

Celiac disease is often caused by the patient’s reaction to gliadin.  This gluten protein is found in grains such as rye and barley.  It is also found in wheat.  Upon exposure, the patient’s immune system reacts with the tissue in the small intestine.  This reaction in turn causes an inflammation of the small intestine that leads to villous atrophy. 

Villous atrophy damages the tiny protrusions that line the small intestine called villi.  These villi are responsible for absorbing the nutrients from the food ingested by the body and transfer it into the bloodstream.  When they are damaged, a person will gradually become malnourished even when he eats the right foods in the proper amounts.  In fact, a person with damaged villi will not gain any of the benefits of eating no matter how much food he eats because the body will not be able to take in the nutrients.

There is only one treatment available for celiac disease patients and that is a diet free of gluten.  There are many health care professionals that can help patients to develop a gluten free diet that is right for them.  For most patients, the right gluten free diet can help improve health in as little as a few days.  Sufferers of this disease typically experience the cessation of symptoms just a few weeks after the introduction of the right diet.  Upon engaging this treatment, the small intestine immediately starts to heal and will return to complete health in a span of 3 to 6 months.  With the small intestine completely healed, the body can then absorb nutrients correctly and efficiently and can now function normally.

However, there are rare instances where even a gluten free diet will not work.  This condition is known as refractory celiac disease.  This condition results when a patient with celiac disease goes on for too long without the disease diagnosed.  When this happens, the small intestine becomes damaged too severely that it cannot repair itself.  The only available remedy for this condition is for the patient to receive his nutrients intravenously.

Alcat Test – A Test for “Food Sensitivity”

The Alcat Test is a diagnostic system that aims to determine the relative food sensitivities that are inherent in each individual human body.  It uses blood testing thus it is a minimally invasive procedure. Studies about the Alcat Test have found that it is more than 80% accurate in detecting sensitivities to food and more than 95% accurate in detecting sensitivities to food additives when it is compared to the Gold Standard.  Other tests, such as standard lgG diagnostics, rely on just a single immune pathway and detect only the exposure to sensitivities. The Alcat Test on the other hand measures the biological reactivity of the cells in the entire blood sample.

The Alcat Test works by objectively measuring the changes in the size and the number of the white blood cells in a given blood sample as they respond to different kinds of stimuli.  These stimuli can be food, food additives, or other chemicals that may be ingested.  The results are then recorded and compared to the individual’s white blood cell measurements before the different stimuli were injected.  The results of these comparisons, termed “scores”, are then evaluated and delegated to one of four categories of intolerance. These categories are:  Severe, Moderate, Mild, and Acceptable.  

Foods under the severe intolerance category need to be avoided – at whatever cost - for at least 6 months.  Moderate intolerance foods need to be avoided for a period of at least 3 months.  Mild intolerance foods only need to be avoided if it is possible.  If not, these foods should be eaten only once for every period of four days.  Indulging in foods under this category could exacerbate the situation until the body becomes severely intolerant to it.  Acceptable foods are the foods that can be eaten without fear of negative reaction.  It is still recommended though that these foods are included in a rotation diet.

Most practitioners can access these results easily via the internet but a hard copy may also be availed of.  The final report usually includes a rotation diet that is specifically designed for the patient.

Keep in mind though that the Alcat Test expressly suggests that it only tests for “food sensitivity” and not “food allergy”.  Food allergies are better dealt with in conjunction with your physician.  In cases where the Alcat Test identifies a particular food to be acceptable but you already know that you have an allergy to it, you should continue to avoid this food. 

Compared to traditional ways of determining food sensitivities though, the Alcat Test is so much easier and more efficient.  Without the Alcat Test, a common method for determining food intolerance is the so called elimination diet.  This requires the patient to start with a bare diet of foods that are acceptable to him.  Additional foods are then added to the diet on a weekly basis while the reaction of the patient’s body is continuously monitored.  Obviously, this method would require months to complete.  Not to mention the cost, effort, and time it would take to have a regular weekly check up.  The Alcat test on the other hand can be completed in a few days.