Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) January 2019 | Page 18

José Neto, PhD
Sports training
methodologist; master on
Sports Psichology; PhD on
Sports Sciences; Coach
trainer of. the FPF/UEFA;
University professor.
Optimism ... Resilience and
motivation
Based on the subject that I had the
honor to be invited for, we start
the refection based on the opti-
mism referring a phrase of Winston
Churchill (1951-55): “an optimist sees
an opportunity in each calamity…
a pessimist sees a calamity in each
opportunity”, continuing the Hora-
cio’s philosophy that says “the adver-
sity has the gift to awake talents
that during prosperity times remain
asleep”. In the sequence of this intro-
duction, we confront ourselves with
the thematic of the resilience – that
healthy obstinacy, as a capacity to
transform the humiliation in glory
and exaltation, presenting some-
times the failures, the anguishes
and the crisis as highly significant
base to achieve overcoming strate-
gies. Because to live is sometimes a
need to transform the adversity on
an opportunity, being able to trans-
port in the soul the footprints of
lived experience and in the heart the
sweat of the causes to win. The sub-
ject goes to the fight and… WINS!
It is evident that sometimes there
are drawbacks on the way, but, as
it is said by Mandela (2010): more
important than evaluate the way
you fall it would be to reflect on the
way we should rise up, knowing,
however, that there isn’t success
that lasts, not failure forever.
At last, we’ll talk about a simple
question of motivation, in order to
overcome the heavy burden that
sometimes life puts on our way.
Considering this order of values,
only under a maximum compromise
it is possible to achieve good perfor-
mance, knowing that on the next
task everything might come out well,
there is willing to have the moment
soon, feels strong and convinced,
believes on himself and the others
believe on his capacities.
On the other hand, in face of
a minimum compromise, the
16 january 2019 www.revdesportiva.pt
performance will be jeopardized,
and close is the unsuccess and the
future as a nightmare, not even
knowing if he will be chosen to
perform the next task, thinking that
any effort will be in vain, he is afraid
to fail, the nerves and anguish make
him feel tired and incompetent.
We will finish noting three moti-
vational strategies. As an example,
we point out three:
Always to try to perform maxi-
mally during the duties that are
attributed to him;
To know himself entirely, giving
importance to the factors of success,
recommending the self-observation
and registering the own inventories
of competence;
To formulate challenging and pro-
gressive goals of conquer, especially
those that are positive, because they
help to concentrate on what is desi-
red to achieve and to forget what
must be avoided.
As a conclusion, we indicate
several advices, like to fight with
determination and to embrace life
with passion. If you lose, do it with
class; if you win, manage the daring,
because the world belongs to those
that accepts the challenge and life
is very important to become insigni-
ficant.
Dr. Elton Gonçalves
Nutritionist
Rio Ave F C
Food and nutrition for bone health
Calcium is an essential micronutri-
ent and it ideally should be achieved
by food. It is the most abundant
mineral in the human body (about
1000gr on adults), 99% are in the
bones and in the teeth, and it has
naturally a significant impact on the
process of formation and reabsorp-
tion of the bone mass. Calcium
has functions on vascular contrac-
tion, vasodilation, muscle function,
intracellular signalization, nervous
synapses and hormone secretion,
and only 1% of the total calcium
is used to perform all these duties.
Serum calcium is precisely regu-
lated without fluctuations depend-
ing on the food ingestion. When the
exogenous supply is not enough
to comply with the physiological
needs, the bone mass functions as a
calcium reservoir, keeping constant
the concentrations of this ion in the
blood, muscle and intracellular flu-
ids. The result of this autoregulation
is the decreasing of the bone mass,
increasing the risk of osteopenia and
osteoporosis and, consequently, a
greater risk for bone fractures.
The absorption of calcium has
variations throughout the day. Is
more elevated during the periods of
rapid grow (infancy / adolescence
and pregnancy) and more reduced
during the adult or senior age. On
a healthy adult, the absorption is
about 25% of its ingestion. This per-
centage is more reduced on women
after menopause and on men older
than 60 years. The not-absorbed
calcium is eliminated on the feces,
urine and skin.
There are some factors that can
improve or diminish the absorption
of calcium (Table 1). Besides those
factors, it is known that the con-
sumption of fruits and vegetables,
due their high value of potassium,
magnesium, polyphenols, vitamin C,
vitamin K and lower acid load, are
positively correlated to bone mass
health.
Table 1. Food factors with impact on calcium absorption
Increases calcium absorption  Decreases calcium absorption
Adequate ingestion of foods that provide
calcium (note that there is interference
with foods rich on oxalates and phytates) Low levels of vitamin D (the ideal con-
centration of 25(OH)D for better calcium
absorption is unknown)
Adequate levels of vitamin D (sun exposure,
food or supplements) High consumption of sodium
Calcium supplements are better absorbed
when they ingested on low doses with
meals. High consumption of alcohol