High-altitude climbing can damage the brain. (Tony Smith/The New York Times)

If you’ve ever fantasized about scaling Mount Everest, think again. A new study of professional mountain climbers shows that high-altitude climbing causes a subtle loss of brain cells and motor function.

Italian researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brains of nine world-class mountain climbers who had at least 10 years of experience, including expeditions to Mount Everest and K2. The climbers ranged in age from 31 to 52, with an average age of just under 38, and were used to climbing to altitudes of at least 4,000 meters (two-and-a-half miles, or over 13,000 feet) several times a year. Read more…

Every parent has cheered for a child’s sports team, hoping for a win. But as my colleague John Schwartz writes, in his family, the best lessons have been learned from losing.

Mr. Schwartz’s son played football in high school for a team that was better known for its high grade point average than its performance on the field. The team record: 0 for 8.

I’m happy with the way things have turned out — even happier, I think, than if he had been on overwhelmingly winning teams. He earned each victory, and didn’t fall into the easy arrogance that comes with being No. 1. And who knows? If the teams had been stronger, Sam might not have had as many chances to be in the game…. Let other parents scream and curse at the opposing team, and berate their own kids over their performance. I’m just glad that Sammy was in the game.

Click here to read the full essay about kids and losing teams. What do you think? Did your child benefit from being in the losing end of a game? Or is it always better — and more fun — to win? Post your comments below.

Safety experts are focusing on the risks of cheerleading. (Paul Crate for The New York Times)

During fall football season, most parents and coaches focus on the safety of the players. But there’s growing evidence that they should turn their attention to the sidelines.

The Washington Post offers a troubling and detailed report on the many risks associated with cheerleading, which by some accounts has emerged as the riskiest of women’s sports, “leaving a long trail of sprained wrists, twisted ankles, damaged knees, strained backs — and sometimes much worse,” The Post reports. Read more…

Gold medalist Nastia Liukin began competing at age 6. (Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

When young children take an interest in a sport, parents face a dilemma. Do you encourage a single sport starting at an early age, which can lead to a high skill level, competition and scholarships in the teen years? Or do you enroll your kids in several sports, exposing them to many activities and interests?

It’s a question many parents are no doubt mulling in the wake of the Olympics, where we were wowed by the single-minded dedication of Michael Phelps, who started swimming at the age of 11, and gymnast Shawn Johnson, who began her training at age 3. Read more…

Beach volleyball champion Kerri Walsh wearing a new type of athletic tape. (Natacha Pisarenko/The Associated Press)

Watching Olympian Kerri Walsh compete in beach volleyball last week, many viewers were wondering the same thing: what is that black thing on her shoulder?

A tattoo? A bizarre fashion statement? No. Ms. Walsh was sporting a new type of athletic tape called Kinesio, touted by physical therapists as a better way to relieve pain and promote healing of injured muscles.

The appearance of Kinesio on the well-toned Ms. Walsh — she even wore it while meeting President Bush — has spurred international interest in the little-known brand. In black, pink, blue and beige, the tape has been spotted on a number of other Olympians, including the shoulder of U.S. water polo player Lauren Wenger and the elbows of Canadian Greco Roman wrestler Ari Taub. Members of Spain’s basketball team and Jamaica’s track team are wearing it.

Ms. Walsh and the other athletes don’t have endorsement deals with Kinesio USA; the company simply donated 50,000 rolls of the tape to 58 countries for use at the Olympic Games. But whether its appearance on the international athletic scene is a sign of its therapeutic benefit or just smart marketing remains to be seen. Read more…

Olympians (Dan Winters for The New York Times)

As a kid and now as an adult, my house has always been a little Olympic-crazy every fourth summer.

My personal Olympic memories include superstars like Bruce Jenner, Nadia Comaneci, Mary Decker-Slaney, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Greg Louganis. So I was thrilled to stumble across a great multi-media project by Play magazine, featuring these Olympic stars and others telling their stories.

My favorite is from Mary Decker-Slaney, now 49, who collided with fellow runner Zola Budd in the 1984 Olympics during the 3,000-meter event. “The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. I happen to know that wasn’t the case at all,” Ms. Decker-Slaney said. “The reason I fell is because I am and was very inexperienced in running in a pack.”

If you like the Olympics or are just looking for a little inspiration to get yourself on the home treadmill, it’s worth a listen. Click here.

What are your most inspiring Olympic memories?

Children playing in New York City. (Credit: Christian Hansen for The New York Times)

Anyone who has been around young children knows they often are bundles of energy. But new research shows that all the energy starts to disappear as kids age. Even the most active children experience dramatic declines in physical activity as they hit the teen years.

The data are from a fascinating new study published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Kids in the study wore accelerometers, devices that monitor movement. Nine-year-olds moved a lot — the devices recorded about three hours a day of moderate to vigorous activity. But things changed dramatically when kids hit the teen years. By age 15, teens were only moving an average of 49 minutes daily and 35 minutes on weekends.

To learn more, click here to read my story on the recent findings.

And what about your kids? Have you noticed big changes in your child’s activity levels? Post your comments below.

Writer and placekicker Stefan Fatsis takes notes as the wide receivers huddle. (John Leyba)

Whether you’re an armchair quarterback or barely notice when fall football season starts, you will be entertained by an essay today from my friend and former colleague Stefan Fatsis.

Stefan, a Wall Street Journal sportswriter and author of the popular scrabble book “Word Freak,” recently joined the Denver Broncos training camp to see if he could cut it as a placekicker. He chronicles his experiences and those of his teammates in his new book, “A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL.” An excerpt from the book appears in today’s Wall Street Journal. Even if you’ve never played football, the lessons he learned will resonate with weekend warriors and parents of teens who play competitive sports. Read more…

Intense bursts of exercise may be as good for the heart as longer, moderate-intensity training. (Lynn L. Walters for The New York Times)

Short bursts of exercise can benefit heart health just as much as tedious endurance training, a new study suggests.

The research, published in the American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, is good news for time-strapped exercisers. It supports the notion that people who engage in brief, high-intensity forms of exercise reap the same cardiovascular health benefits as those who exercise at moderate intensity for a longer period of time. Read more…

Athletes who suffer concussions are at risk of a delayed recovery if they return to the field too quickly. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

Student athletes who return to sports quickly after a concussion appear to have a slower brain recovery than teens who stay off the field longer, a new study shows.

The report, from The Journal of Athletic Training, suggests that athletes who suffer from even mild concussions should slow down their return to the sports field. In fact, students with less severe injuries appeared to be those who return to sports the fastest. But resuming intense physical activity appeared to slow their recovery and even exacerbated their symptoms.

“By continuing with high levels of activity, they began to exhibit similar symptoms to those who initially experienced a more severe concussion,” said Jason P. Mihalik, an athletic trainer from the University of North Carolina and an author of the study. Read more…

Teens practicing in Westport, Conn. A new conditioning program is helping girl athletes avoid knee injuries. (Thomas McDonald for The New York Times)

We’ve been reading a lot lately of the growing problem of serious knee injuries among young athletes, particularly girls. As a parent, I’m left with one question: What can I do to protect my daughter from a serious sports injury?

The worry is the anterior cruciate ligament, the main ligament that stabilizes the knee joint. Earlier this year, my colleague Gina Kolata wrote this story about a rising number of cases of A.C.L. injuries among young athletes. The operation to repair the damage poses a greater risk for children and adolescents who have not finished growing because it involves drilling into a growth plate, an area of still-developing tissue at the end of the leg bone.

This weekend, The Times Magazine article “Hurt Girls” focused on why girls, in particular, seem prone to the injury. Read more…

If there already weren’t enough reasons to get your child involved in sports, the story of Sara Tucholsky will give you another one.

Ms. Tucholsky plays softball for Western Oregon University, but in her high school and college careers, the 5-foot-2 player had never hit a home run. On the last Saturday in April, in a game against Central Washington University, she hit her first home run over the fence. But as she began to run the bases, a misstep resulted in a torn knee ligament and she couldn’t continue.

The umpire mistakenly ruled that a team member couldn’t run in her place or assist her around the bases. A member of the opposing team, first baseman Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Ms. Tucholsky run the bases. He said they could, and Ms. Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace carried her around the field as she gently tapped her uninjured leg on each base.

At least 150,000 people have now watched videos of the moment on YouTube. To see ESPN’s take on it, grab a tissue and watch below.

Cheering for your team may trigger a heart attack. (Winfried Rothermel/Associated Press)

Rabid sports fans have more to worry about than the final score. New research shows that a heart-pounding sports match may be bad for the heart.

That’s what German researchers found when they tracked heart attacks during the 2006 World Cup soccer championships. World Cup teams attract some of the world’s most passionate and loyal sports fans, with wins and losses triggering nationalistic celebrations and riots.

The study, published in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, examined heart attack trends among Germans during the 2006 tournament compared to other times of the year. They found that on days the German team played, cardiac emergencies more than tripled for men and nearly doubled for women.

How the team played, the overall importance of the match and whether the winner was determined by a shootout all affected fans’ heart risks. Read more…

Big air can mean big injuries. (Lori Duff for The New York Times)

Faster speeds and complicated maneuvers are leading to more head and spine injuries among downhill skiers and snowboarders.

While the overall risk of getting hurt on the slopes remains relatively low, catastrophic injuries, particularly among young male snowboarders, are on the rise, according to a new review of 24 studies from 10 countries in the current issue of the journal Injury Prevention. The review notes that the increased risk coincides with the growing popularity of acrobatic and high-speed activities in winter sports.

Much of the risky behavior is fueled by snowboarding, a sport that rewards speed and attracts teenaged and young adult males, according to the researchers. In the United States, snowboarders are nearly twice as likely to be injured as skiers. A Norwegian report found that snowboarders are three to four times more likely than skiers to be hurt, and a study from Canada found that snowboarders were 50 percent more likely than skiers to suffer head and neck injuries. Read more…

They’re ready to play. But will they? (Brady Wolfe for The New York Times)

Your kids play soccer twice a week, take gymnastics after school and have tennis lessons every weekend. But are they getting any exercise?

That’s the question being asked in a provocative commentary this month in New Directions for Youth Development, a medical journal. While it seems obvious that kids with several extracurricular sports activities are in fact exercising, the reality is that kids in organized sports aren’t necessarily moving around a lot — or even breaking a sweat, notes Michael F. Bergeron, director of the environmental physiology laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia. Read more…