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MONDAY, July 26, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- "Faster, higher, stronger" is the Olympic motto – and what every athlete at the Tokyo Games will be striving for.But just how much a human can accomplish is determined by many factors, from genetic to psychological to environmental. Some experts even think we've gone about as far as we can go.An athlete's abilities are partly a result of the body they're born with, said Amanda Paluch, an assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Some people just have the capability to become more fit than others. "There's always room for improvement for all individuals. It's just the ceiling that somebody can reach is going to vary."Elite athletes and the general population actually...

MONDAY, July 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People of color are consistently less likely to see medical specialists than white patients are, a new U.S. study finds, highlighting yet another disparity in the nation's health care system.Researchers found that compared with their white counterparts, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans had significantly fewer visits to doctors of various specialties -- ranging from dermatology to orthopedics to general surgery.They were not falling behind, however, in visits to primary care doctors, suggesting that specialist care is the issue.While the study cannot pinpoint the reasons, there's a likely a culprit, according to Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, one of the researchers."We think disparities in the ability to pay are the main driver...

MONDAY, July 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- As a new school year approaches, U.S. parents are nearly evenly split on whether they'll vaccinate their young kids when a COVID-19 vaccine is approved for their age group, a new survey finds."It's important that parents and providers don't wait for full COVID vaccine approval to begin discussions about vaccination," said Sarah Clark, co-director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, at Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan.COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for Americans 12 years and older, and clinical trials are underway for their use in kids under 12.In this June survey of more than 2,000 parents with at least one child between 3 and 18 years of age, 49% parents with kids aged 3 to 11 said they would...

MONDAY, July 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Young soccer players have more head impacts during practices but experience more severe head impacts during games, a small, preliminary study shows.The findings could help devise ways to improve head impact safety in youth soccer, according to the researchers."Headers are a fundamental component to the sport of soccer. Therefore, it is important to understand differences in header frequency and magnitude across practice and game settings," said study author Jillian Urban, from Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C."Practices are more amenable to change than games. Therefore, understanding how we can restructure practice to reduce head impact exposure while teaching fundamental skills needed to safely play the sport is critical to...