Homework Clinic
Science Clinic => Health Science => Anatomy => Topic started by: casperchen82 on Apr 11, 2021
-
Daniella is a dancer trying to get into the New York City Ballet. She knows that it is very competitive, so she is practicing several hours a day. She also knows that ballet dancers need to be very thin, so she is restricting her diet to 600 calories a day and only eats fruits and vegetables. She continues her workout and dietary routine for several months, and on the day of her audition she feels very weak. She ends up fainting during her audition. As the athletic trainer and physician are evaluating Daniella, they notice that she has several bruises and frequent muscle spasms. Why is Daniella having all of these problems?
-
Dancing is a type of athletic activity, a form of exercise that can be very challenging to the body. As she practices, she burns a lot of calories. If she is not replacing them with a balanced diet and enough calories, she will not have the fat stores she needs to do anaerobic respiration. If she continues to limit the fat in her diet to almost none, it will be hard for her to build up the necessary fat stores to make energy through β-oxidation of fats, decreasing her endurance and making her weak. Her body may even break down muscle in order to perform gluconeogenesis, causing her to lose strength. In addition, the lack of fat in her diet will make it difficult to absorb enough vitamin K, which will make it harder for her to clot-causing the bruising noticed by the physician and trainer. The lack of electrolytes in her diet may make her nerves and muscles become deficient in calcium and potassium, and they may not function properly. Finally, if she is undergoing catabolic breakdown of her muscle, that would increase the osmolarity of her cells and interstitial fluid, drawing more fluid from the blood and dropping blood pressure, making it more likely that she could develop orthostatic hypotension.