Health
France reports first case of new mpox variant
Mpox causes a painful rash with skin lesions that can last for two-to-four weeks, as well as other symptoms including fever, headache, aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes. Mpox clade Ib first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a subtype of clade I, a more severe form of mpox […]
Mpox causes a painful rash with skin lesions that can last for two-to-four weeks, as well as other symptoms including fever, headache, aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.
Mpox clade Ib first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a subtype of clade I, a more severe form of mpox than clade II — the latter was behind the global outbreak in 2022.
There were more than 50,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 deaths in Africa from mpox last year.
Health
The Anxiety Paradox
When we think of anxiety, we often think of the brain or the central nervous system. Mental stress and emotional pressure are seen as neurological or psychological challenges. But what if anxiety isn’t just in your head? What if it can be transferred, biologically, from one person to another through the gut? That is one […]
When we think of anxiety, we often think of the brain or the central nervous system. Mental stress and emotional pressure are seen as neurological or psychological challenges.
But what if anxiety isn’t just in your head?
What if it can be transferred, biologically, from one person to another through the gut?
That is one of the points Dr. Sabine Hazan, CEO of Progenabiome, is raising in her ongoing work with fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). In our recent conversation on Power Athlete Radio, she shared a startling insight backed by emerging data: anxiety could be transferable via the microbiome.
“If the donors were anxious…the recipient was anxious. And we published a signature microbiome in anxiety. So, anxiety itself is transferable from the microbiome.”
Dr. Hazan’s research suggests it’s time to rethink how we measure and manage emotion. Emotional resilience, recovery, and on-field performance – especially in high-stress environments – may be significantly influenced by improving the microbiome.
For those new to this conversation, fecal matter transplants (FMT) involve the transfer of gut bacteria from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract of a recipient. It’s been used successfully for severe infections like C. difficile, but Dr. Hazan’s work is pushing the boundaries far beyond that. Her research suggests the gut microbiome – home to trillions of bacteria – doesn’t just influence digestion or the immune system. Dr. Hazan’s research challenges us to redefine how we understand and support emotional performance. By improving the microbiome, we can enhance emotional resilience, accelerate recovery, and elevate athletic output, especially under high-pressure conditions.
The microbiome isn’t just a passive player in our lives. It’s an active, dynamic system central to our health, both physically and mentally.
For athletes, this unlocks new aspects of performance. Enhancing traits like composure and focus through the microbiome translates to greater strength and speed. If gut bacteria can influence anxiety levels, then optimizing the microbiome can be a powerful performance enhancer for physical performance and mental resilience.
Mental performance coaching will move past visualization and breathing and involve creating a healthy microbiome as a means to ramp up performance – maybe even carefully selected FMT treatments.
While the field is still emerging, Dr. Hazan emphasizes that more research and large-scale clinical trials are essential to fully validate the findings. However, the early data proves promising.
Identifying a biological signature for anxiety in the microbiome is significant. It suggests that we may eventually be able to test for, and even treat, certain mood disorders through gut-focused therapies. And as Dr. Hazan’s work shows, this isn’t just speculation, it’s happening in real-time.
For anyone serious about optimizing performance, whether on the field, in the gym, or in ryday life, this research represents a potential paradigm shift.
Mental toughness might not be just a matter of mindset and conditioning till you puke. It might be found in better microbes.
As our understanding of the microbiome deepens, one thing becomes increasingly clear: the gut is more than a digestive system. It’s a control center, shaping everything from our immunity to our emotions and potential athletic success.
As Dr. Hazan states on Power Athlete Radio, “Anxiety is in the microbiome. And if we can transfer it, we can study it. And maybe, just maybe, we can change it.”
Health
#diastasisrecti
Boissonnault JS, Blaschak MJ. Incidence of diastasis recti abdominis during the childbearing year. Phys Ther. 1988;68(7):1082–6. Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar Mota P, Pascoal AG, Bo K. Diastasis recti abdominis in pregnancy and postpartum period. Risk factors, functional implications and resolution. Curr Womens Health Rev. 2015;11(1):59–67. Article Google Scholar Cardaillac C, Vieillefosse S, Oppenheimer A, […]
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Weingerl I, Kozinc Ž, Šarabon N. The effects of Conservative interventions for treating diastasis recti abdominis in postpartum women: a review with Meta-analysis. SN Compr Clin Med. 2022;5(1):10.
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Giagio S, Rial Rebullido T, Salvioli S, Innocenti T, Pillastrini P, Moore IS et al. Analysis and perception of Instagram posts referring to diastasis recti abdominis, exercise and sports-related content: a mixed-method study protocol. medRxiv [Internet]. 2023;2023.07.05.23292242.
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Benjamin DR, Frawley HC, Shields N, Peiris CL, van de Water ATM, Bruder AM, et al. Conservative interventions May have little effect on reducing diastasis of the rectus abdominis in postnatal women– A systematic review and meta-analysis. Physiotherapy. 2023;119:54–71.
Berg-Poppe P, Hauer M, Jones C, Munger M, Wethor C. Use of exercise in the management of postpartum diastasis recti: A systematic review. J Womens Health Phys Th. 2022;46(1):35–47.
Gluppe SB, Ellström M, Bø K. Curl-up exercises improve abdominal muscle strength without worsening inter-recti distance in women with diastasis recti abdominis postpartum: a randomised controlled trial. J Physiother. 2023;69(3):160–7.
Dufour S, Petrusevski C. Does research support the current Conservative care recommendations for pregnancy-related diastasis rectus abdominis? A scoping review. J Pelvic Obstetric Gynaecol Physiotherapy. 2024;134:13–30.
Skoura A, Billis E, Papanikolaou DT, Xergia S, Tsarbou C, Tsekoura M, et al. Diastasis recti abdominis rehabilitation in the postpartum period: A scoping review of current clinical practice. Int Urogynecol J. 2024;35(3):491–520.
Kimber Ml, Meyer S, Mchugh Tl, Thornton J, Khurana R, Sivak A et al. Health outcomes after pregnancy in elite athletes: A systematic review and Meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2021;53(8).
Vesting S, Gutke A, Fagevik Olsén M, Rembeck G, Larsson MEH. The impact of exercising on pelvic symptom severity, pelvic floor muscle strength, and diastasis recti abdominis after pregnancy: A longitudinal prospective cohort study. Phys Ther. 2024;104(4):1.
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Health
Naomi Osaka tired of way media portrays her
Coming off her third-round defeat at Wimbledon, Naomi Osaka didn’t have a lot of good things to say about her performance. The four-time grand slam champion often bears her emotions for all to see and today was no different after going down July 4 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6 6-4 6-4. “I’m just going to be […]
Coming off her third-round defeat at Wimbledon, Naomi Osaka didn’t have a lot of good things to say about her performance.
The four-time grand slam champion often bears her emotions for all to see and today was no different after going down July 4 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6 6-4 6-4.
“I’m just going to be a negative human being today. I’m so sorry. I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I’m working on,” she said according to the BBC.
Naomi said she’s trying to work on her outlook but admits it’s a struggle. She hasn’t gotten past the third round of a major tournament since winning the Australian Open in 2021.
However, Osaka cautioned against portraying her as always sad as she accused the media of doing.
“Bro why is it every time I do a press conference after a loss the ESPNs and blogs gotta clip it and put it up. Wtf, why don’t they clip my press conferences after I win? Like why push the narrative that I’m always sad?
“Sure I was disappointed a couple hours ago, now I’m motivated to do better. That’s human emotions. The way they clip me I feel like I should be fake happy all the time,” she said, reported Tennis Infinity.
Sports Illustrated pointed out she isn’t the only tennis player to express negative thoughts after a loss. Coco Gauf, was hard on herself after being bounced from the first round at Wimbledon, Jack Draper nearly came to tears and Alexander Zverev said he felt alone and struggles mentally following his first-round loss.
Osaka hopes to regroup as she heads into the North American leg of the hard court season.
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Health
Integrating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Psychological Skills Training (PST)
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Psychol. Sec. Sport Psychology Volume 16 – 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1617548 This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health in Recreational and Elite SportsView all 22 articles Provisionally accepted Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon. Notify me You have […]
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 – 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1617548
This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health in Recreational and Elite SportsView all 22 articles
Provisionally accepted
- Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom
The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
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This case study outlines the sport psychology service delivery provided to an 11-year-old competitive figure skater. The client reported performance anxiety, which hindered her training and performance at competition. The intervention delivered integrated core processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with psychological skills training (PST) with the aim of reducing the client’s performance anxiety. Little has been written about how ACT can be applied alongside PST. The case reports how ACT exercises aimed at defusing the client’s unhelpful cognitions, focusing on valued living, committed action, and staying in the present moment were integrated into goal setting, imagery, performance profiling, and self-talk. Demonstrating the alignment between ACT and PST is crucial for practitioners to seamlessly integrate ACT into their practice. Reflections from the client and practitioner capture the evaluation of the service delivery.
Keywords: cbt, MST, performance, sport psychology, Psychotherapy, Youth
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wood and Turner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Samuel Wood, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Health
Gambling investigation of Guardians' Luis Ortiz the latest example of how betting is causing …
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz was placed on “non-disciplinary paid leave” on Thursday morning by Major League Baseball as it investigates gambling allegations. And while Ortiz’s case is still under investigation, it is the latest instance of what has become a worrying and increasing trend of pro sports athletes being investigated for gambling. […]
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz was placed on “non-disciplinary paid leave” on Thursday morning by Major League Baseball as it investigates gambling allegations.
And while Ortiz’s case is still under investigation, it is the latest instance of what has become a worrying and increasing trend of pro sports athletes being investigated for gambling.
Sports gambling has become much more part of the mainstream after the Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law prohibiting sports gambling, putting it into the hands of the states.
Most leagues don’t allow players to bet on games in their own leagues, and it’s easy to understand why.
Leagues don’t want the integrity of their games compromised by their athletes betting on their own games, even ones they don’t play in. Players can have inside information that could influence betting lines.
If an athlete bets on games he’s involved in, it could harm integrity more if he tries to influence certain outcomes or stats within the game.
One of the most specific elements of sports betting that comes under this scrutiny is prop betting. A prop bet is simply a bet placed on an outcome within a game such as a certain number of points a basketball player scores or whether a baseball player gets one or more hits in a game.
Possibly the most significant example of a pro athlete being connected to prop betting was former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. He was banned from the NBA in 2024 for breaking numerous league rules about gambling.
Not only did he himself bet on at least 13 games when he was either with the Raptors or their developmental league affiliate, but he was also found to have intentionally taken himself out of at least one game to influence a betting outcome.
The NBA also found that Porter provided confidential health information about himself prior to a game on March 20, 2024. The league then found a bet of $80,000 placed on Porter to underperform in that game. He played just three minutes in that game. But the bet was frozen because of the unusual activity.
In the case of Ortiz, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported on Thursday that there were two particular pitches that flagged bets in three states including Ohio. First pitches can be bet on, which are called microbets.
Gambling and betting in pro sports hasn’t been limited to the last seven years. The two most significant instances of pro athletes being busted for illegal gambling activities came from MLB when the 1919 Chicago White Sox threw the World Series and Reds great Pete Rose was confirmed to have bet on games he played in. The MLB issued lifetime bans to eight members of the 1919 White Sox, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, and to Rose in 1989, although both Rose and Jackson were among those reinstated in May of 2025.
With gambling being more mainstream, there have been plenty of instances in the past few years of athletes being investigated and disciplined.
NBA
In addition to being banned for life from the NBA, Porter pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court in July 2024 and awaits sentencing, which has been pushed back until Dec. 10.
Porter’s case is the most egregious in recent years. But he’s not the only NBA player who has had gambling accusations.
Pistons guard Malik Beasley is currently under federal investigation on allegations related to betting on NBA games and prop bets.
NFL
NFL receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the 2022 season for betting on games when he was on mental health leave the year prior.
In 2023, five NFL players including Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams were suspended for violating the league’s gambling protocols. Three received indefinite bans for betting on NFL games while two, including Williams, were suspended for six for mobile betting at the Lions’ team facility, which violates league rules.
NHL
In the NHL, Ottawa Senators center Shane Pinto received a 41-game suspension in 2023 for gambling violations, although the NHL did not find evidence of Pinto betting on NHL games.
MLB
On June 4, 2024, MLB issued a lifetime ban, the first since Rose in 1989, to former Pirates and Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano after he was determined to have placed nearly 400 baseball bets in a two-year span, including 25 on Pirates games in which he was on the roster. He was the first active player to receive a lifetime ban from MLB since Jimmy O’Connell in 1924.
So while Ortiz’s saga is only in its beginning stages, he is the latest example of athletes in professional sports being investigated for betting while playing. However, trends suggest he might not be the last.
In February 2025, the International Betting Integrity Association, which is a non-profit organization with a goal to protect betting integrity, released a report saying that it had received 219 alerts of suspicious betting, an increase of 17% from the year prior. 10 of those alerts came from the U.S., with five involving basketball and five for tennis.
Some states have tried to limit this trend by going after prop betting, particularly outside the pro game.
In 2024, the Ohio Casino Control Commission banned prop bets on college athletics in the state. Many other states including Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Massachusetts also don’t allow prop bets for in-state college athletics.
Other states like Illinois, New York and Virginia have gone a step further and won’t allow any bets involving in-state schools.
NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December 2024 and said he wants prop bets banned in all college sports across the country.
“We believe that when bettors can’t gamble on college athletes’ individual performances, they’re far less likely to attempt to scrutinize, coerce or harass student-athletes,” Baker told the committee per NPR’s Becky Sullivan. “They get demands for money from unhappy bettors for trivial things that don’t impact the result on the field.
“Many have received death threats from bettors, and they also receive other, in-person threats and accusations directed at them while they’re leaving or coming onto the field of play.”
With the growth of sports betting, the problem of pro athletes being investigated for gambling is not likely to go away. Ortiz wasn’t the first athlete to be investigated for gambling and he most likely won’t be the last.
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Health
Keeping Baseball Players' Minds In Shape; Battle Over Bacon
Summer is the heart of the baseball season. But recently the country’s oldest professional sport has been going through some changes. It’s not just the moves to speed up the pace of play. These days, along with training in the weight room or the bullpen, players are also spending time with their team’s sports psychologist. […]
Summer is the heart of the baseball season. But recently the country’s oldest professional sport has been going through some changes. It’s not just the moves to speed up the pace of play. These days, along with training in the weight room or the bullpen, players are also spending time with their team’s sports psychologist. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky goes behind the scenes at the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark to understand how the team keeps an athlete’s mind in shape, both on and off the field.
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