The Eco Athlete Program: Retirement Planning for Your Health
Season after season you gave your all. You drove your body through the rigors of training and played each game with everything you had - mind and body, heart and soul. As a professional athlete, everything you did, every day of your life, was geared toward performance perfection.
Your efforts paid off, personally, professionally, and financially. You earned your place on the team, won the hearts of the fans, and made a comfortable living for you and your family. Now the time has come for you to hang up your game shoes, kick back, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Your career is ending, but the best is yet to come…
Or is it?
Former Sports Pros Face Uncommon Perils
For too many former pro athletes, the answer to that question is “no.” Undoubtedly you’ve heard about the study, commissioned by the National Football League and conducted by the University of Michigan, in which former NFL players were found to be much more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These findings are shocking, and particularly so for former NFL players between the ages of 30 and 49, whose risk of AD is 19 times greater than that of other men in the same age group.
But Alzheimer’s disease isn’t the only health risk former pro athletes face. Grueling training regimens take a tremendous toll on the body. Injuries may lead to loss of function or subpar functioning of some bodily systems, and frequent injuries mean frequent exposure to radiation from x-ray exams.
Then, when you trade rigorous activity for a more sedentary lifestyle, the extra weight that may have added to your effectiveness as a player quickly becomes a serious threat to your wellbeing, increasing your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other serious health problems. For those who used steroids or other drugs to enhance performance in the short term, the risks are even higher in the long term.
(To learn more about Alzheimer’s disease and other health risks facing former professional athletes, see my report, A Long Needed Proposal for NFL Players: Comprehensive Mandatory Exit Physical Exams).
Numbers and more numbers
No matter what your sport, your career was measured in numbers - passing yardage, tackles, TDs, FGs, RBI, ERA. Now a different set of numbers is critical to your health and the quality of your life as you move into the next phase. Numbers like blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol … these are the numbers that tell me how a former athlete’s body is performing today.
According to a recent article1 the average NFL player’s career is just 3.52 seasons long, and his life expectancy is lowered by two to three years for every season he played. While the life expectancy for U.S. men is 75 years, for NFL retirees, it’s 53 to 59 years, depending on the position played. And the longer the career, the higher the risk.
It doesn’t take a doctor to know these numbers aren’t good; to a medical professional like myself, they’re alarming. Fortunately, you can take control of your numbers and your health today, and my Eco Athlete Program can help.
The Eco Athlete Program - Your Solution for Life
I’m Craig Koniver, MD - founder of the Eco Athlete program. As a doctor who specializes in organic medicine, I created Eco Athlete to help professional athletes achieve their highest level of performance in the most natural way possible. By conducting a comprehensive battery of blood, urine and saliva tests, I determine each athlete’s metabolic, nutritional, and oxidative health status at the cellular level. After a thorough analysis of the data from these tests, I use the information to optimize each athlete’s health through a program of diet and supplements tailored to his individual needs.
The Eco Athlete Program isn’t just for active athletes, though. The same course of testing and treatment I use to help active athletes reach peak performance levels can help you improve your health, reduce your risk for disease, and set the stage for a long and full retirement. In other words, my personalized approach to health care can help you avoid the perils that often plague former athletes, such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
About Organic Performance Lab Testing
The foundation of the Eco Athlete Program Is the Organic Performance Lab, where I employ the most advanced, high-tech testing methods available today. These are tests you won’t find in most doctors’ offices - tests designed to uncover the root causes of health problems and guide me in developing your personalized treatment plan for disease prevention.
Following is a list of the tests I conduct. For descriptions of each test, visit the Organic Performance Lab page. You can also click on the name of each test to view a sample report.
- Food Compatibility
- Fatty Acids
- Amino Acids
- Organic Acids
- Vitamin and Minerals
- Hormones
- Oxidation
- Infectious Diseases
My report, A Long Needed Proposal for NFL Players: Comprehensive Mandatory Exit Physical Exams) contains more information on the tests and treatments I use in the Eco Athlete Program.
Knowledge, Power, Prevention
The troubling statistics cited here are offered as a warning, not a prediction of certain doom. Perhaps you’re afraid of what you’ll learn as a result of Organic Performance Lab testing. Let me reassure you - in health, as in all things, knowledge is power. With in-depth knowledge about your current health status, you’ll have the power to make the changes that will help prevent and, in some cases, reverse disease processes that can threaten the length and quality of your life.
Now is the time to take stock of your health and start on your personal path to wellness. Enroll in my Eco Athlete Program today, and in no time at all, you’ll be feeling great and enjoying life the way you always dreamed of. Just call 843-767-7650 to schedule an appointment, or fill out our new patient form.
Please Note: My program has drawn an enthusiastic response from active and inactive athletes alike. As a result, new patient appointments are scheduling about 4 to 5 weeks out. Thank you for your patience - I look forward to working with you in your quest for optimum health!
