Thalassemia: Is this my goodbye to martial arts?

**Happy Panda** · Posted On: 1/31/2009 8:35pm

Personally, I'd be interested in a description and video. Increased lung capacity can't be a bad thing.

**omoplatypus** · Posted On: 2/01/2009 3:02pm

unofficial results of blood work are hypoglycemia, not diabetic, very high risk for adult onset diabetes due to family history and what not. a third doctor has now agreed with the thalassemia diagnosis. i was told that i can hold off the diabities for my whole life with proper diet and exercise, but not to be surprised if i do develop it in the next 10-15 years.

doctor gave me lots of info on diet and exercise. more carbs and more red meat. eat 5 times a day in smaller amounts. i have to work out differently than i would like, but that's ok. i can still do TKD, but once again, i have been strongly suggested to find a "softer" style or take up something like cardio box or step aerobics. i know, ghey. but, the docs did give me info on safely training TKD and keeping point sparring in, but under no circumstances do they want me doing full contact or submission grappling. we'll see about the last part later though.

i also asked about frog breathing. he said that i can do it if i want, it wont do any harm. i mentioned hedgy swearing by it. his response was that if different factors lined up right, then the small gains made by frog breathing could be noticeable in some people, but not most.

so, thank you to everybody who was positive and encouraging. i will continue training and taking care of myself. special thanks to sochin101 and hedgy. you guys rock.

EDIT: in addition to scuba diving being a banned activity, they also said snow skiing and sky diving were out of the question as well. doesn't matter though. haven't been scuba diving in years and don't plan on it. last time i went snow skiing i broke my knee and decided i had enough of that, and i don't think i want to hurl myself towards the ground when i'm in a perfectly good airplane.