Beat the Heat

Every athlete, coach and parent should know how to prevent and detect heat illness. No one knows your body as well as you do, so learn the signs and know the cure so you can stay healthy.
 

Every athlete has likely experienced overheating or dehydration. While these conditions are often downplayed as minor inconveniences, they can become serious and lead to hospitalization and even death. Minor overheating and dehydration are the first signs that an athlete and coaches need to do something different--it’s time for an intervention.
 

Heat illness is a progressive condition that gives warning signs hours and days before the most critical stages occur, allowing plenty of time for action. The best way to prevent serious heat illness is for all athletes to know how to prevent and overcome heat illness in themselves. Learn the signs and know the cure so you can stay healthy.

 

The serious side of heat illness

Since 1995 27 high school football players have died from heat stroke. Dr. Fred Mueller, a professor of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill explains, “These boys’ body temperatures rose so high and so fast under the summer sun that their brains couldn’t keep up, couldn’t regulate their cores, and they died.
 

“When body temperatures rise to 103 and higher, the brain’s hypothalamus loses its ability to regulate the heat,” says Mueller. “The heart beats faster to increase blood flow to the skin to aid in evaporation, leaving less blood in the heart and other muscles.”
 

How does the body get so hot? Gabe Mirkin, MD, a 40-year veteran of sports medicine and talk show host, explains that the body generates heat as it produces energy: “Food is converted to energy by a series of chemical reactions, each of which releases heat. The harder you exercise, the higher your temperature can rise, and your body has to work very hard to keep itself from overheating.”
 

Mirkin adds that the heat generated by the body fueling itself must be released. “During exercise, not only must your heart work extra to pump oxygen from blood in your lungs to your muscles, it must also pump heat in blood from your muscles to your skin where you sweat and it evaporates to cool you off.”
 

This extra work for the heart and the high body temperature lead to heat illness. There are varying degrees of heat-related illnesses. Heat stroke is the worst, and it too is often fatal. So when do you know it’s time to slow down and cool off?

 

Heading off heat stroke

There are a multitude of things that coaches and administrators must do to prevent these illnesses. Adjusting practice times to the coolest hours of the day, training and certifying all staff members in heat illness prevention and detection, and constant review of proper procedures for treating heat illness promptly are all good measures. Training schedules can help properly acclimatize players and keep equipment at the proper level.
 

However, each athlete in each sport is different, with unique limitations and tolerances. The best prevention is for you to know about proper hydration and training limits and to be able to recognize the signs of heat illness in your own body. See the chart “Preventing Heat Illness.” Educate yourself about the signs of heat illness and do not take unnecessary risks because of pride or peer pressure. It’s your body and your life--take prevention seriously.
 

Anyone who is active in hot weather can be at risk and certain factors can increase that risk. The most vulnerable players are:

 

-Anyone exercising in heat, but especially athletes participating in football, soccer, tennis, cross-country and other sports that are played late in the summer.

-Athletes who rarely exercise or inadequately train prior to the start of a season

-Athletes who are overweight or who have high body fat percentage

-Athletes who have had a recent illness that caused vomiting or diarrhea

-Athletes who have had a previous heat-related illness

-Any athlete taking medications that interfere with sweating (There are many. Check with your doctor if you take any form of daily medication.)

 

Preventing Heat Illness

Once you know your added risk factors, the next step is to know how to prevent heat illness. The key elements of prevention are to keep your body as cool as possible and prepare your body to cope with the heat by acclimatizing and staying hydrated.

 

STAY COOL

-Take frequent cooling breaks.
 

-Ask for shade, ice water and misting fans to be provided during rest breaks.
 

-Know the temperature and humidity. As the temperature rises, reduce practice pace and duration and increase rest breaks. Temperatures of 95 degrees and above, along with 35 percent humidity are likely to cause heat illness. Go to www.osaa.org/heatindex for an instant heat index calculator for your area.
 

-Sit in a cold tub after practice.
 

-Practice earlier or later, with more time between, giving your body time for rest, recovery and cooling.

 

HYDRATE

-Learn to drink for your needs. Drink consistently, not just when you’re thirsty.
 

-Have a hydration plan.

-Weigh in before and after you practice or work out. More than 2-3 percent weight loss, and the athlete should sit out until that weight is gained back.
 

-Learn to adjust fluid intake to minimize weight loss; drink 20-24 ounces of fluid for every pound of weight lost during activity.
 

-Eat foods with high water content (fruits & vegetables).
 

-Drink a sports drink--it beats plain water because it has sugars to fuel muscles and the brain, flavoring to encourage drinking, and sodium to hold fluid in the body as well as helping to replace sweat losses. A typical sports drink has 110mg of sodium per 8 ounces of fluid. The FDA classifies this as a low-sodium beverage.
 

-Examine your urine. It’s an excellent way of determining if you are well hydrated. Large amounts of clear urine mean you are hydrated; small amounts of dark urine mean that you need to drink more.
 

 

ACCLIMATIZE

-Start out slow. Training moderately by being active in the heat--say jogging 30-45 minutes a day--can jump-start heat acclimation.
 

-Adjust the intensity of practice to the environmental conditions and know the heat/humidity for the day.
 

-Physically prepare. Get a physical by a pediatrician. If you have a history of heat-related illness or are overweight, you have a higher risk for heat stroke.
 

-Have an emergency plan in place. Ask your coaches and trainers about their plan. If a player has a heat emergency, the priorities for treatment are: 1. Call 911. 2. Cool the player’s body by immersing him or her in water. 3. Transport the person to a hospital.

 

DRESS PROPERLY

-Limit gear in the heat. Suit up in stages in summer camps and conditioning.
 

-Remove helmet and pads for fitness runs. Boxers and wrestlers should not run in plastic suits to lose weight.
 

-Wear light colored, breathable and loosely woven fabrics. They help sweat evaporate easily.