Last Saturday a 19-year old football player at an area university collapsed and died while running wind sprints. The cause of death was attributed to hyperthermia/heat stroke aggravated by his having almost no body fat. Body fat insulates you from getting too hot or too cold. The newspaper article noted as a group the athletes with the lowest level of body fat are marathon runners. What they do is to start drinking fluids one hour before the start of the race and drink at stations along route. They pre-load in order to stay even because they perspire faster than they can take in fluids during the race. Breathing also is a contributing factor since the breath exhaled contains moisture (remember the fogged up windows at the drive-in).

Something to keep in mind as you work outside during hot weather. What I do is to freeze water in plastic bottles, let them stay in direct sunshine and sip the water as it unthaws.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 15, 2000

Answers

Good to know my excess body fat is good for something! LOL!!!

-- bwilliams (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), August 15, 2000.

Nice post.

Our nephew was at football camp last summer and got a bit of heat exhaustion. Nothing too bad happenend as the coaches were on top of the situation. He didn't finish the two week camp, just came home early.

We all gave him a bad time about it (in good humor) but he did get the message. We found out later that his 'event' instituted mandatory water break ("Everyone Drinks !") which probably avoided the problem for other players. He's at camp again this summer, so I'm interested how the water situation is being handled this year.

FWIW, he attends AIDB. If you ever get a chance to watch a deaf football game, don't miss it.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), August 15, 2000.

I work as a nutritionist on a university campus. For the past two weeks all the athletes have been here for double training sessions. We had eleven athletes come to the Health Services requiring IV's for dehydration, and all 11 were football players (not the cross country runners). Dehydration (especially in combination with taking electrolyte or salt pills) is the cause - not insuffient body fat.

-- karen (kawhite@wcu.edu), August 16, 2000.

We joke a bit about the Camelback (I think it's Camelback) slogan: "Hydrate or die" when we are our hiking or biking or whatever. But it reminds us to keep drinking fluids(I usually bring Tang instead b/c it tastes better to me and the sugar gives me quick energy). I have learned the hard way (not IV hydration, but big time headaches) to keep the fluids going, esp. when I am hot and working out hard. Oh and btw, I have enough body fat...wish I had a little less, but I'm happy to be somewhat fit anyway...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 16, 2000.

I am one of those people with just about zero tolerance for being in the sun. In the middle of the day if I am in the sun for more than an hour I get severe headaches which soon includes nausea. Technically, I think this is sunstroke rather than heat stroke, but it can still be dangerous. But, I have discovered, besides trying to do my gardening in the early morning or evening, that if I put something ice cold around my neck periodically so that the blood going to my brain is cooled, I avoid the headaches. So, I usually keep putting an ice water bottle up against my neck or I will wrap some icecubes in a wet dish towel and drape it around my neck. One of these days I plan to sew a tube that I can put ice in and have velcro fasteners on the end to close it around my neck. I think that way I can wear it while I am out in the garden. Thought this idea might help some of you athletes out there keep cool.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), August 21, 2000.

I have had mild cases of heatstroke- and I have plenty of body fat! My husband, who has less body fat than me seems to tolerate the heat better, however, when it comes to cold weather hyperthermia, I have the definate advatage. (Thats also something to watch for when working outside in cold weather) Like Ken, I freeze bottles of water to take outside and I push water on everyone, especially my children. You can buy powdered Gatoraide that you mix yourself-way cheaper than the bottled kind, it gives you some electrolytes, plus of course the fluid. I also use that when someone get a severe case of stomach flu with lots of diarrhea. Do outside chores early and wear a big brimed hat-that seems to help-maybe by keeping some of the heat away from your face/head?

-- Kelly Saderholm (markelly@scrtc.com), August 21, 2000.