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Experts say body needs time to adjust

Thursday, May 29, 2008

(Updated Friday, June 6 - 3:35 pm)

By Lex Alexander
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO -- The death Wednesday of N.C. A&T football player Chad Wiley is drawing attention to how the heat affects athletes.

Wiley, 22, died about 18 hours after a supervised, optional offseason conditioning session ended on the school's campus. University officials said they will know more about the cause of death once an autopsy is conducted.

More than 200 deaths directly attributable to hot weather conditions occurred each year from 1979 to 2002 in this country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hot weather might have been a contributing factor in hundreds more deaths each year.

Among football players at all levels, there will be about one case of heatstroke, the most serious heat-related illness, for every 350,000 players, said Dr. Daryl Rosenbaum, a football team physician at Wake Forest. Fatality rates among heatstroke patients range from 10 to 20 percent, the CDC said.

Tuesday's high of 86 made it the warmest day of the year up to that point. It was 83 on Monday, but before that the temperature hadn't reached 83 since April 26, and most highs since then had been in the 70s. Rosenbaum couldn't say whether the quick jump in temperature might have caused a shock to Wiley's system.

He did say, however, that the body needs days to adjust itself to exertion when it's hot.

"In the first few days, the body will increase blood flow to the skin to give off heat," Rosenbaum said. "On day two and day three, you sweat more. It takes about a week or 10 days before the body is able to handle (the heat) as well as it can. That's why we recommend when it's hot to start slow and gradually build intensity and duration of exercise."

But that gradual building must take place in the heat, he said. Trying to prepare for exertion in the heat by practicing in air conditioning won't help.

Rosenbaum also said people with sickle-cell trait -- people who have inherited the genetic anomaly that causes sickle-cell disease from one parent, but not both -- might be more vulnerable to heat illness. He said Wake Forest is considering screening players for the trait.

Was heat illness less common years ago, before air conditioning became widespread? Rosenbaum isn't so sure.

"We probably do a better job of diagnosing it now, so we probably recognize it more now than back then," he said. "And with more media coverage and dispersal of information more efficiently, we're more aware of it than we were back then.

"...with the rules changes and increased awareness, I would think we have less, but I can't quote any numbers."

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lex.alexander@news-record.com

DEATHS THIS DECADE

College football players who died after offseason conditioning workouts since 2000:
* Aug. 13, 2000: Preston Birdsong, 18, a freshman defensive back for Tennessee Tech University, collapses and dies while running sprints. An autopsy found Birdsong suffered systemic hyperthermia, causing his body to overheat.
* Aug. 15, 2000: Michael King, 20, a sophomore tackle for the University of Indianapolis, complains of exhaustion after a morning workout. His condition doesn't improve after taking a cold shower and drinking fluids. He arrives at the hospital with a body temperature of 110 and later dies. He suffered a heatstroke and had an enlarged heart.
* Feb. 26, 2001: Florida State freshman Devaughn Darling, 19, collapses as the conclusion of the Seminoles' "mat drills" at 7:14 a.m and is pronounced dead about 90 minutes later. The Leon County medical examiner found no definitive cause of death but found that Darling possessed a sickle-cell trait, which can hamper the cells' ability to carry oxygen and has been linked to cases of sudden-exercise death in some athletes. Darling's twin brother, Devard, was also a freshman on the FSU football team at the time.
* July 25, 2001: University of Florida freshman Eraste Autin, 18, dies after being in a six-day coma. He collapsed after a voluntary summer conditioning session, in which family and friends said he suffered a heatstroke and a heart attack. The temperature in Gainesville the day he collapsed was 88 degrees.
* Aug. 3, 2001: Northwestern senior safety Rashidi Wheeler, 22, collapses and dies after an offseason workout. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be an asthma attack. Although toxicology reports showed he had ephedrine in his system when he collapsed, the Cook County medical examiner said that had nothing to do with his death.
* July 12, 2005: Missouri redshirt freshman linebacker Aaron O'Neal, 19, dies after collapsing during a voluntary summer workout. According to witnesses, O'Neal began to struggle 45 minutes into the hour-long workout. An autopsy ruled that the probable cause of death was viral meningitis.
* Jan. 17, 2007: USF freshman running back Keeley Dorsey, 19, collapses and dies after a team conditioning workout at the school's athletic facility in Tampa. An autopsy concluded that Dorsey died of natural causes and "sudden cardiac death of undetermined etiology." A medical examiner said it was possible Dorsey might have had an undiagnosed heart condition called Long QT Syndrome.
* March 18, 2008: UCF redshirt freshman wide receiver Ereck Plancher, 19, dies after collapsing during a workout in preparation for the opening of spring practice. Teammates described the workout as an intense mat drill, and said Plancher had shown signs of struggle before he collapsed. Results of his autopsy are pending.
SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel