Risks of Heat Injuries on High School Athletes - Essay Example

Risks of heat injuries and high school athletes (high school football players) Insert Insert Introduction Heat injury arises when human body absorbs too much thermal energy that is generated internally. As a result, the internal temperatures of the body increases more rapidly than the ability of the body to dissolve heat-causing failure of the cell and breakdown will begin to take place, bringing about dysfunction of organ and in the long run, it will lead to failure of the system. When the injury is not identified, death will result in the end. Heat injury results into conditions that include muscle cramps, swelling, rash, and exhaustion of heat including heat stroke in the harshest form. The main ways of treating heat injury are to identify the athlete that has been affected and cool the whole body of an athlete in the fastest way possible quickly. Cooling can be done by immersing the affected athlete in ice of water resulting into faster cooling. Literature review Heat injury is associated with risk factors. Extrinsic risk factor is as a result of humid and too hot conditions. It can also result from wearing too many clothes, lack of shade and rest breaks, and Global warming. Intrinsic risk factor is also another risk factor that arises from exercising under hot conditions of climate. Medical conditions have also brought implications that include amphetamines, benzodiazepines, alcohol, history prior heat injury, febrile illness and sickle cell trait (Shirreffs, 2005). Prevention of heat risk injury has been relied upon clinical observation and information from physiology. Expert’s opinions have also aided in prevention measures. To prevent heat injury an athlete need to be aware of the humidity and temperatures and try to decrease when both are high. There should be frequent provision of breaks of rest and promote active hydration. Educating coaches, healthcare providers to monitor heat illness signs. School administrators are advised to engage to an athlete trainer services to ensure that the secondary school athletes are safe from risk of heat injury. Due to little knowledge of football coaches of secondary schools in relation to heat risk injury, high school association of athlete should ensure that coaches participate in continuous education on how to manage emergency in sports situations (Anthony C. Luke, 2007). Heat injury has become prone to high school football players reporting deaths among football players. However, annual cases of heat injury and deaths that are preventable still happen in the course of football play and practice regardless of ongoing effort both at local and national levels to educate and train players, coaches, and medical staff on strategies that are effective so as to reduce risk of heat injury. Current issue overview Several high school football programs are informed of aspects that enhance or decrease heat injury risk on the field. Most of them are putting up an effort to develop player safety. However, results from the survey indicate a confirmation of much to do to decrease the chances of risk of heat injury including deaths occurring in high school football. Heat injury survey has helped to put efforts on educating about football safety of players on practices that have been accepted and improvements (Anthony C. Luke, 2007). More so, there is an immediate requirement to better education and awareness about risk of heat injury in high school football. Survey shows a large number of students take part in high school football, putting a large number of students to risk for heat injury. It is recommended that to build up the base of knowledge to coaches of secondary school football concerning heat injury, the school should employ an athlete trainer who can handle and educate emergency care course to all school coaches. This will help to address and inform on recognition, prevention, and treatment of numerous grounds of an expected deaths in athletes that results from heat injury (William Adams et al., 2014). The course provided to coaches by athlete trainer also comprises hands-on training to enable coaches knows the right way to carry out emergencies. The athlete trainer should put pressure on the benefits of effective communication to enhance appropriate care of athlete students. In addition, secondary school administration can order that all coaches should have knowledge of the course that deals with emergency care and annually they should posses’ recertification requirements. However, education provided to high school coaches should not act as an enduring or permanent option to employment of an athlete trainer. Secondary schools football association should endure to make every effort to impress to strive suitable care of medication to enhance student’s athlete’s safety. Associated risks of heat injury Physiological Children are commonly prone to heat injury risk due to physiological reasons. The bodies of children have a large surface area to their body volume ratio as compared to adults, which increases the rate of absorption of heat in climatic conditions that are too hot. In addition to that, children’s rate of perspiration is lower than that of adults and, as a result, there will be reduced the ability of the body to cool down through sweating. More so, children rate of metabolism and the resultant production of heat for each kilogram of body mass are usually greater than that of adults given the same rate of work (Zachary et al., 2014). Exposure Children and high school football players are at greater risk of heat injury since they are often exposed to physical exercise that is too much involving and vigorous. During warm summer season, children participate in large number summer outdoor sports camps. Social/ behavioral Individuals have substantial variations in response to thirst for water and between coaches when providing water break for their athletes and football players. Athletes and football players need to rest frequently and have hydration breaks hence it is important to have structural and social factors to aid in moderating hydration and breaks of rest behaviors. Athletes, football players, and children who require water or rest and are under supervision of their coaches or adults might make them be reluctant causing interruption to structured exercise drills from taking a break (Marshall, 2009). They are also at risk due to peer pressure to exacting the heat out. Approaches/ Solutions High school football players should be subjected to slow adaptation to conditions that are too hot. There should also be reduced activities for football players in conditions that are humid and hot. The football players should wear clothes that are light and advised to wear light colored clothing. There should also be careful supervision to monitor football players against heat injury. The coach should also ensure that there are sufficient resources that can aid in cooling the athletes who are under heat injury in a rapid and immediate way (William Adams et al., 2014). The athletes and football players should be provided with knowledge concerning prevention of heat injury by their coaches and caregivers. When an athlete has been affected by heat injury, he can be moved to an area that is shaded to cool down his body. The fan can also be used to bring down the temperatures of the affected athlete. The athlete can also be moved into air conditioning indoors to help regulate the high temperatures. The football staff should have a clinical backup such as a physician and utilizing air conditioning unit that is portable (Anthony C. Luke, 2007). More so it is advisable to eliminate the football equipment of an athlete to reduce weight that causes a rise in body temperatures, and this will make an athlete light thus helping to reduce the temperatures. The current solutions to heat injury have been set in place for high school football programs. The high school football programs require to ensuring that there are adjustments that are appropriate to high humidity and heat by changing the configurations of the equipment and intensity of practice and the safety period of the athletes. This could include using equipment’s such as helmets, no pads, or partial pads, decreased intensity and time of drills and sessions practices. Conclusion High school football programs require applying frequent on-site dimensions of environmental humidity and temperatures earlier and during practice and check on strategies of modifying practice to minimize the incidence of heat injury on the football field. The programs should maximize strategies of planned hydration to encourage ideal hydration for several conditions of the environment. The school football program should stop depending on an onsite water foundation and rely on water offered at sideline in a cooler and in bottles with caps in favor of heat safety. There should be daily assessment of hydration status for each individual player to check fluid loss. This will assist to recover fluid loss recovery for the affected football players, thus assisting in eliminating the risk of heat injury. An emergency plan of action should be created by the football staff to aid in determining heat illness and care. The equipment that is appropriate for cooling should be readily available on site to cool affected players as they are waiting for an emergency team to respond. Football staff should ensure there is a national standardized history of PPE form that describes heat injury. It is important that medical conditions that can lead to additional risk for heat injury to an athlete References Anthony C. Luke, M. F. (2007). Heat Injury Prevention Practices in High School Football. Clin J Sports Med, 17(6), 488–493. Marshall, S. W. (2009). Heat injury in youth sport. Br J Sports Med, 44(1), 8–12. Shirreffs, S. M. (2005). The Importance of Good Hydration for Work and Exercise Performance. Nutrition Reviews, 63(6), S14 –S21. William Adams et al. (2014). The Secondary School Football Coach’s RelationshipWith the Athletic Trainer and Perspectives on Exertional Heat Stroke. Journal of Athletic Training, 49(4), 469–477. Zachary et al. (2014). The American Journal of Sports Medicine. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 42(1), 70-77. Read More