By Mike Enright

This is a story about love.

This is a story about UConn.

This is a story about measuring the content of a triathlete’s sweat.

But at its core, this is a story about two UConn alumni who met on campus as undergraduates, got married, and are absolutely crazy proud of their alma mater.

Former student-athlete Laura Marcoux ’10 (CLAS) developed a passion for Ironman triathlons after graduation, but when she faced a life-threatening situation in a recent triathlon, it wasn’t long before she discovered that the best place to get answers to her questions was back home at UConn.

Laura and her husband Ryan ’08 (BUS) returned to Storrs last month, primarily for a visit to UConn’s nationally renowned Korey Stringer Institute, which specializes in research and education to prevent heat stroke injuries and deaths.

The trip was also an opportunity for some Husky nostalgia.

But at KSI, they found hope that Laura will be able to continue in the Ironman triathlons that mean so much to her.

A Husky love story

Ryan and Laura met on the first day of classes in the fall of 2006, when she was a freshman and he was a junior transfer from Manhattan College. They met in front of the Engineering II Building, where a lot of great academic works happens, but it’s an unlikely place to meet your future spouse.

Laura was Laura Eichert at the time and a member of the women’s lacrosse team from Columbia, Maryland. Ryan was a marketing major from New Milford, Connecticut, and was working as a student assistant for coach Jim Penders and the Husky baseball team.

They dated throughout their time at UConn, and moved out to Colorado following Lauren’s graduation in 2010.

“We love the outdoors and hiking,” says Laura. “That’s how we decided on Colorado.”

The couple now live in Morrison, Colorado. When they were married three years ago, they incorporated a number of UConn themes in their wedding: Each guest table was named after a building on the UConn campus, and the cake topper even included Engineering II; “UConn Husky” was played as the entrance song, and guests gestured U-C-O-N-N for pictures.

Finding new limits

During Laura’s time as a lacrosse player at UConn, there were several changes in head coach, but the strength and conditioning program was consistent, including Amanda Kimball, who remains on the UConn staff today.

Our [strength and conditioning] sessions [at UConn] were designed to take us out of our comfort zones both mentally and physically.— Laura Marcoux

Unlike many student-athletes, Laura enjoyed the time spent conditioning more than practice.

“I worked with the highest level of strength and conditioning coaches at UConn,” she says. “Our sessions were designed to take us out of our comfort zones both mentally and physically, and to break new barriers and find new limits.”

Her love of training developed into a passion for the Ironman triathlon – a grueling event with a 2.4 mile swim, and 112 miles of biking, followed by a marathon run of 26.2 miles. Laura did her first sprint triathlon the summer before her senior year, and was hooked.

She has finished four full Ironman triathlons, including the world championship in Hawaii. She placed in the top 10 three times, and was in the top three twice.

But while competing at the Ironman Los Cabos in Mexico last November, Laura developed a condition called hyponatremia and was unable to finish.

“It was a hot race and I felt super-bloated. I was stopping at all the aid stations during the bike ride and pouring water over myself, but it did not help,” she says. “I began to panic.”

She pushed herself further than she should, wound up finishing the bike ride, and started the run, but at that point it was a walk for her. She walked about 11-and-a-half miles and then had to pull out and sit down.

Ryan knew she was in trouble and found her on the course. He immediately got medical help, and soon an ambulance was on the way.

Laura had become unable to answer even the most basic questions. She didn’t know her name or Ryan’s, where she was, or where she was from. She was able to remember just one fact, the name of her pet dog – Luna. The dog is of course a Husky, whose middle name happens to be Jonathan.

Laura was given several IV treatments at a local hospital, but blacked out and lost consciousness for about eight hours. It was the scare of a lifetime.

Fans of all things UConn

“We are like proud parents when it comes to UConn,” says Ryan. The Marcouxs have every television sports package available, and are constantly re-arranging plans to watch Husky teams.

“It doesn’t matter what sport it is, we love them all,” he says. “A few years ago, the women’s soccer team was on ESPNU playing for the American Conference championship. We canceled everything we were doing that afternoon to watch.”

The Marcouxs are huge fans of Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma.

“I try to draw parallels from Geno’s coaching strategies to triathlons,” says Laura, who is also a triathlon coach, fitness director at a gym, and a personal trainer. “I’ve learned that if you hold athletes to the highest standards, believe in them, and put them in positions to develop belief in themselves, then they will live up to those standards.”

Ryan works in systems integration for Conga Inc., in Colorado. He credits lessons learned from Penders during his involvement with the Husky baseball team.

“Coach Penders puts an emphasis not only on player development, but also on personal development,” says Ryan. “I still hold onto many of Coach Penders’ mantras, like WIN (What’s Important Now) and ACE (Attitude, Concentration, Execution). I would not be the person I am today without the guidance I received from Coach.”

Ryan himself is just getting into competitive running, and still plays baseball in an adult league back home as an infielder.

‘The best place in the country’

As the Marcouxs were searching for solutions to Laura’s issues, they wanted to find the best place in the country to get help. After a few conversations, all recommendations pointed to the Korey Stringer Institute at UConn.

The fact that the best teaching facility in the country [for athletic performance issues] was at the school I love was a sign just too strong to ignore.— Laura Marcoux

The center is named for Korey Stringer, a Pro Bowl offensive tackle from the Minnesota Vikings who died of heat stroke during training camp of 2001. His wife Kelci worked with the NFL to create a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing sudden death in sport, which later became the KSI at UConn in 2010.

Laura submitted an inquiry on the KSI website and got a phone call back in about 30 seconds from KSI vice president of research and athletic performance Rob Huggins.

She was impressed by the prompt response, and by Huggins’ interest and concern for her case. She says it reinforced her UConn pride.

The Marcouxs quickly planned a trip to UConn for mid-January for Laura to get testing at KSI. It was also a chance to visit the campus they love.

Developing a personalized strategy

The first day on campus, KSI staff met with Laura to gather additional information. She then went through a rigorous test to measure her substrate utilization and determine the appropriate level of calories she needs at various levels of exercise intensity.

“This test will allow Laura to develop a caloric strategy for the events she takes part in,” said Huggins. “We will be able to let her know what she needs to do during the different parts of the Ironman triathlons.”

That same night, the Marcouxs took the opportunity to attend a UConn women’s basketball game at Gampel Pavilion.

The next day, Laura was back at KSI for an intensive sweat electrolyte test. The team wanted to know literally everything all about her sweat – how much sodium is in it, what her rate of sweat is, and how much fluid she is losing and at what rate.

This testing consisted of a two-hour stationary bike ride followed by a “washdown” to collect her sweat and a one-hour stationary run followed by another “washdown.” Laura did these tests in a chamber at KSI that was set for 95 degrees and 60 percent humidity. Her core temperature was monitored throughout the process through a pill she took.

It will take some time for KSI staff to determine the full results of these tests, and what Laura needs to concentrate on to stay healthy in the Ironman triathlons as she looks forward to her next event in Dallas on April 29.

She hopes to find out exactly what she is losing in sweat during an Ironman, in terms of both water and electrolytes, so that she can turn the information into a precise fueling and hydration strategy for her upcoming races.

Although there are some general guidelines for Ironman athletes regarding how to properly fuel in a race, Laura has learned that these guidelines don’t work for her because of her uniquely low sweat rate and probably some other factors that she will find out from KSI.

“In order for me to take the next step in my triathlon career, in both safety and performance, being able to utilize the data that I will receive from KSI will allow me to replace exactly what I lose in a race,” she says, “and therefore allow me to decrease the rate at which I fatigue – which is the name of the game in Ironman!”

A positive experience at KSI, a chance to see the Huskies play, spending “way too much money” at the UConn Bookstore, and a few good meals in Storrs Center.

All in all, a perfect few days for the Marcouxs.

Source: UConn Today

By Amy Marturana

Chances are, you’ve been and felt dehydrated at some point in your life. Low energy, headache, and dry mouth are all common symptoms of mild dehydration, which is usually not dangerous—it’s most likely just going to make you feel a little uncomfortable until you drink more water to fix it. But when it comes to your workouts, being mildly to moderately dehydrated can negatively impact your performance in a few ways that you might not even realize.

Of course, the effects are much more serious for an elite athlete than an everyday exerciser, Douglas Casa, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the Korey Stringer Institute and research associate in the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Connecticut, tells SELF. “The difference between first and tenth place is seconds. For a regular person, that difference is not as big of a deal. For an elite athlete, it could be their livelihood.”

Still, if you’re trying to shave some time off your next race, or want to feel your best during a workout (who doesn’t?), making sure you’re properly hydrated can help.

Here’s how being a little dehydrated can impact your workouts, and what you can do to fix it.

Our cells need water to synthesize energy. That’s especially important if you want to get through a tough workout.

The basic form of energy our muscles need to function is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. When we exercise, our bodies work to convert nutrients like carbohydrates and fat into ATP through both anaerobic (without oxygen) and aerobic (with oxygen) processes. We can only store a tiny amount of ATP in our cells, so our bodies are constantly synthesizing more to continue fueling our every movement. When you’re working out, the amount of energy your muscles needs increases, so synthesizing ATP is even more important.

While the food we eat is what’s broken down and converted to usable ATP, the process can’t happen without water, Greg Wells, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Toronto and author of The Ripple Effect: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think Better, tells SELF. One of the main systems in our bodies that creates ATP is called the citric acid cycle, or Kreb’s cycle. “If you’re dehydrated, the Kreb’s cycle cannot work properly to create energy,” Wells says. This can leave you feeling tired and fatigued (during your workout and in daily life).

When you have less fluid in your body, your heart has to work even harder to pump blood.

This means, ultimately, that you may feel like your cardiovascular system is working even harder (i.e. higher heart rate) than it should be. A workout that shouldn’t feel so intense has your heart pounding. Here’s why: “Your body needs some fluid to keep blood volume up to function,” exercise physiologist Mike T. Nelson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., tells SELF. “Blood volume, which drives all pressure in the body, is primarily fluid based. If we start losing enough fluid, cardiac function is going to go awry.” When your blood volume drops, your heart has to beat faster to try and circulate the same amount of blood throughout your body.

Dehydration can also make it harder for you to regulate your body temperature.

When we exercise, several areas of our body fight for fluid, Casa says. “The skin is trying to cool the body down, and it needs fluid to sweat. Muscles need blood to carry them oxygen and nutrients and also remove waste products. And the heart needs blood to maintain cardiac output,” Casa explains. If you’re dehydrated and your blood volume is reduced, it can’t meet all of these demands—which means your natural cooling mechanism may not work as well as it should.

If you’re exercising in a cool environment, that’s not a big problem. But the more intense the exercise and the hotter the environment, the more your body needs to sweat, so the greater impact dehydration can have. “Ultimately, the body will prioritize cardio function and you’ll decrease intensity so you don’t need to sweat as much,” Casa says. If you fight through it without slowing down or rehydrating? You can end up overheating, and if the conditions are hot and intense enough, falling victim to heat-related illness like heat stroke.

Remember, if dehydration turns severe, it can lead to even more serious side effects.

While mild dehydration can lead to symptoms that usually just cause a little discomfort, severe dehydration is a medical emergency and can lead to heat stroke, kidney failure, and seizures if it’s not treated properly. Exercising intensely in a hot environment increases your risk, but luckily, drinking when you feel thirsty is sufficient for most people to avoid severe dehydration.

If you’re experiencing dehydration symptoms like fatigue, dizziness, and confusion, and drinking more water doesn’t help, see a doctor. You should also seek medical attention if you can’t keep down fluids or have bloody or black stool.

Certain populations are at higher risk for dehydration, like children, older adults, and those with chronic illnesses, so check with your doctor if you have any concerns about becoming dehydrated while you exercise.

And yes, it is possible to over hydrate—but it’s pretty rare for most everyday exercisers.

Hyponatremia is a medical condition that can happen when you over hydrate to the point that your blood becomes too diluted, causing a severe drop in sodium concentration. When it’s mild, you may not even realize you have it. But a severe case of hyponatremia can cause symptoms that look a lot like those of dehydration—nausea, confusion, and irritability—and be fatal if it’s not treated quickly.

For endurance athletes who are exercising for a few hours at a time (covering a marathon distance or more) and drinking a ton of water without replenishing their electrolytes too, hyponatremia is a real, life-threatening risk. A 2007 review published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology notes that studies have found the incidence in endurance athletes to be anywhere from 13 to 29 percent, with at least eight reported deaths in the U.S. from exercise-related hyponatremia.

In general, experts agree that it’s not something most non-endurance exercisers need to worry about. But it’s good to at least be aware of it—severe hyponatremia, like severe dehydration, is a medical emergency that requires immediate intervention.

The good news is that staying optimally hydrated doesn’t have to require any fancy calculations.

Elite athletes monitor their body weight and calculate their sweat rate to determine how much hydration they need. That’s pretty unnecessary for the rest of us—you really just need to listen to your body, Casa says. “During activity, your thirst is a fantastic cue. Thirst kicks in when you’re somewhere around 2 percent dehydrated. If you squelch it then, you can stay below 2 percent, which is a good place to be. If you meet your thirst, then you won’t over hydrate.”

The American College of Sports Medicine also recommends making sure you’re properly hydrated before you plan to exercise—so that you don’t start your workout dehydrated—and that you’re rehydrating after you’re done.

Regular water is usually sufficient for most of us. “People who are exercising for 60 to 90 minutes don’t have to worry too much about electrolytes. People are getting what they need eating an American diet, so a 1-hour bout of exercise isn’t going to result in a deficit.” The exceptions: If you’re exercising intensely in extremely hot and humid conditions, you sweat a lot or have particularly salty sweat, or you’re on a low-sodium diet, it wouldn’t hurt to add some electrolytes into the mix to be safe. For most people, however, remembering to drink water before exercising and carrying a water bottle so you can drink when you’re thirsty is all you need to do to stay hydrated, energized, and ready to power through a workout.

Source: SELF

December 19, 2017

by: Adam W. Chase

Rectal thermometers.

Children dread them. And most adults probably do, too. They’re something one figures will be nicely tucked away, in the rear view, so to speak, never to be seen or, rather, felt once capable of holding an oral thermometer under the tongue. However, taking a subject’s core temperature during hard physical exertion has, until recently, always required the insertion of a rectal thermometer connected to a long wire. [See Exhibit A below.]

Fortunately, thanks to NASA and its Space Shuttle astronauts, including then-77-year-old Senator John Glenn, there is now a digestible transmitting thermometer that serves as an alternative. [See Exhibit B.] The size of a giant vitamin pill, or about three Tic Tacs, the transmitter is swallowed and, after a couple hours from ingestion, it reaches the intestinal tract and is able to send a wireless transmission, providing real-time core temperature readings. The transmitter then passes through the digestive system and is eliminated within a normal cycle of 18-30 hours. It’s one of the many advancements that have helped improve the study of human performance in athletics, including and especially endurance sports.

UConn’s New Facility

On September 22, 2017, the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) opened its $700,000 “Mission Heat Lab,” a state-of-the-art laboratory designed to facilitate research and education for maximal performance, optimal safety and the prevention of death from exertional heatstroke (EHS). The lab was made possible by donations from, among others, the NFL—Korey Stringer was an offensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings who died in 2001 from EHS—Gatorade, Camelbak, and the namesake thermo-regulating active wear company, Mission.

I was fortunate enough to visit the lab and serve as an early test subject less than two weeks after it had opened. I was even more fortunate to have the option of using the digestible thermometer, thus foregoing the rectal alternative. Taking the subjects’ core temp readings is an absolute requirement of the lab. If the core rises above 103 degrees F, the test ends.

Other test participants were cyclists, including two-time Olympic mountain biker Lea Davison, and runners, such as Gediminas Grinius, winner of this year’s Ultra Trail World Tour. As a runner, I was put on a treadmill and told to go at an exertion level I could maintain for 90 minutes. The room measured 94 degrees F and the humidity was set at 60 percent. The highly-trained lab technicians, PhDs and doctoral students, guided by KSI’s CEO and UConn’s director of athletic training, Dr. Doug Casa, a passionate trail runner, performed the gold standard “body washdown” test on us. Very few labs are equipped to do this test, designed to measure your sweat content, down to the drop.

Before and after the exertion we were carefully weighed and then, while we ran or rode, we mopped up all the sweat and the technicians kept the wet towels. After we finished we were washed down inside of a giant trash bag, with a set amount of purified water so that the lab techs could later remove that control from the sample. Any water we consumed during the test was also factored into the results. Before the test, we had to follow a careful protocol of washing, including our exercise clothes, using only water, as detergent, lotion or deodorant would alter the results. Similarly, we were instructed not to drink alcohol or coffee for 24 hours before the testing.

Results

Once we were washed down with the pre-measured purified water (see above), the technicians placed the sweaty towels and our drenched exercise clothing into the “sweat soup” to be measured for various electrolyte levels. My sweat loss was 3.8 percent of my body mass and my sodium loss was 980.0mg, which was in the normal range (0.18 to 1.5) for exercise in heat.

Based on our before and after weight and the amount of water consumed during the exertion, KSI determined our sweat rate, measured as liters per hour. Normal sweat rates are 1.5-2.5 L/hr for men, 1.3-2 L/hr for women. I lost almost exactly 5 pounds during my test and had a high sweat rate of 2.31 L/hr. My core rose to the high of 103.1F, running a max speed of 9mph and I consumed a measly 35g of water.  My heart rate went from 90 to 160 and, according to my follow-up anaerobic threshold test, spent the last 15 minutes above that heart rate level.

Alberto Salazar was tested at UConn’s predecessor lab, run by Dr. Lawrence Armstrong, a leading expert on hydration and who now serves on KSI’s Medical and Science Advisory Board, and he had the outlier sweat rate of 3.7 L/hr. Salazar would lose as much as 8 percent of his body weight during his races and he put great emphasis on training for heat tolerance before the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles. Humans are only able to take in 1.3-1.4 L/hr so, while a high sweat rate helps to cool the body during exertion, it isn’t all good because the loss of hydration can be a real detriment if you lose too much. According to my measured sodium loss, I’d need to have consumed 4.5 salt capsules or drank enough Nuun hydration mix for 2.5 tabs.

Clear and Copious

Dr. Armstrong invented the urine color chart and, with that simple educational measure, has probably done more for more individuals than any other campaign to address dehydration. The chart has been helpful to many and was even converted to resemble beer types at one of the Western States 100 aid stations, where they used it to illustrate the command of avoiding stouts and sticking to lagers. Clear and copious urine is usually a sign of adequate hydration.

We learned from Dr. Armstrong that, without excess, caffeine doesn’t have an impact on hydration. But he and Dr. Casa were quick to point out that one needn’t be dehydrated to suffer heat stroke and that if you wait until you are thirsty, you are already late because thirst isn’t triggered until you dehydrated by 1-2 percent. In contrast, however, there are schools of thought, namely, Dr. Tim Noakes of South Africa, who professes that runners are over-hydrating and need to listen to their bodies and let thirst be their guide. Dr. Casa agreed with Noakes that, for purposes of avoiding hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance suffered by recreational runners who drink excessive water, thirst is a safe guide.

The key determining factors of one’s sweat rate are intensity of exertion, body size and environmental factors, such as heat and humidity. The body is an incredible system for trying to thermoregulate and what you drink can show up in your sweat as soon as 10 minutes after you consume it.

The takeaway from KSI’s Mission Heat Lab was that there are considerable performance benefits to be gained from knowing your sweat rate, sweat content, how, when and with what to rehydrate. As an easy rule, if you use your morning weight, thirst and urine color as basic guiding indicators, you can stay on top of your hydration needs.

Dr. Casa, with the help of many of his assistants and PhD students, is publishing a book in early 2018, “Sport and Physical Activity in the Heat,” as a full resource for serious athletes, coaches, trainers, sports medicine practitioners, kinesiologists, concerned about performance in hot conditions.

“Since we do not currently have an accurate wearable technology that can provide real-time assessment of hydration status, it is essential for high-level athletes to have an understanding of factors that influence sweat rate (amount of fluid/electrolytes lost in a given amount of time in a given environmental conditions at a given intensity),” Casa said. “This knowledge can allow an athlete to train hydration replacement and develop an appropriate race-day strategy.

“We will eventually have an accurate real-time wearable for hydration status that athletes can perpetually monitor so tweaks can be made—although lab data would still establish the general plan. But until that time, the lab work helps establish a plan and race-day thirst, environmental changes, intensity, pre-event hydration, and etc. need to be considered to make hydration decisions.”

Source: Motiv Running

Listen to Dr. Robert Huggins and Larry Cooper discuss the ATLAS project on The Sports Medicine Broadcast.

Source: Hartford Courant

STORRS, Conn. — Douglas Casa acknowledges his new heat laboratory at the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute could be viewed by some as a torture chamber.

He’ll be testing athletes, soldiers and others (sometimes for hours at a time) on a treadmill, stationary bike or cooling tub in an environment that can be controlled to reach temperatures of up to 110 degrees and 90 percent humidity.

“The difference is, everyone being tested here is a volunteer,” he said. “And we’re saving lives.”

The $700,000 Mission Heat Laboratory is designed to be used by the NFL, NCAA teams, the military, apparel manufacturers, and scientists interested in preventing and treating heat-related illnesses, optimizing performance in extreme conditions, and learning the temperature limits of the human body.

“The prevention side of heat stroke is one of the big reasons this lab was built,” Casa said. “We can look at things related to hydration, body-cooling strategies, acclimatization and the effects of certain medications, supplements and clothing on how much you heat up.”

Casa decided to make the study of heat and the human body his life’s work after nearly dying of heat stroke while competing in a 10K race at the Empire State Games in 1985.

He helped found the Korey Stringer Institute in 2010, after being approached by the family of the former Minnesota Vikings lineman who died of a heat stroke in 2001.

The institute’s work has helped rewrite heat-related protocols for the military along with the NFL, college football and other sports. Casa’s research, for example, proved that treating a heat stroke immediately on site to bring a body’s temperature down below 104 degrees can dramatically increase survival rates. That led to NFL teams putting cooling tubs at practice sites.

But Casa’s team had been working in a tiny 100-square-foot closet-like lab, using household humidifiers and dehumidifiers to conduct their research. Some of the lab’s ceiling tiles had to be removed to accommodate one of the taller athletes they tested.

UConn provided about $350,000 for the new high-tech lab with its environmental controls, $20,000 treadmills and computer monitoring equipment. It even has a bathroom so test subjects don’t have to leave the controlled environment during longer sessions.

The other half of the lab’s funding came from donors including the NFL, its players association and athletic trainers’ organization. Mission, an athletic apparel company co-founded by tennis star Serena Williams, basketball star Dwayne Wade and soccer star David Villa, spent $100,000 to secure the naming rights.

Josh Shaw, Mission’s chief executive, said it plans to use the lab to test new garments that will not only wick moisture from the body, but eliminate it from the clothing entirely. The lab also will be used to test new wearable technologies, sensors that can be placed in T-shirts for example, that could alert someone when they begin overheating.

“Serena Williams competes at 120 degrees at the Australian Open, that’s pretty extreme,” Shaw said. “So, if we can create a product that will help her be safe, we’re probably going to be able to use that technology for people, say, who do roofing or gardening, or contracting.”

The military, which has similar labs, is working in conjunction with Casa and Korey Stringer to conduct tests on people and materials to optimize how soldiers perform in places such as the Middle East, and determine whether certain people are fit for duty in the heat.

“Understanding different stresses in the heat, whether it’s combat load or uniforms that can be mitigated with different materials, different load carriages, different hydration or cooling strategies — those are things we can work out in the lab before they are worked out in the field,” said. Dr. Francis O’Connor, a retired colonel who studies heat-related issues at Uniformed Services University.

The lab also will be used by UConn’s athletic teams to help them prepare for hot-weather competitions and by individual athletes who have suffered heat-related illnesses to help them determine their new heat tolerances levels and develop a recovery plan.

Offensive lineman Hunter Knighton credits the institute with getting him back on the football field following a near-fatal heat stroke during an offseason practice at the University of Miami in 2014. His family donated money for the new lab.

“It’s been kind of a miracle for me,” said Knighton, who now plays for Tulsa. “I was just really blessed to be able to find the institute and Dr. Casa. They were able to guide me back.”

Source: Washington Post

UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute and MISSION have teamed up to open one of the nation’s premier academic heat research labs at the University of Connecticut’s main campus in Storrs.

Outfitted with the latest in climate control technologies and human performance monitoring systems, the MISSION Heat Lab at the Korey Stringer Institute will allow researchers to explore new ways to improve human performance, endurance, and safety in the heat.

“Exertional heat stroke is a constant concern for athletes, active military personnel, laborers, and others who are called on to perform in hot conditions,” says UConn professor Douglas Casa, a national expert on heat stroke and chief executive officer of the Korey Stringer Institute. “This lab will increase our understanding of heat illness and how body temperature impacts performance. It will also help us develop better methods for cooling, which is an important part of our commitment to keeping athletes, warfighters, and laborers safe.”

The partnership between the Korey Stringer Institute and MISSION is a natural one. Named after a Minnesota Vikings lineman who died from exertional heat stroke in 2001, the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) is one of the nation’s leading sports safety research and advocacy organizations specializing in heat illness research. MISSION is a pioneer in the development of temperature-controlling technologies for athletic and active accessories and gear. Co-founded by some of the world’s greatest athletes including Serena Williams, Dwyane Wade, Carli Lloyd, and David Villa in 2009, MISSION is dedicated to providing athletes, workers, and active individuals at all levels with solutions to maximize performance and optimize safety in the heat.

The MISSION Heat Lab at UConn features a first-of-its-kind cooling area that will allow researchers to monitor how the human body responds to different cooling treatments after experiencing heat-related stress and conditions.

“Rooted in sports and science, MISSION works with professional athletes, scientists, and medical doctors to deliver game-changing temperature-control technologies that enhance performance, safety, and comfort,” says Josh Shaw, founder and CEO of MISSION. “Since 2014, we’ve been working hand-in-hand with the KSI, and we are thrilled to sponsor the new state-of-the-art MISSION Heat Lab. For the next 10 years, the MISSION Heat Lab will set new standards in research, development, and testing to combat heat-related illness for athletes, workers, military, and active individuals – globally. As the market leader for cooling technologies, the new MISSION Heat Lab is yet another testament to our commitment to combatting the dangerous effects on everyone who lives, works, and plays in the heat.”

Located within UConn’s Gampel Pavilion sports arena, the MISSION Heat Lab is capable of creating a broad range of environmental conditions. High-end exercise bikes and treadmills along with advanced temperature controls will allow researchers to mimic specific environments for races, competitions, and events – from a hilly 10K New England road race on a cloudy 70 degree day with 40 percent humidity to a stifling hours-long military march in 100 degree heat under hot sun with 90 percent humidity. Radiant heat panels being installed later this year will further enhance lab simulations.

A full suite of continuous physiological monitoring systems will capture a test subject’s heart rate, internal temperature, skin temperature, and other vital signs hundreds of times per second. The test chamber also includes restroom facilities and resting areas designed to allow test subjects to remain in a designated environment for hours at a time without the need for outside breaks that might skew data regarding how their body is reacting to conditions.

Private donations supported the lab’s creation. One of those donors was Carole Knighton, whose son Hunter nearly died of exertional heat stroke during a 2014 football practice at the University of Miami. Hunter, whose body temperature was reportedly 109 degrees when he collapsed, spent two weeks on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, but ultimately survived the ordeal.

“This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart,” says Knighton, who lives in Fort Myers, Florida. “If it were not for the Korey Stringer Institute, my son would not be where he is today.”

With a desire to return to football, Hunter, now 23, visited the Korey Stringer Institute on several occasions to have his heat tolerance tested. In the process, he and his family learned a lot about heat illness and how it can be avoided. Winner of the 2015 Brian Piccolo Award for being the ”most courageous” football player in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Hunter now plays for Tulane.

Another donor, Jonny Class of Maryland, shares a similar story. His son, Gavin, suffered an exertional heat stroke during a Towson University football practice in 2013. Like Hunter, Gavin was hospitalized as his liver and other organs began to fail. His heart stopped and he was resuscitated, beginning what was to be a very long road to recovery that included a liver transplant. And like Hunter, Gavin was subsequently tested at the Korey Stringer Institute to make sure his body was ready to return to football.

“With their help, he was able to return to all physical activities and is now able to lead a normal life,” says Jonny Class, Gavin’s father. “The knowledge we learned from KSI was amazing. We have since started a foundation, YOLT (You Only Live Twice) to help raise awareness about heat illness and the importance of organ donation.”

University officials say the new MISSION lab will be a strong addition to UConn’s nationally renowned kinesiology program.

“This new state-of-the art lab will be one of very few such facilities in the U.S., and has some design elements that make it stand alone,” says Cameron Faustman, interim dean for UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources, which houses the program. “We are confident it will attract even more research funding, research scholars, and students to our campus. The cost of this initiative has been met with contributions from the University, college, department, private donors, and companies. This speaks not only to the recognized need for the types of research that this facility will support, but also to the confidence that many others have in our faculty members.”

The MISSION Heat Lab will be available for use by outside companies and organizations to maximize research opportunities in heat safety awareness, as well as other areas of temperature-related studies.

Source: UConn Today

By Jocelyn Maminta

STORRS, Conn. (WTNH) – High school sports create a frenzy, on the field, in the gym, and in the stands.

But the first study of its kind — a state by state analysis into safety practices — reveals what needs to be done to better protect student athletes.

“We’re looking at the key things that can cause death in high school sports. So cardiac issues, heat issues, head injuries and other things that can protentially prevent serious consequences from playing high school sports,” says lead researcher Douglas Casa, who heads up the Korey Stringer Institute at UConn – a national sports research and advocacy organization.

Connecticut he says ranks 38th — among the other states and District of Columbia.

But Casa stresses that statewide policy changes at little or no cost, could easily boost that ranking.

Such as a detailed emergency action plan, “Like kind of set policy-like a recipe to follow like I call this number, open this gate, meet this ambulance driver and take the person there.”

He also recommends — modifying routines when needed, “When it’s really extreme environmental conditions, you make modifications, so like the state of Georgia has an outstanding policy that when it gets hotter outside, you have more rest breaks, and you have longer rest breaks.”

The unexpected can happen anytime.

Baseball pitcher Joey Ciancola died soon after collapsing on the first day of winter workouts on a practice field at a New England college.

“He was in perfect health and pushed to his limits,” says his mother, Michelle Ciancola.

She says that visible symptoms of exertional heat stroke went unchecked, “Joey became delirious, started to run backwards instead of forward. He was definitely struggling. When he collapsed he was having seizures.” She adds, “I strongly urge all parents and athletes that are going off to school — going off to high school — or going off to college in the next few weeks — to check in with your athletic department and ensure that they are following proper protocol and that they are trained.”

Casa says, “We need parents to make sure that when every time their kid goes out to a playing field, that there is an athletic trainer there, that there’s treatment for heat stroke, that they have an A-E-D just in case there’s a cardiac event.”

Even if a state doesn’t have a policy, Casa says that individual schools can set their own.

For example he says, E-O Smith High School in Storrs has immersion tubs on the practice field, even though it’s not required by the state.

Source: WTNH

By Michael Ollove

Another high school football player, this one a 14-year-old in the Bronx, collapsed on the field and died last week, possibly the result of high heat and humidity.

The death of Dominick Bess of apparent cardiac arrest came at a time when thousands of high school athletes have returned to practice fields. It again raises the question of whether states are doing enough to ensure that student-athletes are safe as they collide into one another, run wind sprints, or dig in against hard-throwing pitchers.

Nearly 8 million kids participated in high school sports last year, the most in U.S. history. The shocking deaths of young student-athletes have prompted some states to weigh major changes.

The California Legislature is considering a bill that would bring athletic trainers under state regulation. Others, including Texas and Florida, are strengthening policies on training during high heat and humidity and on the use of defibrillators during sporting events and practices. They are also moving to require schools to devise emergency plans for managing catastrophic sports injuries. And in response to growing concerns about concussions, the state of Texas recently embarked on the largest study ever of brain injuries to young athletes.

But overall, a just released study of state laws and policies on secondary school sports found that all states could do more to keep high school athletes safe. And some have a long way to go.

The study has prompted a strong pushback, including from the national organization that represents state high school athletic associations. But it also has encouraged some athletic trainers and sports medicine physicians who hope poor rankings will impel their states to make improvements and avoid exposing student-athletes to needless risk.

“I was embarrassed we were last,” said Chris Mathewson, head athletic trainer at Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado, speaking of his state’s showing in the study’s ranking of state safety efforts. “My hope is it will kick people in the pants and get people to do something about it.”

The rankings were devised by the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI), also known as Stringer, which is a part of the University of Connecticut and provides research, education and advocacy on safety measures for athletes, soldiers and laborers engaging in strenuous physical activity. It was named for a Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died of heat stroke during a preseason practice in 2001. His death sparked changes in NFL training practices and influenced reforms at the college and high school levels as well.

The rankings are based on whether states have adopted more than three dozen policies or laws derived from recommendations published in 2013 by a task force that included representatives from KSI, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. The recommendations cover such areas as prevention of heat stroke, cardiac arrest and head trauma, as well as qualifications of school athletic trainers and educating coaches in safe practices.

Some state athletic associations, including Colorado’s, and the National Federation of State High School Associations, known as NFHS, which represents the associations that govern high school extra-curricular activities, have objected to the methodology of those rankings. They say it relies too much on information found on the websites of state athletic associations while failing to note efforts those groups have undertaken to reduce risks to high school athletes.

“By ‘grading,’ state high school associations based on a limited number of criteria, KSI has chosen to shine a light on certain areas, but it has left others in the dark,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. He pointed to steps his group and its members have taken related to safe exertion in heat and humidity, use of defibrillators and tracking head injuries, which Stringer didn’t take into account.

In Colorado, Rhonda Blanford-Green, commissioner of the state’s High School Activities Association, said officials are “comfortable and confident that our [policies] meet or exceed standards for student safety.”

She complained that Stringer’s methodology is too rigid. For example, she noted that Stringer penalized states that did not require that all football coaches receive safety training taught by USA Football, the governing body for amateur football. But, she said, Colorado coaches are trained in other programs that she described as more comprehensive.

She also noted that her association was penalized because it made policy recommendations to its high school members, rather than making them requirements, as Stringer prefers.

The scholastic association in California, which finished just ahead of Colorado, also objected to the survey. Its executive director, Roger Blake, suggested that funding was a chief barrier to progress.

California Interscholastic Federation “member schools will need more funding, more AEDs [automated external defibrillators], more athletic trainers and more research to help support our efforts to minimizing risk,” Blake said. “With the assistance of everyone who cares about young athletes, including KSI, we can continue to progress.”

High School Deaths

Between 1982 and 2015, 735 high school students died as a result of their participation in school sports, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. The vast majority of those deaths were related to football, and three-quarters of the overall deaths were attributed to cardiac arrest, respiratory failure or other ailments associated with physical exertion. The rest were linked to trauma, such as head injuries.

More of those deaths occurred in the 15 years prior to the year 2000 rather than the 15 years after — likely a reflection of the fact that most of the policies and laws pertaining to safety in high school sports were put in place after 2000, particularly in the last nine years.

In 2014-15, the last year for which there are statistics, 22 high school athletes died, 14 of them football players.

Some of the reforms carry the names of student-athletes who died while participating in school sports. That was true in North Carolina after the 2008 death of Matthew Gfeller, a 15-year-old sophomore linebacker who died in the fourth quarter of his first varsity game in Winston-Salem after colliding helmet-to-helmet with another player.

Now a foundation and a brain injury research institute at the University of North Carolina are named after Matthew. His name and that of another North Carolina high school football player, Jaquan Waller, who died the same year as a result of on-field head injuries, are attached to a 2011 North Carolina law that specifies concussion education for coaches and concussion protocols to be followed in high school athletics.

“Was the information out there in ’08?” said Matthew’s father Robert, who created the foundation. “No, but it’s out there now, big time.”

Despite the progress, the Stringer rankings demonstrate the distance many athletic trainers and doctors believe states still need to go to protect student-athletes.

For instance, although North Carolina finished No. 1 in the Stringer rankings, it has adopted only 79 percent of the laws or policies used in the rankings. In particular, Stringer found the state hadn’t done enough to make certain that defibrillators — and people trained to use them — were present at sporting events.

A Sense of Urgency

Many athletic trainers, such as Jason Bennett, president of the California Athletic Trainers’ Association, say the rankings should create urgency in his state and others. “This is life and death,” Bennett said. “The sad thing is that in many of these cases, the deaths were 100 percent preventable.”

California fared particularly poorly because it is the only state that does not regulate athletic trainers.

“Sometimes it’s the school’s janitor or maybe a friend of the coach,” said Democratic California Assembly member Matt Dababneh, who introduced a bill that would create state licensure for athletic trainers. “These are people who are making decisions about whether a kid who has just been hit in the head can safely go back into a game. And they have no qualifications to make that decision.”

The bill would not require all schools to employ an athletic trainer, although that’s exactly what many athletic trainers and sports medicine doctors say would best ensure the safety of student-athletes.

“The No. 1 thing we can do to make high school and youth sports safer is to have athletic trainers at any sporting event,” said Michael Seth Smith, co-medical director of a sports medicine program at the University of Florida focused on sports medicine for adolescents and high school students.

A survey from Stringer and others published this year found that fewer than 40 percent of public secondary schools in the U.S. had a full-time athletic trainer.

Mathewson, the athletic trainer in Colorado, said he has little sympathy for smaller schools who say they can’t afford athletic trainers. “If you can afford to put a football team on the field, you should be able to afford an athletic trainer.”

In a number of places, including in Florida and North Carolina, hospitals subsidize athletic trainers working in public schools, some in the expectation that after a year or two, the school district will pick up the costs.

Aside from the salary of an athletic trainer, schools could adopt most of the best practices at an initial cost of $5,000 and an outlay of less than $2,500 a year thereafter, according to Stringer CEO Doug Casa.

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts