The American Football Uniform: Uncompensable Heat Stress and Hyperthermic Exhaustion

Abstract

The FULL and PART conditions resulted in greater physiologic strain than the CON condition. These findings indicated that critical internal temperature and hypotension were concurrent with exhaustion during uncompensable (FULL) or nearly uncompensable (PART) heat stress and that anthropomorphic characteristics influenced heat storage and exercise time to exhaustion.

Necessity of Removing American Football Uniforms From Humans With Hyperthermia Before Cold-Water Immersion

“…Next, they put on a dry American football uniform (Table 3), entered an environmental chamber, and stood on a treadmill (model 1850; Proform Performance, Logan, UT) for 10 minutes to acclimate to the environment. 2 During this time, they were familiarized with the thermal-sensation 20 and environmental-symptoms 18 scales.…”

“…1 These athletes compete and often practice while wearing a full uniform consisting of shoes; crew socks; undergarments; shorts; game pants; undershirt; shoulder pads; jersey; helmet; and padding over the thighs, knees, hips, and tailbone (PADS). 2,3 The increased metabolic demand and physiologic strain of exercising while wearing PADS, combined with a decreased evaporative surface area to dissipate heat, can result in substantial heat storage [2][3][4][5] and may contribute to the development of exertional heat illness. In fact, the rate of exertional heat illness in secondary school AFPs is 11 times higher than that in all other sports combined.…”

“…Therefore, greater heat storage and higher skin temperatures may have occurred when they were fully equipped. 2,4,18 To test the expert recommendations, [13][14][15] participants would need to exercise to some hyperthermic threshold while fully equipped on 2 days, remove the equipment on 1 day, then undergo CWI. To our knowledge, no scientists have made this comparison and validated the ACSM 14 and NATA 15 recommendations.…”

Letter to the Editor

“…2 E. Randy Eichner, MD, wrote that a helmet and shoulder pads ''… had only a small effect on heat gain'' and ''… are not a substantial risk for [exertional heat stroke].'' I disagree.…”

Exertional Heat Stroke in Navy and Marine Personnel: A Hot Topic

“…Ephedra, from the Chinese plant ma-huang, 27 along with 1,3-dimethylamyamine (DMAA), is associated with serious heat injury in athletes 28,29 and with EHS 30 and death 31 in the military. Although the exact mechanism underlying heat injury in many ergogenic aids is not fully characterized, published reports clearly 2 Epstein et al, 10 Casa et al, 17 Glahn et al, 20 and Wallace et al a Based on information from Howe and Boden, 11 Seto et al, 25 Kao et al, 26 Lee, 27 Lopez and Casa, 28 Fink et al, 29 Oh et al, 30 and Eliason et al 31 54 indicate that US Navy and other critical care nurses should screen EHS patients for recently used medications or ingestion of dietary supplement.…”