8, September 2014

Drinking too much water by athletes can cause death

It was recently revealed that drinking too much water and sports drinks could be fatal for athletes. According to Loyola University Medical Center sports medicine physician Dr. James Winger, the recent deaths of two high school football players illustrated the dangers of Overhydration, which was rare but deadly.

Over-hydration by athletes was called exercise-associated hyponatremia. It occurs when athletes drink even when they are not thirsty. Drinking too much during exercise could overwhelm the body’s ability to remove water. The sodium content of blood would be diluted to abnormally low levels. Cells absorb excess water, which can cause swelling, most dangerously in the brain. Hyponatremia could cause muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, seizures, unconsciousness, and, in rare cases, death.

Georgia football player Zyrees Oliver reportedly drank 2 gallons of water and 2 gallons of a sports drink. He collapsed at home after football practice, and died later at a hospital. In Mississippi, Walker Wilbank was taken to the hospital during the second half of a game after vomiting and complaining of a leg cramp. He had a seizure in the emergency room and later died. A doctor confirmed he had exercise-associated hyponatremia. 

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

08.09.2014

Nose virus may cause middle ear infection

A viral infection in the nose may trigger middle ear infections, which affect more than 85 percent of children under the age of three, says a study.

Flu virus inflamed the nasal tissue and significantly increased both the number of bacteria and their propensity to travel through the Eustachian tube – linking the ear and the nose – and infect the middle ear, the researchers said.

‘Every individual has bacteria in their nose that most of the time do not cause problems,’ said study lead author W. Edward Swords, professor of microbiology and immunology from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in the US.

‘However, under certain conditions these bacteria can migrate to the middle ear and cause an ear infection, and now we have a better understanding of how and why that happens,’ Swords added.

For the study, the researchers simultaneously infected the nose with a flu virus and a bacterium that is one of the leading causes of ear infections in children.

The bacterium used in the animal study, Streptococcus pneumoniae, is known to exist in the noses of children in two phases, one invasive and the other benign.

The invasive phase is more frequently found in the infected ears of children. However, the study indicated that the flu virus promoted bacterial growth and ear infection regardless of which phase of the bacterium was present in the nose.

‘These findings suggest that a flu infection modifies the response of the immune system to this particular bacterium, enabling even the type that has previously been considered benign to infect the middle ear,’ Swords noted.

The study appeared in the journal Infection and Immunity.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

08.09.2014

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something