Medicine and science in sports and exercise
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Mar 2007
ReviewAmerican College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exertional heat illness during training and competition.
Exertional heat illness can affect athletes during high-intensity or long-duration exercise and result in withdrawal from activity or collapse during or soon after activity. These maladies include exercise associated muscle cramping, heat exhaustion, or exertional heatstroke. While certain individuals are more prone to collapse from exhaustion in the heat (i.e., not acclimatized, using certain medications, dehydrated, or recently ill), exertional heatstroke (EHS) can affect seemingly healthy athletes even when the environment is relatively cool. ⋯ Exercise associated muscle cramping can occur with exhaustive work in any temperature range, but appears to be more prevalent in hot and humid conditions. Muscle cramping usually responds to rest and replacement of fluid and salt (sodium). Prevention strategies are essential to reducing the incidence of EHS, heat exhaustion, and exercise associated muscle cramping.