Heat wave: risks and consequences that football players assume for playing in temperatures of 40 degrees

Unbearable. so is this extremely hot rideThat has far surpassed the weather records of the last 62 years in many regions of the country. Thermal sensations exceeding 40 degrees overwhelm most of the provinces of Argentina. And worst of all, it’s that the heat won’t subside until next weekend. Faced with this unprecedented scenario, athletes add a new complication. It seems humanly impossible to practice different disciplines in such high temperatures: an amateur runner died in Ituzaingó and a veteran basketball player in La Plata on Sunday. However, as the show must go on, nothing stands still. Players, regardless of category, have had to face these conditions almost without a word, apart from the fact that some clubs have been able to delay their matches on this date in the Professional League.

It was not the case of San Lorenzo, leaders of the First Division tournament, where there was a lot of unease among its managers because they denied the request to delay the start of the match against Gimnasia due to the high temperature, which was been allowed in Central-Unión , which finally played at 21:30 instead of 17:00, as originally planned.

The same must have suffered Racing and Sarmiento de Junín, who collided in the first session on Sunday, when the temperature exceeded 35°. The AFA, through Futbolistas Argentinos Agremiados, has a summer schedule that prevents professional football from being played before 5pm until the start of autumn on 21 March. in these days. Also, due to police operations, it is sometimes difficult to arrange dates or move matches. And this makes footballers exposed to an invisible enemy.

Faced with this unprecedented situation, clarion consulted four doctors who explained what are the best prescriptions to take care of athletes through prevention, preparation and recovery after such a request.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be convenient to do vigorous physical activity like a football match. It’s something that shouldn’t be the case,” says the cardiologist. Norberto Debbag, unfiltered, before consulting this journal. However, given the impossibility of suspending the meetings due to limited times and commitments undertaken, all that remains is to follow a series of recommendations.

“The most important thing is the week because it’s not just the game. It’s also hot during the week and you have to have all the properties. Players have to Eat well why an athlete can’t stop eating because it’s hot. The diet should be based on vegetables, fruits and seeds. Red meat, which kids like so much, I would reduce by portions of fish or chicken. And most importantly, they must be very hydrated. There are all kinds of juices and they add a great treat too vitamin B, B1, B6, B12 and vitamin C“, lists the former medical director of Argentine footballers Agremiados Louis Pinto emphasizing the importance of a daily nutritional plan among professional athletes.

Meals are vital due to the wear and tear experienced by athletes after a match because their body weight drops sharply due to excessive sweating. That’s when the quest to regain the pounds should begin. “Each footballer loses between 3 and 4 kilos per game. Sometimes when you play a slew of games, there are guys who just can’t get those pounds back. Playing Sunday through Wednesday, sometimes Wednesday doesn’t have the four pounds lost on Sunday. These guys need to be hydrated a lot more with body salts and then nothing out of the ordinary,” recommends Pintos.

And he adds: “Recovery is based on the hydration Mainly with saline liquids. It’s one thing to play Sunday to Sunday, like in another era, and quite another to play Sunday to Wednesday and keep the weight off. Maintaining weight is essential.”

Debbag agrees on the importance of hydration: “It is recommended to drink 270 cubic centimeters every 20 minutes. This is why it seemed good to me that this week some matches were stopped after 15 minutes and then after 30 or 35 of each half. All in all it’s quite acceptable.”

And it wasn’t just the players who had the opportunity to hydrate. The numbers reached by the mercury led the Aprevide authorities and the Secretary of Security of the City of Buenos Aires to allow fans to enter stadiums with small bottles of water to consume while the matches were played. Common sense, in this case, has triumphed.

Pintos, doctor of Boca during the first phase of Diego Maradona at the club, he details the consequences of not swallowing fluids: “80 percent of blood is water. lead to muscle ailments, such as the simplest ones, up to sudden death. You have to hydrate yourself, especially with these temperatures, with drinks of all kinds. The liquid must be replenished continuously. Those who run marathons have bottles of water on the sidewalk to drink all the time ».

Along these lines, Debbag warns that physical activity under the stress of a high temperature can lead to “heatstroke” and “electrolyte loss due to profuse sweating.”

“Heatstroke should be prevented by training earlier or playing later when the sun goes down. Heatstroke is a medical emergency that can cause headaches, confusion, seizures and can lead to death. This is what we must avoid “The other pathology due to sweating is the loss of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, among others) and this can cause arrhythmia. Fortunately, nothing has happened so far and we hope it continues like this”, explains the cardiologist

diego lowensteinChief Medical Officer and Cardiology Service Chief of the Bioimaging Diagnostic Center agrees with Debbag that “High-performance athletes who train in these temperatures are significantly exposed to heatstroke. Therefore, measures must be taken before, during and after the exercise.

However, although the heat can be suffered more than the cold, high-performance athletes such as soccer players train daily to tolerate non-sporting situations. “The player is ready to withstand high temperatures. Naturally, coaches have to work from this. If a player does not gain weight, coaches should decrease weight. There are players who have lost weight and not regained it and leave them exposed to muscle trauma. So there you have to reduce loads for it to recover, says Pintos.

The doctor of a former player was the one who some time ago promoted the idea of ​​hydration breaks that were often seen in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, beyond the cooling system that the stadiums in Doha had. “The basis is hydration, proteins, carbohydrates, salts and alternating physical loads depending on the position in which the player plays on the field.“, he remarks.

And he points out: “There is a basis for always making up for what has been lost. In food, before a boy who loses weight, always liquids and salts of all kinds. At half-time, fruit and to replenish liquids even during matches”.

In this sense, Debbag cautions that there is a limit with fluid intake: “You don’t even have to over hydrate. This reaches an absorption point where the sodium can fall and this causes seizures. Also, it’s difficult for the body to dissipate heat through the skin.”

George Francellasports doctor of the Hospital de Clínicas, clarifies that the preparation depends on the sport practiced by each athlete: “The high performance diet has an appropriate genetics that allows certain skills that each competitor performs. That is why we cannot compare the different types of high performance ”.

Indeed, also in agreement with his colleagues, he underlines that the diet that an athlete must follow always goes hand in hand with hydration: “Food will always join training, it is considered part of it. Hydration must also always be present, even before the individual is thirsty”.

And he closes: “In case of achieving high performance, the individual reaches a level where health promotion is not so much at stake. That’s why he is subjected to a profession, to a calendar that has more to do with a spectrum professional than with the protection of health. Likewise, it must be taken into account that they are carrying out their work in completely disadvantageous conditions”.