sports more because we have (interventional strategies).”
Often mistaken for cardiac or heat collapse, sickling is marked by subtle differences in athletes’ muscle tone and response, and collapse is usually not instantaneous. Simple precautions include progressing slowly in pace during training and stopping immediately if symptoms such as muscle cramping, pain or swelling occur along with weakness or fatigue.
“It’s an intensity syndrome … they don’t have symptoms unless they do something too intense or physically active,” said Dr. Brock Schnebel, head physician for University of Oklahoma athletics. “At high levels of athleticism, those kids experience symptoms because they have pushed themselves hard. The idea is to improve the margin of safety for the athlete any way you can. Identify it and be cautious with it.”
What’s needed, Galloway said, is a climate “that encourages coaches to set the right tone with these student-athletes. I have several kids here who condition and practice with their peers and they don’t have a problem. They learn to respond to their body.”
As with sickle cell anemia, SCT afflicts mostly blacks and other minorities, but whites can have it too. The gene is common among those whose origin is where malaria is widespread (since the gene fended off malaria), leaving about 1 in 12 blacks as carriers, according to