Heat Cramps - Prevention

We've all heard the myths about the cause, treatment, and prevention of muscle cramps that occur during or after exercise (termed exercise-associated muscle cramps or EAMC). We're told that to relieve EAMC you should eat bananas, mustard, or pickle juice, right? Is there any evidence for or against any of these so-called remedies? Actually, there is, says a leading expert

Six years after a joint task force of medical groups issued pre-season heat acclimatization guidelines, only 13 state high school athletic associations have moved to adopt them.

When the heat index is above 95 degrees, athletes, especially children, are at increased risk of heat-related illness. Cancelling or modifying practices and games, or taking others to reduce the risk of heat illness, should be taken.

Extremely hot or humid weather may require that sports practices or games be modified or even cancelled because of the risk of heat illness. In deciding whether to do so, you should keep in mind that hot, dry weather can be extremely dangerous. Because sweat evaporates very quickly in such conditions, your child won't feel sweaty, and neither you nor your child may recognize how much water he or she has lost. As the relative humidity increases, the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body also decreases. When the relative humidity is high, sweat drips off the skin so that the cooling benefit of evaporation is lost even at cooler temperatures, resulting in a build-up of body heat.