Athletic trainers and other allied health care professionals should use these recommendations to establish onsite emergency action plans for their venues and athletes. The primary goal of athlete safety is addressed through the appropriate prevention strategies, proper recognition tactics, and effective treatment plans for EHIs. Athletic trainers and other allied health care professionals must be properly educated and prepared to respond in an expedient manner to alleviate symptoms and minimize the morbidity and mortality associated with these illnesses.

Objective: To present recommendations for the prevention, recognition, and treatment of exertional heat illnesses and to describe the relevant physiology of thermoregulation.Background: Certified athletic trainers evaluate and treat heat-related injuries during athletic activity in ''safe'' and highrisk environments. While the recognition of heat illness has improved, the subtle signs and symptoms associated with heat illness are often overlooked, resulting in more serious problems for affected athletes. The recommendations presented here provide athletic trainers and allied health providers with an integrated scientific and practical approach to the prevention, recognition, and treatment of heat illnesses. These recommendations can be modified based on the environmental conditions of the site, the specific sport, and individual considerations to maximize safety and performance.Recommendations: Certified athletic trainers and other allied health providers should use these recommendations to establish on-site emergency plans for their venues and athletes. The primary goal of athlete safety is addressed through the prevention and recognition of heat-related illnesses and a welldeveloped plan to evaluate and treat affected athletes. Even with a heat-illness prevention plan that includes medical screening, acclimatization, conditioning, environmental monitoring, and suitable practice adjustments, heat illness can and does occur. Athletic trainers and other allied health providers must be prepared to respond in an expedient manner to alleviate symptoms and minimize morbidity and mortality.Key Words: heat cramps, heat syncope, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hyponatremia, dehydration, exercise, heat tolerance H eat illness is inherent to physical activity and its incidence increases with rising ambient temperature and relative humidity. Athletes who begin training in the late summer (eg, football, soccer, and cross-country athletes) experience exertional heat-related illness more often than athletes who begin training during the winter and spring. [1][2][3][4][5] Although the hot conditions associated with late summer provide a simple explanation for this difference, we need to understand what makes certain athletes more susceptible and how these illnesses can be prevented. PURPOSEThis position statement provides recommendations that will enable certified athletic trainers (ATCs) and other allied health providers to (1) identify and implement preventive strategies that can reduce heat-related illnesses in sports, (2) characterize factors associated with the early detection of heat illness, (3) provide on-site first aid and emergency management of athletes with heat illnesses, (4) determine appropriate return-toplay procedures, (5) understand thermoregulation and physiologic responses to heat, and (6) recognize groups with special concerns related to heat exposure. ORGANIZATIONThis position statement is organized as follows:1. Definitions of exertional heat illnesses, including exerciseassociated muscle (heat) cramps, he...

The third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia (EAH) Consensus Development Conference convened in Carlsbad, California in February 2015 with a panel of 17 international experts. The delegates represented 4 countries and 9 medical and scientific sub-specialties pertaining to athletic training, exercise physiology, sports medicine, water/sodium metabolism, and body fluid homeostasis. The primary goal of the panel was to review the existing data on EAH and update the 2008 Consensus Statement. 1 This document serves to replace the second International EAH Consensus Development Conference Statement and launch an educational campaign designed to address the morbidity and mortality associated with a preventable and treatable fluid imbalance. The following statement is a summary of the data synthesized by the 2015 EAH Consensus Panel and represents an evolution of the most current knowledge on EAH. This document will summarize the most current information on the prevalence, etiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of EAH for medical personnel, athletes, athletic trainers, and the greater public. The EAH Consensus Panel strove to clearly articulate what we agreed upon, did not agree upon, and did not know, including minority viewpoints that were supported by clinical experience and experimental data. Further updates will be necessary to both: (1) remain current with our understanding and (2) critically assess the effectiveness of our present recommendations. Suggestions for future research and educational strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of EAH are provided at the end of the document as well as areas of controversy that remain in this topic.

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Personalized hydration strategies play a key role in optimizing the performance and safety of athletes during sporting activities. Clinicians should be aware of the many physiological, behavioral, logistical and psychological issues that determine both the athlete’s fluid needs during sport and his/her opportunity to address them; these are often specific to the environment, the event and the individual athlete. In this paper we address the major considerations for assessing hydration status in athletes and practical solutions to overcome obstacles of a given sport. Based on these solutions, practitioners can better advise athletes to develop practices that optimize hydration for their sports.