Tag: Massachusetts General Hospital

  • Wellesley sports fields to get lifesaving heart devices

    It’s a soccer Saturday morning at Sprague Field in Wellesley, a wholesome and healthy vision of Americana, featuring swarms of sweaty young athletes and sidelines populated by cheering parents, grandparents and siblings.

    It would be easy in this idyllic setting, standing in cool Autumn air with mid-morning sun on your shoulders, to feel insulated from the grim possibilities of life. With so much going right, what could possibly go wrong? Cardiac arrests, heart attacks and life-threatening arrhythmias are remote threats, until a kid is clutching her chest.

    Soon, Wellesley’s sports fields will be equipped to respond to cardiac emergencies. Two Automated External Defibrillators, portable devices designed to shock hearts back into normal rhythm, should be installed in coming months. Then coaches and others will be trained to use them.

    “I think, sadly, it’s not something that people become aware of until it’s something that affects them,” said Katie Stewart, a nurse practitioner specializing in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a mom with young athletes, she knows the dangers. More than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside a hospital each year. Of those, 90% are fatal, according to a report by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, a national non-profit group focused on eliminating preventable deaths. Approximately four out of every 10 sudden cardiac arrests in children are sports related.

    Stewart knows the statistics too well. She runs the Cardiovascular Performance Program with a team of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the advocacy chair for the Massachusetts chapter of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American College of Cardiology Sports and Exercise Council.

    “Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in youth sports. It can strike healthy kids with no warning on the field at practice or even on the sidelines,” she said. “We know that every minute without CPR and AED reduces the survival chances by 10%, so after about 10 minutes survival is almost zero. But with immediate CPR and AED, survival rates can triple.”

    Wellesley Health Department Director Lenny Izzo provided an update at a Board of Health meeting earlier in September. “Fire has put the purchase through, so we’re just waiting for the devices to be delivered,” he said, adding that AEDs are available at town buildings. He said two AEDs will be installed at Sprague and Hunnewell fields, followed by more in the future.

    Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that results in the thickening of walls in the heart’s main pumping chamber, is often asymptomatic, according to a fact sheet from the National Institutes of Health. Emergencies can be triggered by strenuous physical activity.

    A 2018 NIH study estimated 18,000 Americans have shockable cardiac arrests in public each year, and about 1,700 lives are saved by AEDs. 

    “Wellesley has always been a leader in education in youth development, and public health,” Stewart said. “I think this is another chance to lead by making our athletic fields not just places for play, but also places of safety.” 

    Wellesley Fire Department Lieutenant Paul Delaney said the portable defibrillators will include a label with picture-based instructions, and simple audio directions are available in English and Spanish, so the device can be used by most people. 

    One major benefit of AEDs is this: the equipment is available 24/7. 

    “If AEDs are available in our community, and our community is trained to use them, we’re not just protecting the student athletes, we’re also protecting the parents, the coaches and the grandparents who are spectators on those fields,” Stewart said. 

    Wellesley United Soccer Club Intown Director Joe Morais said he’s always worried about children playing sports without nearby AEDs. He oversees the pre-K through third-grade program, and professionally coaches three club teams that play games at Elm Bank Reservation. 

    Despite being trained on how to use the devices, Morais said his teams have not had access to portable AEDs. 

    “It [will be] like a huge relief having one,” he said. “Before you start coaching every season you have to take like a safety sport course. It’s always terrifying going through because you’re like, ‘Oh, this could really happen one day.’” 

    AED training can be completed in as little as 30 minutes. Many Wellesley police officers carry the portable defibrillators in their patrol cars.

    “It’s rare to find an AED on a field like this,” said Wellesley Youth Field Hockey coach and parent Jonathan Gerbode-Grant, a nurse practitioner specializing in cardiology. He said he rarely considers the risk of playing sports without access to the devices. “Would it make me feel more comfortable, sure. Especially because adults and kids are around. We don’t know if anyone has a pre-existing health condition.”

  • Pass the Easter dinner rolls, please: A nutritionist’s take on what to eat — and avoid — ahead of the Boston Marathon

    One runner digs into a bowl of beef and sweet potatoes when training to run 26.2 miles. Another pops a pair of Pop-Tarts before long runs.

    Training for a marathon is as much about eating as it is about exercising. Nailing nutrition, or “fueling,” comes down to science — and timing. Boston Marathon spectators even might notice athletes fueling during the race next Monday.

    But are carbohydrate-dense foods the answer to a good race? What other foods are marathoners eating before the big day? What should they be eating? And what should they be eating if they celebrate Easter, which falls the Sunday before the marathon this year?

    Nutritionist and serial marathoner Carol Sullivan confirmed: Carbs are king.

    “Your body will take either white table sugar or berries or a sweet potato or jelly beans — that’ll all get turned into blood glucose,” Sullivan explained, “and that will get stored in your liver and in your muscles as glycogen.”

    The body taps these glycogen stores for energy to burn when exercising. Keeping these stores full is ideal pre-marathon. Most people underestimate the amount of carbohydrates their body needs, Sullivan said.

    Typically, she said, carbohydrates might take up 40% of calories in a regular diet, but when it comes time for a “26.2 effort,” that carb percentage should rise to 60% of caloric intake. Another way to measure the ideal carb-load is based on individual weight: eat eight to 10 grams of carbs per kilogram. To put that in perspective, for a 130-pound (59 kilogram) person, that would be about 10 cups of pasta for the day.

    Sullivan suggests runners stick to only familiar foods the day before the marathon. “They should also be eating foods that are very high carbohydrate, low fat and low fiber,” she said. “None of the traditional Easter foods make this cut, except for the dinner rolls.”

    As a clinical dietician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a former college athlete, Sullivan is running her ninth Boston Marathon this year. She shared some tips for specific foods to eat and avoid, whether it’s on your Easter dinner table or pulled from your pantry.

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    • Beets. They are rich in nitric oxide, which helps improve blood flow, aiding in delivering nutrients and oxygen to working muscles.
    • Fatty fish. Salmon, tuna and sardines are all great sources of Omega-3 fatty acids, known to promote heart and brain health, and act as anti-inflammatories for muscle pain.
    • Caffeine. This is one of the few proven performance-enhancing stimulants. “We love caffeine,” Sullivan said. Stick to the suggested 3-6 mg of caffeine per kilogram of your weight since it can cause unwanted gastrointestinal issues. And definitely don’t experiment with caffeine for the first time on race day!
    • Hydration is also a key part of fueling, and sodium is an electrolyte that acts like a water magnet for our cells. For sodium-rich hydration, Sullivan confirmed pickle juice does work.

    When it comes to traditional Easter meals…

    • Put down the mashed potatoes. Fats and fibers take more energy and time to digest than carbohydrates, so runners should look for low-fat, low-fiber and high-carb foods. Mashed potatoes are usually loaded with butter and sour cream, so opt for a baked potato or sweet potato.
    • Ham is high in fat, but roast chicken is a lower-fat substitute.
    • Eat vegetables and other high fiber foods at your own risk. While vegetables are great for you every other day of the year, any high fiber foods put you at risk of needing a bathroom stop mid-race. If you do opt for some veggies like carrots, be sure to cook them with oil instead of butter.
    • Skip the wine and opt for tart cherry juice instead. Sullivan recommends it for muscle recovery because the juice is rich in antioxidants and an anti-inflammatory called anthocyanin. Before a high-performance race, it’s best to stay away from alcohol, so she suggests enjoying it in a wine glass.

    While there are basic guidelines to follow, ultimately what people eat before their big race is truly personal. So, we asked a few local marathoners what they’ve been fueling up with during training, too.

    Bridget Leahy, 33, Salem

    Bridget Leahy prioritizes protein in her lunch and swears by an internet-viral protein bowl: ground beef, sweet potatoes, avocado and cottage cheese with hot honey. The day before long runs she has two big protein bowls. She hydrates with LMNT electrolyte drink mix — “one of my big things that I have every day, that I truly think that I will do for the rest of my life,” Leahy said.

    She realized fueling and hydration begins at the beginning of the week, not the night before her long Saturday runs. She downs carb-rich Gu or Edge gel packets every 4 to 5 miles. Salt tablets help her from cramping. Her carb load happens on Thursdays — and she swears the chicken saltimbocca from a restaurant on her route is her good luck.

    Leahy, who has a 16-month-old son, is running for Tufts Medical Center in support of its pioneering postpartum research. She works as an emergency room technician in Salem Hospital and is a member of the National Guard. This is her first marathon.

    Jason Venkat Bhardwaj, 42, West Newton

    Jason Venkat Bhardwaj keeps it simple.

    “I just kind of eat normally,” Bhardwaj, who’s run a dozen marathons including six Bostons, said. “I’m a big believer in, like, don’t change the formula a lot.”

    But he said he takes race day and in-race nutrition “pretty seriously.” Among his rules: Don’t eat anything greasy, don’t drink beer in the week before the race and get enough sleep. Taking a page out of the book “Hansons Marathon Method,” Bhardwaj doesn’t see much benefit in carbo loading.

    “I think part of the training is like your body gets used to storing a certain amount of glycogen from your normal diet,” he said.

    So instead, he leans into hydration. Sometimes, he drinks beet juice. He prefers half a cup of coffee on race day.

    On Monday, Bhardwaj will be in the first runners’ corral, with a 10 a.m. start time. Around 5 a.m., he said he’ll have a regular breakfast, like half an English muffin with peanut butter and some dry cereal. Before the race, a banana and Triscuits. And once he gets going, he’ll alternate between the caffeinated and decaffeinated Maurten gels every 5 miles.

    Trevor Hodde, 35, Uxbridge

    Trevor Hodde is staying true to his regular balanced diet. He learned his lesson.

    On Hodde’s 21-mile training run, he baked a batch of Kodiak protein muffins, knowing this run was the closest to the real marathon he was going to get; he wanted to carb up. But he said he felt heavy on his run.

    He said he likes Propel water for its electrolytes, sodium and potassium, and sometimes drinks LMNT electrolyte mixes while running.

    Hodde has been running since high school, and has run a few half marathons and triathlons, but this is his first marathon. He is running for the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Miles for Miracles Team.

    Seetal Ahluwalia, 23, Brighton

    Seetal Ahluwalia has a more colorful approach to carbs.

    Before a long run, she eats two Pop-Tarts — particularly the s’mores flavor — and while running she reaches for the occasional handful of Scandinavian Swimmers gummy candy from Trader Joe’s. The sour ones keep her mouth from getting dry, she said.

    Those quick sugars have worked well for her so far. On her runs, she alternates between caffeinated and decaffeinated Gu energy gels. On warmer days, she also takes SaltStick electrolyte chews to stay hydrated. She added that she also believes a chicken cutlet sub of any kind is “rewarding and satiating” after a long run.

    Ahluwalia picked running back up during the pandemic as a casual form of self-care. Running the Boston Marathon was on her Boston bucket list before finishing her master’s degree in the city. She’s repping Team Red Cross.

    As for the Pop-Tarts?

    “I stole it from people on TikTok, and it worked out,” she said.

    This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.