Bronny James and what to learn about heart health, COVID-19

• Baxter Holmes, ESPN Elder WriterDec 11, 2023, 08:00 AM ET Close Baxter Holmes(@Baxter)is a senior author for ESPN Digital and Print, concentrating on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.On July 24

, 18-year-old USC freshman guard Bronny James– the child of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James– suffered cardiac arrest throughout an exercise at USC. In January, Buffalo Costs security Damar Hamlin, then 24, suffered heart attack throughout a game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. In June 2022, then-incoming USC freshman center Vince Iwuchukwu, then 19, suffered cardiac arrest during a workout. In June 2021, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, then 29, suffered cardiac arrest on the pitch throughout a Euro 2020 match.In all 4 circumstances, the athletes received instant care from trained experts and endured. Hamlin, Iwuchukwu and Eriksen have all been cleared to return to play– and, on Sunday, James made his season launching for USC in a 84-79 overtime loss against Long Beach State, scoring 4 points in 17 minutes of action off the bench.James’return followed his household announced in August that he had a genetic heart problem that was treatable. Three months later, on Nov. 19, he went through pregame warmups for the very first time and, 11 days later on, doctors cleared him to return to play. On Thursday, James took part in his very first full-contact practice for USC.James’situation– together with those of Hamlin, Iwuchukwu and Eriksen– drew global headings and raised concerns around the sports and medical neighborhoods about heart problems amongst young, relatively healthy athletes. Research studies have been commissioned by leading specialists, and cardiologists around the nation have actually tried to attend to concerned moms and dads, particularly in the age of conspiracy theories and misinformation.Today, after a yearslong pandemic and several rounds of new vaccines and boosters, cardiologists frequently face questions about how COVID-19 and its vaccines impact heart health. “We are not seeing a signal that pre-COVID and post-COVID [heart] events are any different,”stated Dr. Matthew Martinez, director of the sports cardiology and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, and a consulting cardiologist for the National Basketball Players Association.”What we are seeing, however, is that more individuals are being evaluated as a result of COVID. So we’re making the diagnosis of underlying hereditary heart disease in those who were uninformed [they had it], like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, more frequently than we did in the past. And because of the fear of myocarditis from COVID, a growing number of parents and a growing number of athletes are stating,’ Hey, I have these symptoms, and I’m anxious about it, ‘and they’re seeking medical attention.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle, and it can be found in or develop from viral infections or often in autoimmune illness.”These inflammatory mediators get stuck inside the heart muscle, and they can make the heart muscles slow,”stated Dr. David J. Engel, director of the sports cardiology program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.” And so the pumping strength of the heart goes down, and individuals can get actually ill from it.”Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is increased muscle density in the heart, and, according to Martinez, it’s a typical hereditary heart problem discovered in about one in every 500 individuals worldwide, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.”

Most of whom live a typical lifespan and die from something else,”stated Dr. Steve Ommen, a cardiologist and medical director of the Mayo Center’s hypertrophic cardiomyopathy clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.It is, nevertheless, among the recognized causes of heart attack, according to Martinez.Sudden heart attack is when the heart is beating one minute, and then not beating the next, Martinez said, and the only way to get it pumping once again is to use an automated external defibrillator(AED ), which sends out an electrical shock to the heart.(Cardiac arrest is various from a cardiac arrest, which is when the heart arteries end up being blocked and the blood flow to the heart muscle is lowered, which leads to damage of the heart muscle. If that damage is extensive, it can cause cardiac arrest.) “It’s not someone who’s in the health center with signs of chest pain for the last 3 days or cardiac arrest over the last couple of weeks, and they’re getting worse and even worse and even worse, and after that they die,”Ommen stated.”This is 24 hours from the first sign to their death. And it usually is caused by electrical irregularities in the heart, which make the heart not effective in the way it pumps.”In many instances, though, the reason for the heart attack is unknown.In an effort to better comprehend the state of heart health among athletes, ESPN spoke with 4 leading cardiologists, several of whom work with professional and collegiate athletes, and examined current peer-reviewed studies the cardiologists pointed out as fundamental to these issues. On July 24, then-18-year-old Bronny James suffered cardiac

arrest during a USC practice. On Sunday, less than 5 months later, he made his college debut in the Trojans’ 84-79 loss to Long Beach State. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Are professional athletes more at risk for cardiac-related issues?”Than the basic population? No,”said Dr. Thomas McGarry, an interventional and medical cardiologist with Oklahoma Heart Hospital Physicians.”But there are certain professional athletes that are at risk.”McGarry cites a 2023 study of 76 NCAA and professional athletes who had hereditary heart problem and were enabled to go back to play.”And of those 76 people, three people had problems, but they all survived due to the fact that the institutions and/or groups knew what was

going on and had the ability to take care of them extremely quickly with external defibrillators,”he said. Friday, Dec. 15 Lakers at Spurs

, 7:30 p.m.Knicks at Suns, 10 p.m.All times Eastern Ommen likewise keeps in mind that, usually, professional athletes are not at threat for more cardiac-related concerns.” For recreational professional athletes, the answer is certainly no,” he stated.”For those of us who aren’t expert athletes, more workout is always much better. There are uncommon conditions like exercise-induced atrial fibrillation, which is irregular heart rhythm, which is provoked by workout. So there’s a few people that we’ve identified over the last number of years that have actually had that on professional sports groups, and usually gotten

dealt with for it and went back to action. But that’s kind of a rare thing.”Martinezsaid the very same.”Exercise is medication. Workout is our finest blood pressure management, it’s our best cholesterol management, it’s our finest mental health management, it is a tension reducer, “he said.”For people who are more youthful than the age of 40, heart-related heart threat is frequently a congenital problem. But for individuals over the age of 40, it is obtained heart artery illness [heart attacks] In this group, the best method to avoid abrupt heart death in that group is with exercise. So workout does not promote risk; it decreases risk.”Can a player with myocarditis or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy still play?It depends.With myocarditis,”you’re going to hold somebody out and let that heart muscle recover, “Martinez said. “And after that when that muscle is healed, you’re going to do a risk stratification examination by a professional– an evaluation to identify, in part, one’s threat of a heart event– to see that they are really back to that minimal danger that they remained in before the myocarditis. And we’re going to do the exact same thing with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. “2024 NBA draft – Givony’s big board: Leading 25 prospects – Total Top 100 rankings for

2024 – Latest mock draft: Collier at No. 1 – NBA draft notebook: Surprise freshmen Other cardiologists echoed this point. Engel points out guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology that a player with active myocarditis should refrain from workout for three to 6 months and then be reassessed before going back to play.”Almost all of the time, when the swelling calms down, the heart muscle is left in great condition,”

Engel stated.”And

if the markers of active inflammation are no longer present, then the professional athlete can return to play.”
Martinez mentions the previously mentioned 2023 study, of which he is an author, that analyzed the 76 athletes who

had hereditary cardiovascular disease. It reveals that “having an underlying heart illness is not an automatic disqualification, that a professional athlete with myocarditis or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy continuing to play after mindful review can be done,”he said.

A month after suffering cardiac arrest, Bronny James was diagnosed with a treatable congenital heart flaw. Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports What,

if any, links exist in between the COVID-19 infection and heart issues?According to each cardiologist, the most typical link, particularly in earlier COVID-19 versions, is myocarditis. That COVID-19 could result in myocarditis wasn’t unforeseen, they state, as myocarditis can frequently be brought on by viral infections.”Infections have caused myocarditis for as long as we understand anything about viruses, and the COVID virus is not any various,”Martinez stated.”COVID is among the viruses that can cause myocarditis. There was myocarditis before COVID, there will be myocarditis after COVID.”A 2021 research study published in JAMA Cardiology– which Martinez helped compose– taken a look at 789 professional athletes with COVID-19 infection who went through a post-COVID heart testing as recommended by the American College of Cardiology. Of that group, the frequency of myocarditis was low: about 0.6 %. In an across the country April 2021 research study in the American Heart Association journal Flow that examined 3,018 college athletes who had checked positive for COVID-19 and had a cardiac examination, heart concerns were found in 21– or 0.7%– of those athletes. “It’s not a strong link,”Engel said.What, if any links, exist between the COVID-19 vaccine and heart issues?All four cardiologists state heart concerns are most likely to arise

from COVID-19 viral infection than from the vaccines. Citing a 2023 peer-reviewed study in the worldwide clinical journal Biomedicines, Martinez and Engel keep in mind that the rate of someone getting a COVID-19 vaccine and then having myocarditis is 30 out of 100,000, or 0.03%.”The concern of myocarditis ought to not be a justification for not taking the vaccine, since the incidence of myocarditis after the COVID vaccine is incredibly low,”Engel stated.