Curly06
08-14-2007, 05:52 PM
20 Texas Longhorns pop a little white pill before they strap on their helmets for practice.
This is no medicine. About the size of a thimble, it is a miniature mechanical tool that helps players avoid heat stroke during rigorous workouts in the hottest time of year.
Covered with epoxy to aid swallowing, the pills contain a battery, a communication coil, a circuit board and a quartz crystal. A hand-held monitor placed next to the player's midsection reads the level of vibrations from the crystal, translating it to a digital temperature reading.
The Longhorns started using them in the spring of 2006.
Once the pills are ingested, the trainers move through practice checking temperatures. Although 104 degrees is considered a clinical sign of stress and that a player is starting to overheat, Boyd said Texas uses 103 as its cutoff. Players are taken to the sideline to be given fluids and ice and held out until they cool down. The Longhorns use the pills in games as well.
"It feels weird when you sit down and think about it because there is a device in your stomach that is connecting to a device outside of you. That concept kind of freaks me out, but it is definitely a positive thing," linebacker Drew Kelson said.
Boyd said a handful of Big 12 schools use the pills but the numbers are low nationwide. According to Smith, only about 25-30 professional and college football teams use them.
Cost is a factor, Smith acknowledges. The pills cost $30 each and although they do not dissolve in the body, the Food and Drug Administration requires they be discarded after one use.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5052992.html
This is no medicine. About the size of a thimble, it is a miniature mechanical tool that helps players avoid heat stroke during rigorous workouts in the hottest time of year.
Covered with epoxy to aid swallowing, the pills contain a battery, a communication coil, a circuit board and a quartz crystal. A hand-held monitor placed next to the player's midsection reads the level of vibrations from the crystal, translating it to a digital temperature reading.
The Longhorns started using them in the spring of 2006.
Once the pills are ingested, the trainers move through practice checking temperatures. Although 104 degrees is considered a clinical sign of stress and that a player is starting to overheat, Boyd said Texas uses 103 as its cutoff. Players are taken to the sideline to be given fluids and ice and held out until they cool down. The Longhorns use the pills in games as well.
"It feels weird when you sit down and think about it because there is a device in your stomach that is connecting to a device outside of you. That concept kind of freaks me out, but it is definitely a positive thing," linebacker Drew Kelson said.
Boyd said a handful of Big 12 schools use the pills but the numbers are low nationwide. According to Smith, only about 25-30 professional and college football teams use them.
Cost is a factor, Smith acknowledges. The pills cost $30 each and although they do not dissolve in the body, the Food and Drug Administration requires they be discarded after one use.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5052992.html