{"id":12220,"date":"2012-01-05T15:48:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T20:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12220"},"modified":"2012-01-05T15:48:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T20:48:25","slug":"ryan-clark-sidelined-by-sickle-cell-trait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12220","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Clark Sidelined By Sickle Cell Trait"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coaches benched Steelers safety Ryan Clark<\/strong> this week due to fear of the complications that he faced last time he played in Denver, which included life-threatening illness.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, the combination of Clark’s<\/strong> sickle cell trait and Denver’s high altitude caused organ damage, and surgeons had to remove his spleen and gallbladder.<\/p>\n

One in 12 African-Americans has sickle cell trait. However, having the trait rarely causes such extreme illness.<\/p>\n

Sickle cell trait is different from sickle cell disease. Usually people with the trait have no symptoms and live normal lives without worry. Having sickle cell trait means a person has only one copy of the sickle cell gene. Those with the disease inherit two copies — one from each parent.<\/p>\n

With sickle cell disease, red blood cells become sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle” during times of bodily stress. Weather changes, illness, dehydration, low oxygen and high altitude are all triggers.<\/p>\n

Sickle cells block arteries, causing severe pain throughout the body. Because sickled red cells die quicker, those with the disease have anemia. Sickle cell disease also raises the risk of infection, stroke and vision loss.<\/p>\n

Since Denver is a mile above sea level, the low oxygen caused Clark’s<\/strong> cells to sickle, damaging organs, including his spleen.<\/p>\n

This level of severity is unusual since he only has the trait, making the case that sickle cell trait may not be as benign as once thought. Sickle cell trait has also been highlighted in the media recently for its link to sudden cardiac death.<\/p>\n

The biological mechanism is unclear. But, scientists know that rigorous athletic activity in athletes with sickle cell trait in intense heat, while dehydrated or without appropriate conditioning raises the risk of sudden death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coaches benched Steelers safety Ryan Clark this week due to fear of the complications that he faced last time he played in Denver, which included life-threatening illness. Four years ago, the combination of Clark’s sickle cell trait and Denver’s high altitude caused organ damage, and surgeons had to remove his spleen and gallbladder. One in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}