By: Danielle Ulman

The death of former Dunbar High School basketball star and Boston Celtics captain Reggie Lewis during an off-season practice in 1993 shocked many, despite warning signs that Lewis may have had heart problems.

Lewis had previously fainted during a basketball game, setting off concerns about his heart health.

Not all athletes have a warning sign or know the risks of playing sports with heart problems. Bob Wade, Lewis’ former coach at Dunbar (and also a former head coach at the University  of Maryland), wants that to change.

Wade has teamed up with Johns Hopkins to offer a screening program to detect heart abnormalities in student athletes. Volunteers will test student athletes during the third annual Hopkins Heart Hype screening on Saturday at the 14th annual Basketball Academy Competition at Morgan State University’s student center.

Hopkins says that as many as 300 athletes from 18 teams, ranging from 14 to 18 years old, will be examined for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an inherited heart defect, which produced the errant heart rhythm under exercise stress that caused Lewis’ sudden death.

Hopkins and Wade want to help more athletes discover hidden heart disease so they can save lives. They hope that their program will be a model for programs nationwide.

But some athletes may not want to know about their heart problems. After Lewis fainted during a playoff game, a team of 12 cardiologists at Boston’s New England Baptist Hospital told him he had an enlarged heart and should not play basketball. Lewis went for a second opinion at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he got a new diagnosis that didn’t involve heart disease, rather a fainting condition brought on by exertion.

After his death, Lewis’ wife said he had gotten a third opinion and was told to monitor his heart. He was planning on doing just that, if he returned to playing for the Celtics. He just never got the chance.

Others are also working to compile a registry of sudden athlete deaths, following the deaths of several prominent athletes, including Joseph Kennedy, a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, and Damien Nash, a Denver Broncos running back, who died after playing in a charity basketball game raising money for heart transplant research. Nash had started the Darris Nash Find a Heart Foundation for his brother, who had a transplant.

For more information, you can check out the Sudden Death in Athletes program, run by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

By: Danielle Ulman

In the last few months we’ve all been inundated with tips on how to avoid catching the swine flu, or the H1N1 influenza.

Wash your hands.

Sneeze into the crook of your arm instead of into your hands.

Avoid touching your face.

Now the folks at the nonprofit Maryland Children’s Oral Health Institute have collaborated with Valley Dental Pediatrics in Owings Mills to create a visual reference on keeping your toothbrush free of germs, called Project Clean Toothbrush: Important Tips to Help Prevent the Spread of Flu Germs (pdf).

It seems to make sense that if germs on your hands could wind up entering your system, then germs on your toothbrush have an even bigger chance of landing in your throat, courtesy of your twice-daily hygiene routine.

Here’s the drill (sorry, couldn’t resist the dental reference) on keeping your toothbrush germ-free:

1. Wash your hands before and after touching your toothbrush

2. Wash your toothbrush before and after every use. Start with hot water to soften the bristles and remove food particles, rub your finger over the bristles to get the rest of the gunk out, then run cold water over the bristles to regain firmness and possibly limit germ growth.

3. Disinfect your toothbrush daily in antibacterial mouthwash for 30 seconds.

Other germ killing options:

-Store your toothbrush in a hydrogen peroxide/water mix (1 tsp of peroxide to 1 cup of water); change mix daily

-Soak your toothbrush in vinegar once a week– but I’m thinking this could taste really gross with toothpaste next time you brush

-Use denture cleanser to sanitize your toothbrush

-And, the granddaddy of toothbrush cleaning methods, deep clean your toothbrush by securing it in the silverware rack the next time you run your dishwasher

A few more tips:

-Avoid side-by-side toothbrush storage; multiple toothbrushes should be kept inches apart

-Keep your toothbrush as far away from the toilet as possible to cut down on airborne bacteria from waste reaching your toothbrush. Always flush with the lid closed.

-Use toothpaste from a pump dispenser to avoid contact between the germs that might lurk on the toothpaste dispenser and the toothbrush

-Toss your toothbrush when you get sick.

It sounds like a lot of work to stay clear of the flu – regular or swine – but it beats trying to find the vaccine.