Athletic Skin Problems

If you remember, last week I wrote about some of the more catastrophic sports injuries that we see.  Like broken bones and concussions.   Today I want to talk about skin problems.

It might seem like I’ve gone from one extreme to another but skin problems can be pretty serious on their own.

One of the most common sports that we see this is in wrestling.  A big part of that is due to a lot of skin-to-skin contact between wrestlers.   Wrestlers have a tendency to share those things.

And the wrestling mat can get infected too.   Some organisms can live for a long time on even a dry surface.  That’s why wrestling mats are cleaned on a regular basis.

The big fear among skin problems is MRSA, usually pronounced “mur-suh.”   MRSA is actually an acronym for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, a bacteria that through evolution has become resistant to many commonly used antibiotics.  In other words, a lot of antibiotics just don’t work against MRSA.

And MRSA can be one nasty bug.  Improperly treated, it can migrate to organs and cause really bad health problems.

A lot of the blame for the emergence of MRSA is placed on the over-prescription of antibiotics, especially when the source of the infection isn’t a bacteria at all. 

Put simply, a lot of childhood and adolescent problems are just not produced by bacteria.  The common cold?  It’s a virus.  Antibiotics won’t work.  Same for a lot of ear infections.   Anything that might be viral can’t be effectively treated with antibiotics. 

 
I remember well an argument that I had with my then-medical student daughter.   She was going to be a pediatrician and had declared that the only children that she would prescribe antibiotics for would be those that truly had a bacterial infection.

I told her then that parents that bring their children to her would almost always want to walk away with that magic pink medicine (an antibiotic). 

She’s now Dr. Whitney Dee, a pediatrician at Maryville Pediatric Clinic and it is a battle that she fights almost every day.   If parents only understood that if their child doesn’t have a bacterial infection an antibiotic just won’t help and, what’s worse, that they may ultimately be more susceptible to more serious infections like MRSA...well...her job would be easier.

Oh, and she wanted me to mention that just because snot is green, it doesn’t mean there is a sinus infection.  It just means, well, that the snot is green.

Another common skin problem among athletes is Impetigo.  Impetigo is quite common and very contagious.  The problem is that it can be transmitted through contact with clothing, towels, or other items.  

We see a fair amount of impetigo in football as well as wrestling.  As with a lot of bacteria, it tends to thrive in a moist, dark environment (dryness and sunlight can kill many bacteria) so we will often see it develop underneath shoulder pads.

Football players are not among the cleanest of athletes that we see either and shared toweling, clothes, and pads can help spread the infection.  Several of our schools spray their football locker rooms with an airborne disinfectant in an attempt to kill those same bacteria.

Since a lot of the bad odor in locker rooms (you might just have to trust me on this one) comes from bacteria, it is sometimes amazing how fresh those locker room smells after spraying.

A third problem that is far less troublesome is dermatitis.  Dermatitis is actually an inflammation of the skin so it responds to anti-inflammatory treatments such as hydrocortisone cream.  Since dry skin makes it easier to get dermatitis, keeping your skin moist with lotion is important, especially this time of the year when cold air leaves your skin quite dry.

Just always remember that effective treatment of any skin problem usually requires an accurate diagnosis, and for that you need to see your pediatrician or family practitioner.