Cardiovascular screening is advised for young athletes who have had COVID. This is to ensure that the heart is in good working order so that when the athlete returns to practise or competition, ill-health or heart failure do not strike.
According to USA Today, student-athletes are among the healthiest of their peers. As a result, when they contract COVID, it is assumed that they will recover faster and have fewer long-term effects from the virus than others their age. Unlike students who do not participate in sports, student-athletes are expected to return to their sport of choice and participate at the same levels they did before testing positive for the coronavirus. And, as many students have discovered, this is not in the best interests of their overall health.
In the early days of the pandemic, the protocols that student-athletes had to go through to be considered fit to play focused more on not spreading COVID than on the athlete’s overall health. However, because athletes were complaining of chest pain and general ill-feeling when they began to push their bodies and thus their hearts, cardiovascular screenings were performed to determine the source of the discomfort.
According to the American College of Cardiology, it was discovered that, unbeknownst to the athletes, some were suffering from myocarditis or long hauler symptoms. And by returning to sports too soon, too much stress is placed on the heart.
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