Question

Case Study Investigation #10

After a routine workout at your health club, you decide to soak in the hot tub. A young man in the tub tells you how he just finished a heavy weightlifting routine that lasted 2 hours. He says that he soaks in the hot tub for 20 minutes to ward off muscle cramping. The man does this routine 7 days a week. The next day at the health club, you hear that he was hospitalized that morning with the following symptoms: chills, coughing, fatigue, fever, shortness of breath, and tightness in his chest. He appeared healthy until that incident. A friend of his who also works out at the club said he had no history of heart disease or respiratory ailments. However, lately he was losing weight because of the heavy workout. People at the health club are speculating what could have caused the illness. What information can you provide to the conversation?

Answer 1

Soaking in the tub after a heavy weight lifting exercise is not a very good for the heart. During heavy weight lifting, the heart tries to supply blood to different parts of the body faster as muscle activity will require inputs of energy in form of ATP. Anaerobic respiration in the muscle will result in cramping. Hence, heart activity increases to provide more oxygen to the different muscles. The body needs to cool down naturally for the heart rate to slow down. The person has to wait at least half an hour before using a hot tub. It is good to soak but only for 10 min. As the hot tub is dehydrating, the person should drink fluids before using it. Prolonged soaking will prevent the body to remove excess heat from the body.

Genital herpes, Legionnaire's disease, and another respiratory illness have been linked to hot tub use. However, one disease that causes flu-like fever and chills, shortness of breath, and a dry cough, as well as night sweats and weight loss has been linked to a non-tuberculosis mycobacterium (Mycobacterium avium). This bacterium lives in warm water and is not affected by standard disinfectant. The steam from the hot tub causes the mycobacterium to be inhaled into the lower airways of the lungs as aerosols. The immune system responds to the organism by mounting a response similar to an allergic response. The organism enters the alveoli of the lungs and causes chronic breathing problems upon continuous exposure. The bacteria causes hypersensitivity pneumonitis or hot-tub lung. If left untreated, it causes weight loss.