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WZZM 13 ONLINE
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - It's time to get ready to go back to school and that means try outs for high school sports are in full swing.
The Kent and Ottawa Commission developed a new form based on 15 questions the American Heart Association says are important factors in determining heart disease.
Questions like: Do you ever feel dizzy? Does your heart race? Do you ever feel tightness in your chest?
They might sound like common sense questions - but they're ones that haven't been uniformly asked until this year.
The new form being used for the first time this fall also includes a lot of background information like family history that could signal a need for something more than just a physical like an EKG.
In addition Sports Medicine physicians like Dr. Kornoelje with Metro Health's Sports Medicine Clinic says they are taking a closer look at young athletes blood pressure, "We're looking at blood pressure. Approximately 6% - 7% of the adolescent population has high blood pressure and many times this is one of the avenues you find this because they may not be going to their physician's offices."
Dr. Korneolje says the hope is that the state will begin using the form they developed so that there is a more uniform way to get information about an athlete's heart health history.