{"id":3417,"date":"2022-05-05T10:08:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T14:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/?p=3417"},"modified":"2022-05-05T10:22:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T14:22:00","slug":"know-if-youre-low-nonprofit-maya-musgrave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/know-if-youre-low-nonprofit-maya-musgrave\/","title":{"rendered":"Know If You\u2019re Low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teenage runner starts nonprofit to help area athletes<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Aubrey Ann Parker
Current Editor<\/strong>

Year after year, the Benzie Central High School boys and girls cross country teams are at the front of the pack, winning race after race, and often making it to the coveted State Finals by early November. Similarly, in the spring, the school\u2019s track and field teams and individual athletes excel. The Huskies of Benzie are known state-wide by running coaches and fans of the sport.

Now, a soon-to-graduating senior has started a new nonprofit program to ensure that even more athletes will be able to compete at their highest level, and she hopes to take the program state- and nation-wide, as well.

For decades, studies have shown that iron deficiencies can plague female athletes, especially, and even more so endurance athletes, like runners. But blood tests to check iron levels can cost up to $200 each, which means the majority of athletes are not tested, unless a problem begins to persist.

\u201cWithout a blood test, I would have never known why I was so tired and so slow,\u201d says Maya Musgrave (17), who\u2014until a year ago\u2014suffered from undiagnosed low iron levels. \u201cMost athletes only have a yearly sports physical that doesn\u2019t routinely test blood markers.\u201d

Now, thanks to a partnership with Athlete Blood Test laboratory and an initial $14,000 in funding from the nonprofit 100 Women Who Care of Benzie County, tests can be performed for a fraction of the typical cost. At $40 each, this means that there are around 350 tests available for Benzie County\u2014and since there are currently 118 female athletes at both Benzie Central and Frankfort high schools, this translates to three years of testing for all Husky and Panther girls\u2019 sports teams.

Running Is In Her Blood<\/strong>
Maya Musgrave began running competitively in 5th grade as part of the \u201cGirls On the Run\u201d group at her school. But you could say that running \u201cis in her blood,\u201d since she comes from a running lineage; her mother\u2014Dr. Lisa Musgrave, a Beulah-based dentist\u2014ran track at Depauw University under Coach Wilma Rudolph, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Additionally, both of Maya\u2019s younger brothers, Michael (16) and Quinten (14), are among the top athletes on Benzie\u2019s running teams in the spring and the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maya
Maya Musgrave smiles after a race. She has partnered with Athlete Blood Test to provide iron panels for student-athletes, though typically the laboratory works with Olympic and professional athletes. Photo courtesy of the Musgrave family.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As for Maya, she was not a consistent runner on the varsity cross country team until this past fall of 2021, during her senior year, after her iron issues had been found out and cleared up. Just a year prior, Musgrave had run her fastest time ever during the first race of the year, and she got her hopes up\u2014but then her times got worse and worse throughout the rest of the season.

During the summer of 2020, when Musgrave was entering her junior year of high school, she had started to not feel well\u2014including difficulty breathing and feeling like she had low energy. This continued to progress through the fall cross country season.

\u201cI just kept getting slower,\u201d she recently told the Traverse City Record Eagle<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI felt like something was wrong, but I couldn\u2019t figure out what.\u201d

Musgrave credits her coaches, Traci and Asa Kelly, with noticing the symptoms of low iron; they had seen it before in former athletes\u2014and Traci herself has suffered with low iron since her high school running days. 

\u201cI am one of those athletes that has dealt with that her entire life from high school,\u201d Traci Kelly told 9&10 News<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI was in the lucky position that my parents could deal with that and could get me the blood test when I needed it, but not every kid has the means to do that.\u201d

Female athletes tend to have more problems with iron deficiencies than their male counterparts, unsurprisingly given that monthly menstruation is part of that picture. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a 1997 study<\/a> that 9 to 11 percent of teenage girls were iron deficient, compared to 1 percent of teenage men. Almost a decade earlier, a 1989 study<\/a> in the Journal of Pediatrics found that the stats were worse for female cross country runners in high school: 34 percent had ferritin levels that were below the levels of the general population, while only 8 percent of male runners suffered the same fate. Moreover, in 2015, the Journal of International Society of Sports and Nutrition cited<\/a> endurance sports\u2014like running\u2014as a risk factor for low iron in female athletes.

So, Musgrave\u2019s coaches recommended that she get tested for anemia, which tests the levels of hemoglobin, a protein with four iron atoms which allows red blood cells to carry up to four oxygen molecules from the lungs to the body\u2019s muscles. The body stores most of its reserves of iron in a protein called serum ferritin, and when serum ferritin levels are low, the body slows the production of hemoglobin, which in turn means that the body produces fewer red blood cells.

In Musgrave\u2019s case, her hemoglobin levels came back as \u201cnormal,\u201d but her ferritin levels were very low, about 10 percent of what they should have been. This meant that she needed two blood infusions to begin feeling better, plus a steady dose of supplements ever since.

Musgrave says that her doctor told her that anything below 12 percent can be trouble, but a runner should have at least 40.

\u201cYou are breaking down blood cells every single day by running,\u201d Asa Kelly explained to the Benzie County Record Patriot<\/a><\/em>. \u201cAnd so many kids out there are never going to get tested and will never know. They might just think: \u2018I\u2019m just not fast,\u2019 but maybe it\u2019s not that. Maybe if you got that tested, you could get that fixed. We\u2019ve had kids with low iron every year. How many of them? We don\u2019t know.\u201d 

He added that a number of Benzie\u2019s former all-state runners have gone on to run in college, and only then\u2014with big school athletic budgets and a team of dedicated training staff\u2014were they diagnosed with low iron problems.

\u201cIt was quite a shock, as a parent, to find out that, even when you are doing everything right\u2014helping your kid with great nutrition, great sleep\u2014there are invisible factors that go undetected,\u201d Musgrave\u2019s mother, Lisa, told the Benzie County Record Patriot<\/em>. 

Giving Back to Others<\/strong>
Not content with just bettering her own performance, Maya Musgrave is now working to make sure that no Benzie girl will ever have to go through what she went through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maya
Maya Musgrave is hoping to study biology in college, though she has not yet decided where she wants to attend next fall. Photo courtesy of the Musgrave family.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this fall, Musgrave used her own money from working a summer job at L\u2019Chayim Deli so that the entire Benzie Central girls cross country team could be tested. And as it turned out, half of the girls on the team had low iron levels, though none were low enough to need a transfusion, as Musgrave had undergone; those girls were able to start taking iron supplements to get them back to normal. (Editor\u2019s Note<\/strong>: It can be harmful to take iron supplements if you do not have low iron levels, so a test and a follow-up with your primary care physician are necessary steps to determine if supplements are right for you.)

From August through November, Musgrave worked with an attorney to solidify 501c3 nonprofit status for a program she dubbed \u201cKnow If You\u2019re Low,\u201d in hopes of expanding the testing capabilities to even more athletes.\u00a0

Last month, her mother, Lisa, pitched the idea to the 100 Women Who Care of Benzie County nonprofit group, in which 100-plus women each donate $100 at quarterly meetings (in January, April, July, and October), and then each woman gets a vote for where the lump sum is donated, after hearing three pitches from members of the group. Now, more than $14,000 is available for Benzie County\u2019s female athletes to take advantage of iron testing and education on an annual basis for the next three \u00a0years; this money must be spent in Benzie County, as a stipulation of the grant-givers.

But Musgrave is hopeful that the Know If You\u2019re Low project can soon grow to other schools around the state and the nation, if more funds can be raised.\u00a0

Maya Musgrave is hoping to study biology in college, though she has not yet decided where she wants to attend next fall. Interested in supporting Musgrave\u2019s \u201cKnow If You\u2019re Low\u201d program? Check out KnowIfYoureLow.com online, \u201cKnow If You\u2019re Low\u201d on Facebook<\/a>, and\/or mail a donation by check to PO Box 378, Beulah, MI, 49617. Additionally, Musgrave is looking for student ambassadors from other high schools to bring this program to their student body. Use the KnowIfYoureLow.com<\/a> website\u2019s \u201cPlease Reach Out\u201d form to sign up for more information.<\/em>

Featured Photo Caption:<\/strong>\u00a0Members of the Benzie Central High School girls cross country team pose for a photo after a race this past fall. Thanks to the dedicated work and financial donation of senior Maya Musgrave (third from left), the entire team was tested for low iron levels, which often plague female athletes, especially those in endurance sports like running. Half of the team\u2019s results indicated low iron. Photo courtesy of the Musgrave family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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