Olympic competitors and pro athletes have a new way to avoid heat-related muscle fatigue and cramping: They can stick their hand into CoreControl, a gizmo the size of a coffeepot, and bring their body temperature down within minutes. Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn, animal physiologists at Stanford University, invented the tool to warm patients waking from anesthesia but found it also had a useful application as a cooling system. They founded AVAcore Technologies, now in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and began selling the device (right) for $5,000. Now two major soccer teams—Britain’s Manchester United and China’s Olympic unit—along with the Oakland Raiders are using it to improve players’ endurance. “If we can pull heat out,” Grahn says, “they can work harder and go longer.”
CoreControl has a rubber seal that surrounds the wrist and a vacuum pump that creates suction. The resulting negative pressure boosts blood flow to the hand while ...
