Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott’s claim last Sunday that he usessmelling salts every game doesn’t make him unique among professional athletes playing contact sports.
The most common use for smelling salts in sports isn’t to wake up unconscious players. What happens more frequently is players chooseto sniff them because they believe it makes them more alert and ready to play.
"It happens a lot in the (NHL),” former NHL star Jeremy Roenick said.
YouTube videos support that contention, particularly one lengthy compilation of television shots capturing NHL players’ reaction as they sniff smelling salts, on the bench, before the game. It’s not difficult to find photos of NFL players with smelling salts. When Michael Strahan played in the NFL (1993-2007) he estimated that 70-80% of players used smelling salts to give themselves a spark.
ESPN the Magazine reported last year that Ezekiel Elliott was among other Cowboys using smelling salts and that it found discarded smelling salt capsules on the Los Angeles Rams sideline.
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Smelling salts are essentially ammonia capsules. They have been mentioned in historical writings, dating to the Roman Empire. In modern times, they have been used to revive people after fainting.
“Put your nose by an open bottle of ammonia and that’s what it’s like,” said former NHL trainer Stan Wong. “It’s like a hit of Mr. Clean.”
The use of a smelling salt became a discussion point for Prescott because he used one right after being checked for a concussion. He said after the Washingtongame that the smelling salts had nothing to do with issue.
"I do that every game,” he said.
"I don’t know anybody in sports medicine who uses 'em,” said Scott Anderson, head athletic trainer at the University of Oklahoma, adding “It’s been (inadvisable)for concussion for a long time.”
Wong said he never uses a smelling salt in those situations. Hestill works as a trainer for USA Hockey at international tournaments, and when the tournament involves professional players, he always carries 20 smelling salt capsules in his pocket because players will want them. Players ask for a “sniffer” or “salt.”
Anderson said he has heard of strength coaches using salts to get guys hyped up, like maybe giving players a whiff during huddles.
Roenick said he started using smelling salts before a game because he felt as if he had better start. He describes smelling salts “as an instant shock to the brain.”
"I always responded to things that I didn’t like,” Roenick said. “When I got hit hard, I would get mad and start playing better. When I would get cut, that was my cue to amp up. They jolt your mind, your brain. It gets you right into the moment."
Former NHL player Tom Laidlaw said he used them off and on. “Getting some positive affect wasn’t in my thought process,” Laidlaw said. “I never really felt like it did much for me, but I saw teammates doing it, and I was going to do it.”
Wong has seen the bonding aspect as well. Some players will crack a sniffer, take a whiff and pass it to a teammate.
"Some guys get bug-eyed,” Wong said. “It’s a routine pattern, not an addictive pattern. It’s an emotional wake-up (call).”
Roenick said he was once knocked out during a game and a smelling salt was used to awaken him.
"In the medical community it is not something that is used,” said neurologist Erin Manning of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. “It’s more like folklore medicine.”
Another concern is whether using smelling salts in a concussion situation might mask symptoms.
"If it was going to mask symptoms it would be for a very brief period of time,” Manning said. “It’s not going to change the underlying process of the concussion. … It’s possible that there could be mild symptoms in the beginning and it could make them harder to find.”
Ryan Yelle, Regional Clinical Director of Professional Physical Therapy in New York, said another concern would be not knowing the extent of a player’s injury.
"If someone is unconscious and has sustained a more serious injury, possibly to (his) spinal cord,” Yelle said, “having him wake up suddenly and having a jerky (awakening), might injure him further.”
Yelle said smelling salts aren’t used in first responder situations for that reason.
No oneis sure how much smelling salts impacts performance. “People think it helps them, and sometimes that’s enough to help somebody,” Manning said.
She said use of smelling salts can sometimes burn tissues. “But in terms of long-term effects, there really shouldn’t be any,” Manning said.
Although smelling salts are available at your local drug store, Yelle said athletes should remember that taking a whiff of gas isn’t the best way to get a boost. But he sees some value in smelling salts.
A man recently told Yellehe fainted while watching a doctor giving his wife an IV while she was preparing to give birth to their third child.
"He passed out, on top of his wife,” Yelle said. “He said it was the only time he had experienced smelling salts and it woke (him) right up. Outside of that, there’s no conventional medical use.”
Contributing: George Schroeder.
