Good Samaritan: Benzie's Musgrave starts foundation inspired by her past

Dec. 25—BENZONIA — Maya Musgrave doesn't want cross country athletes to ever experience what she went through her junior year.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Musgrave found out she wasn't running slower because she wasn't training hard enough. Quite the opposite. Her body's iron levels couldn't keep up the pace.

Now the Benzie Central senior is heading a foundation to support other cross country athletes like her — even after she graduates.

"I realized that if someone had done this for me, like my freshman or my sophomore year, I would have been really grateful for them," Musgrave said. "I wouldn't have had to go through the experience of such low iron, and that affecting my season."

It started last summer when Musgrave, then entering her junior year, started to not feel well.

"I just kept kept getting slower," she said. "I felt like something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what. My coaches noticed the symptoms of low iron because they'd seen it in athletes before me and recommended I get tested."

She sought testing for anemia from her doctors, which typically involves a test for hemoglobin levels.

Hemoglobin is a protein with four iron atoms at its core, allowing red blood cells to carry oxygen from the lungs to muscles. Because red blood cells must be replaced frequently, the body keeps extra iron on hand in a storage protein called serum ferritin — where most of the body's reserve iron is stored. When ferritin levels are low, hemoglobin synthesis slows down, and the body can't produce as many red blood cells.

Musgrave's hemoglobin levels were normal, but her ferritin levels were incredibly low.

"Suddenly, you're faced with not just 'Here, take a couple of supplements,' but it was, 'She probably needs an infusion if she's going to feel better before six to eight months,'" said Lisa Musgrave, Maya's mom who works as a dentist in Beulah.

Research has shown iron deficiency to be common among athletes, especially female ones.

A 1989 study in the Journal of Pediatrics found 34% of female high school cross country runners had ferritin levels below the standard lab reference for the general population (12 nanograms per milliliter).

Among male high school cross country runners, that number was only 8%.

Both those numbers were higher than what a 1997 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed among teenagers and adults in general — between 9-11% percent of women and 1% of men.

"Athletes, particularly female athletes participating in endurance sport, are at increased risk of compromised iron status due to heightened iron losses through menstruation and exercise-induced mechanisms associated with endurance activity," the abstract of a 2015 article in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition said.

Musgrave's "Know If You're Low" non-profit hopes to raise funds for high school athletes to be tested for low iron, starting with the entire Benzie Central cross country team.

Half of the girls tested for the Huskies had low iron levels, though none low enough where transfusions would be necessary. Each began taking iron supplements.

The catch with taking supplements without a need for them is that the body can actually have too much iron — which can make you feel worse than having not enough iron.

"That's because supplements can have side effects like constipation, nausea and stomach pain," Dr. Marcia A. Goolsby from the Hospital of Special Surgery writes. "Taking too much iron can even lead to organ damage."

That's why Musgrave wants to offer more testing to young athletes like her.

The next steps for the foundation, financially, are applying for grants and garnering donations. Eventually her hope is to keep the foundation going beyond high school and help athletes outside her own school.

She's garnered attention from a company that does iron deficiency testing for professional and Olympic athletes, Athlete Blood Test, but hasn't yet formed a formal partnership.

Those interested in donating can mail checks to "Know If You're Low" P.O. Box 378, Beulah, MI 49617 or online at knowifyourelow.com.

Follow Andrew Rosenthal on Twitter @ByAndrewR