Fans of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, 57, are worried about his health after an alarming scare on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on Sunday.
Tyson, who will face 27-year-old Jake Paul in just two months, felt inexplicably dizzy and nauseous, symptoms said to be linked to an ulcer, believed to be in his abdomen.
Paramedics boarded the plane in California to provide immediate medical care to Mr. Tyson.
The debacle has led to speculation about what exactly happened to cause these strange symptoms and whether or not that means he will have to delay the long-awaited fight.
Worryingly, some research suggests Tyson could be at risk of developing a more sinister condition, including catastrophic internal bleeding.
Mike Tyson suffered a medical scare during a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on Sunday.
Stomach ulcers are small sores that develop in the lining of the stomach or small intestine and can cause a range of gastrointestinal symptoms, from nausea and bloating to vomiting and dizziness.
One of the most serious and rare complications of an ulcer is the possibility of the sore becoming a rupture, opening the stomach or colon in what is called a perforation. according to the NIH.
This is a rare complication, affecting approximately 2 to 14 percent of people with ulcers.
When the stomach or colon opens, the acid and bacteria it normally contains can spill into the body, which can lead to a life-threatening condition known as sepsis.
The initial symptoms may present a bit like a fever, causing dizziness, nausea and a high temperature.
An ulcer that perforates the stomach and is fatal in about 30 percent of cases.
The risk may be a concern for Tyson doctors, as a blow to the stomach can also cause perforation, particularly in ulcerated regions.
Having an ulcer or being punched in the stomach ‘does not mean that you are going to have a gastrointestinal perforation, but the risk of having one is greater’, according to doctors at the Cleveland Clinic wrote.
Most likely, however, the altitude has simply made the typical symptoms of an abdominal ulcer much worse.
Everyday symptoms of an ulcer include heartburn, heartburn, and bloating, according to the mayo clinic.
But some people develop more worrying symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting or dizziness.
The elevation may worsen gastrointestinal conditions, such as ulcers, according to to a 2022 review of exercise scientists at the University of New Mexico.
This may be because a change in air pressure affects the amount of vital oxygen available to the body’s cells, the authors wrote.
If intestinal cells have less oxygen, they may not produce the same amount of protective layer they normally do, which is the body’s natural defense against stomach acid and ulcers.
Even temporary elevation changes that occur over the course of a flight could be enough to upset your gut, according to a 2014 study from the University of Zurich found.
Despite popular ideas that attribute the condition to stress or coffee, ulcers are usually caused by a bacteria called H. Pylori, according to the Mayo Clinic.
You can contract this virus through contact with an infected person or from spoiled food or water.
Doctors don’t really understand how the bacteria causes ulcers, but they estimate it is behind the roughly 4 million cases of the problem in the U.S.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, or using over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin or Advil can increase your chance of developing an ulcer.
Tyson will face Jake Paul in his return to the ring on Netflix later this year.
A studywhich analyzed data from more than 50 million hospitalizations, found that Americans who used cannabis regularly were 18 percent more likely to have ulcers compared to those who did not use the drug.
Tyson is the founder of Tyson 2.0, a marijuana company worth an estimated $400 million. The businessman is known to smoke $40,000 worth of marijuana a month on his California cannabis ranch.
In fact, it’s such a common habit of his that he publicly renounced it in previous months to prepare for his July match against Mr Paul.
Whatever the cause of Tyson’s ulcer, he could be a dangerous risk ahead of his first fight in years. There is no official recommendation for when professional fighters should put down the gloves.
There is no official recommendation for when professional fighters should put down the gloves, and anyone who steps into the boxing ring risks brain damage, said Dr. Gail Rosseau, a neurosurgeon at North Shore University Health System in Illinois. he told the cry.
But the stakes become much higher as a fighter ages. “The older a person is when he suffers a traumatic brain injury (such as in boxing), the less likely he is to recover to his pre-injury state,” Dr. Rosseau said.
He added: “The typical recovery time from the same blow is longer in the older age group.”