Inside Sport

Competitive Sports and the Heart: Benefit or Risk?


https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Topic1721150.aspx

By ozboy - 11 May 2013 11:45 AM

Abstract
Background

Controversy surrounds the cardiac effects of competitive sports and the athlete’s heart. In this review, we present and discuss the main cardiological findings in competitive athletes.

Method

Selective review of pertinent literature retrieved by a search with the keywords “athlete’s heart,” “ECG,” “echocardiography,” “endurance exercise,” “longevity,” and others.

Results

Regular exercise leads to functional and structural adaptations that improve cardiac function. Athlete’s heart, which develops rarely, is a typical finding in endurance athletes. This condition is characterized by physiological, harmonically eccentric hypertrophy of all cardiac chambers. The athlete’s ECG can be used to distinguish physiological, training-related changes from pathological training-unrelated changes. The athlete’s heart function is normal at rest and increases appropriately during exercise. The cardiac markers troponin and B-type natriuretic peptide are within the normal range in healthy athletes at rest, but can temporarily be mildly elevated after exhausting endurance-exercise, without evidence of myocardial damage. The epidemiological data suggest that participation in competitive sports increases life expectancy.

Conclusion

Competitive exercise does not induce cardiac damage in individuals with healthy hearts, but does induce physiological functional and structural cardiac adaptations which have positive effects on life expectancy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3561756/
By chillbilly - 11 May 2013 5:41 PM

notorganic wrote:
Actually, it's more to do with the fact that running marathons really isn't good for your health.

I didn't disagree with that. Quite obviously are car driving 80% capacity for 2+hours is going to have a much greater chance of developing problems than one that drives with accelerator to the floor for 10 seconds. I was just pointing out that your pictures depicted different situations.
I'd like to see pictures of the marathon runner flexing and the sprinter completing the 42nd km.

Edited by chillbilly: 11/5/2013 05:42:16 PM