November 20, 2007
Blood Pressure and Heart Size in Athletes
Tip! Activity - people who lead active lives are much less likely to develop high blood pressure or heart and artery disease.
In 1976, 413 high school runners in Finland competed in a 2000-meter race. At the time of the race and in a follow-up study twenty-five years later, the faster runners had much lower blood pressures than the slower ones (International Journal of Sports Medicine, July-August 2005.)
The researchers wanted to know whether a maximal endurance test to measure aerobic fitness in adolescence would predict hypertension in adults. This is the first study to show that faster teen age runners have lower blood pressures and that the lower blood pressures persist long after they stop running. In their teens, the faster runners were more fit than the slower runners, and their dedication may have persisted into later life; or the faster teen-age runners may have had some physiological advantage that kept their blood pressure lower and made them less likely to suffer heart attacks in later life. Either the faster runners were genetically superior to the slower runners, or something in their lifestyles made them faster as teenagers and also caused them to have lower blood pressures throughout their lives. Either way, the findings of this study should encourage early participation in sports and lifelong exercise habits.
Tip! Weight - people who are overweight are more at risk of high blood pressure than those who are of normal weight. Blood pressure tends to rise as body weight increases.
Sometimes doctors mistake a large, strong healthy heart caused by vigorous exercise with the large, weak, sick heart of cardiomyopathy. A report from University College London Hospitals describes the case of a professional athlete who was prohibited from playing football because doctors didn’t order the right tests (European Journal of Echocardiology, August 2005).
In cardiomyopathy, the enlargement is caused by the heart’s inability to pump blood through the body at rest because of poor pumping power and inability to fill adequately with blood. A person with this condition can die during exercise. On the other hand, people who exercise vigorously over many years can develop a very large muscular heart which is stronger than normal and far less likely to suffer any disease. If this patient had an echocardiogram and treadmill exercise tests read by a physician experienced with athletes, he would not have been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.
Tip! Don’t use pulse rate as a direct measure of exercise intensity if blood pressure medications are being used, as these can decrease pulse rate significantly.
Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com
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