Heart Trouble
This week, it's heavy endurance training and heart health; women, exercise and Parkinson's disease and your weekly recommendations.
The Rundown
Heart Trouble. Exercise is good for our hearts but is it possible to get too much of a good thing when it comes to physical activity? A new paper looked at longtime runners, cyclists, swimmers and triathletes and found that years of heavy endurance training and competition may contribute to an increased chance of developing atrial fibrillation, particularly in men. (Atrial fibrillation or AFib is an irregular heart beat that can lead to blood clots and a higher risk of stroke).
Specifically, the study examined medical and training data from 942 male and female longtime endurance athletes. All had competed at a local or national level and many still raced.
About 20 percent of these athletes, almost all middle-aged men, said they had been diagnosed with AFib. Those who competed and trained the most were at highest risk. Lead author of the study, Susil Pallikadavath, notes however, that it wasn’t a random sample and the incidence of AFib likely skewed high because athletes with the condition probably responded in disproportionate numbers.
According to sports cardiologist, Meagan Wasfy, who has studied and treated AFib in athletes, there are several takeaways here with the first being: Don’t overreact. Moderate exercise like walking or jogging for a few hours a week protects you against all types of heart conditions, including AFib.
On the flip side, don’t ignore new symptoms. Pay attention to sudden heart palpitations or shortness of breath, unexplained declines in your performance and spikes in your heart rate.
For his part, Pallikadavath wants to reassure athletes. “The benefits of exercise far, far outweigh the risks,” he stressed. “This message cannot be stated enough.”
Exercise & Parkinson’s Disease. New research published in the journal Neurology has found that exercising regularly may reduce a woman’s chances of developing Parkinson’s disease by as much as 25 percent.
The study compared the exercise levels of more than 95,000 women over nearly three decades. The women were average age 49, did not have Parkinson’s when the study started and their exercise activities included walking, cycling, gardening, stair climbing, house cleaning and participation in sports.
Over the study’s time period, 1,074 women developed Parkinson’s. The researchers found that as a woman’s exercise level increased, her risk for the disease decreased and for those who got the most physical activity, based on time and intensity, the rate for developing Parkinson’s was 25 percent lower than for those who exercised the least.
Extra Point
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