Athletic Heart Syndrome

[liftsiron]

Athletic Heart Syndrome

By Chris Woolston, M.S.

What is athletic heart syndrome?

Athletic heart syndrome is a heart condition that may occur in people who exercise or train for more than an hour a day, most days of the week. Athletic heart syndrome isn't necessarily bad for you -- if you're an athlete. And it's not what makes young athletes expire in mid-court. While it does lead to structural changes in the heart, a person with the condition usually doesn't notice any symptoms. Athletic heart syndrome doesn't require treatment and is important to diagnose only to rule out heart problems that are serious.

Like any other muscle, the heart gets stronger with exercise. Endurance exercises such as jogging, swimming, and cycling can make the organ bigger, allowing it to pump more blood with every beat. Short, intense workouts such as weight lifting further increase the pumping power by thickening the walls of the heart.

Just as body builders sculpt their abs and biceps into highly unusual shapes, many hard-core, competitive athletes develop extraordinary hearts. Not only is the heart extra large and thick, it also may produce some irregular rhythms (arrhythmia). A person with athletic heart syndrome may also have a markedly slow resting heart rate, in the range of 35 to 50 beats a minute. In addition, electrical impulses can take strange routes across the heart, causing abnormal readings on an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). Together, these changes produced by exercise are called athletic heart syndrome.

Is athletic heart syndrome dangerous?

An enlarged heart, arrhythmia, and unusual ECG readings would all be signs of serious trouble for the average person. In fact, the rhythms and ECG readings associated with athletic heart syndrome often mimic life-threatening disorders. But athletic heart syndrome itself is harmless. The "abnormal" changes in the athlete's heart are actually a testament to the body's ability to adapt.

If an athlete has symptoms of chest pain, reports irregular beats, or has passed out, he or she should get a medical exam to pinpoint the problem. Your doctor may want to run extra tests to determine whether the symptoms are a normal sign of your body's ability to adapt to training, or whether there's some abnormality in your heart. These tests may include an electrocardiogram, sonogram (a picture of the heart using sound waves), or another type of test.

Of course, some athletes really do have heart trouble. Occasionally, seemingly healthy young basketball or football players drop dead in the middle of a game or a practice. In almost every case, doctors trace the death to an unsuspected condition, such as congenital heart disease, but one that has nothing to do with athletic heart syndrome.

How is athletic heart syndrome treated?

Since athletic heart syndrome is harmless, there's no reason to treat it unless you experience regular light-headedness, chest pains, or you lose consciousness. If you really want a "normal" heart again, all you have to do is stop exercising. Soon, your heart, along with the rest of your body, will sag back into its former shape. But why not keep everything extra strong and healthy for a while? You should be proud of your athletic body, heart included.

References

Maron, BJ et al. The Heart of Trained Athletes: cardiac remodeling and risks of sports, including sudden death. Circulation, Oct.10, 2006.

Bryan, Greg et al. Athletic Heart Syndrome. Medical Problems. Vol.11, Number 2.

Drezner, Jonathan A. Sudden cardiac death in young athletes. Postgraduate Medicine, October 2000.

Merck Manual. Athletic Heart Syndrome. November 2005. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec07/ch082/ch082c.html

Last Updated: Jan 20, 2016

Exercise and Fitness Health Library Copyright ©2016 LimeHealth. All Rights Reserved.

[Savage2]

I read this too. I hope it's true. I had a heart test 2 years ago just because. They did ultrasound on my heart before and right after running on treadmill. Think they said my left ventricle of heart, or chamber looked larger. Heart was not pumping at a normal percentage when at rest but when I did physical activity, it was fine. But, could be long use as well.

[liftsiron]

The left ventricle is often larger in athletes even w/o aas use.

[Savage2]

Yeah, heard that. Wish they would do more studies on this athletes heart. The word is, when you get off the aas and/or stop heavy working out or heavy running it goes back. Of course, probably not after long use

[Birdman]

Great. We exercise daily to build a healthy, strong heart, but then we can develop an adverse heart condition by doing so. .........We just can't win!

-Birdman

[Glycomann]

Sorry to point out the elephant in the room but there is a difference between a heavy AAS user bodybuilder and a non-user athlete. I don't really feel like getting into this argument again here but I always advise moderation, time off, blood donation and monitoring of BP and blood work.

[Jester]

Sorry to point out the elephant in the room but there is a difference between a heavy AAS user bodybuilder and a non-user athlete. I don't really feel like getting into this argument again here but I always advise moderation, time off, blood donation and monitoring of BP and blood work.

I gotta agree with Glycodude. The adverse growth of LVH in AAS users (mostly abusers) cannot be logically debated. The heart is a muscle.... do the math

[Savage2]

Agreed.

[Savage2]

What's abuse though? 1000 dosage consistently? Always blasting? We all have to understand everyone is different. Be safe and know the risks and signs of issues.

[millenium girl]

Sorry to point out the elephant in the room but there is a difference between a heavy AAS user bodybuilder and a non-user athlete. I don't really feel like getting into this argument again here but I always advise moderation, time off, blood donation and monitoring of BP and blood work.

I'm a non user (old) athlete. I have arrhythmias and had all kind of tests (stress test, ultrasound, ....). Cardiologist said that I have a good heart but a valve doesn't do its job properly. He says that it is not life threatening. During the stress test my heart rate didn't increase a lot and my recovery was very good. I take half a beta blocker a day to prevent the arrhythmias.

[KORAL]

Went i to heart failure this past June, medivacced to a true heart hospital in the east coast. Initially I thought I’d be ok, resting heart rate was 179, not good. 6 hours later I had so much fluid building up around my heart and organs I went into early organ shut for . This was some no shit kinda situation. Gradually god better, my ejection fraction, which is the measurement they use to see how strong your heart is actually pumping blood OUT, but I still have a ways to go. I had heart surgery in July to correct an arrhythmia. So far, so good. So loving story short, guys, go get an echocardiogram, insurance copay is like $100, well spent. It will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about your heart, down to how many mm each ventricle of yours is, too thick is no good, too thin is also no good.

I’m building back up slowly, best part of going to the gym now is I feel zero pressure to add weight, or go for the one more rep, and set a PR. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But with my health situation, my focus is on staying alive.

And yes of course every Dr in thereu said we all know you used steroids, stop doing it. But with my own research, I stilll feel it’s safer to get continue low dose test versus stopping all of it at once. And that’s my story

KORAL

[Glycomann]

Thanks Koral for your story. I look at the old timers from the 70s and 80s. most of those guys made it out alive. Well, the Mentzers bought it and a few others but very few. They took time off pretty regularly. You can pull of pictures of many of them off the stuff. I think that was the key. Lower average doses, pharma grade drugs, not much polypharmacy, time off. Plus I think most of them stopped by their early 30s. Now you ahve pros in their mid 40s.