The Heart Of An Athlete

1. The Heart Of An Athlete “In highly conditioned athletes, a big heart-the literal, not the metaphorical kind- is a sign of health and power. But in some cases, it can be a deadly burden.”

2. Background Elite athletes often have enlarged hearts. This enables them to reach amazing levels of athletic endurance and strength. These super hearts can pump huge amounts of blood which carries oxygen to the muscles. A super charged heart is the same as a super charged motor in a car. This condition is developed as result of intense cardio and/or strength training.

3. Background continued The athlete’s heart condition is most common in extreme swimmers, cyclists, runners, rowers and weight lifters. Unfortunately, the extreme training of these athletes can sometimes reveal, or make worse, serious pre-existing problems with their hearts. This has led to the premature deaths of some very prominent athletes.

4. The healthy heart

5. The Heart Function The heart will grow larger with an increased work load, resulting in a larger heart and/or a thicker heart. Both of these will bring about the athlete’s heart condition. There are two basic ways to increase blood supply to exercising muscles: Make the heart beat faster or pump a larger volume of blood with each beat. This creates less wear on the heart. Thus the size of the heart, not the maximum beats, increases with conditioning. Example: a world class marathoner could have the same maximum heart rate as an average person, the difference being the marathoner’s heart pumps more blood with each beat.

6. Brief Heart Anatomy Oxygen depleted blood returns from the body and enters the right side of the heart. Then, blood is pumped out of the right ventricle to the lungs, where it picks up new oxygen before returning to the left side or left ventricle. Finally, the fresh oxygenated blood is pumped back into the body by the left ventricle..

7. How do we measure the Athletes Heart? The size of the left ventricle when fully expanded, the thickness of its walls, and the amount of blood it pumps with each beat, (called stroke volume) are all key stats in assessing the heart. A technique using ultra sound technology called echocardiography allows doctors to watch the heart in action, freeze the image, and then take measurements to establish the athlete’s heart.

8. What do these elite athletes look like? Elite athletes had a 46% larger left ventricle than non-conditioned people. They also had a 33%increase in stroke volume. Resting heart rates of low 30’s for marathoners due to enormous stroke volume. A normal person would pass out if his heart rate dropped to 30.

9. Easy Come, Easy Go! A fascinating aspect of the athlete’s heart is how fast the condition comes and goes. It can develop in weeks and vanish just as fast. Ten endurance runners from New Mexico returned to college with normal sized hearts after a summer of reduced training. In just 4 months of rigorous training, their left ventricles increased 23%.

10. How different types of exercises influence growth of an athletes heart The exact load on a heart determines specific changes. Volume loading, caused by intense aerobic training. Here, muscles demand oxygen for a longer time. Volume loading increases the left ventricle, thus increasing the stroke volume. Examples: running swimming, biking Pressure loading, caused by intense anaerobic strength training. Increases thickness of right wall. Example:weight training. Thus, cross training gives us the most versatile conditioned athletes.

11. What causes the sensational deaths of elite athletes? Some elite athletes may have been born with heart conditions which they never noticed. Since their hearts were so big, they resembled the athlete’s heart condition, not the enlarged diseased heart they were born with. Another reason why these athletes don’t know they have diseased hearts is that their enlarged hearts masked and compensated for their genetic defects. If detected early, many deaths could have been avoided with the use of proper medication.

12. Examples of heart diseases Viral Cardiomyopathy Virus attacks left ventricle. Can be cured. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy(HCM) Abnormal thickening of the left ventricle. Most common disease. Difficult to detect since it resembles the athlete’s heart. HCM is genetic and has no prior symptoms. 1 in 500 persons has this condition.

13. Viral Cardiomyopathy

14. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

15. Heart diseases continued Congenital abnormalities: Structural problems from birth. Coronary artery disease (CAD): Arteries are blocked: Sergei Grinkov died. Never knew he had a problem. Morfans Syndrome: disorder of heart’s connective tissue. Flo Hyman died. Did not have a clue about this. Myocarditis: Inflammation due to viral infection. Hank Gathers sought treatment, but still died.

16. Coronary artery disease (CAD)

17. CAD VictimSergei Grinkov

18. Marfans Syndrom

19. Marfans Syndrom victimFlo Hyman

20. Myocarditis

21. Myocarditis victimsHank Gathers, Reggie Lewis

22. The Good News Early in the twentieth century, there was a debate about the long term effects of the athlete’s heart. After years of testing and research, the result is that there are no dangerous consequences so long as there are no hidden diseases. The sudden death of some elite athletes was sensational and unnerving. However, these deaths were not due to over training , but rather a predisposed heart problem masked by an extraordinary conditioned heart.

23. Some notable athletes who died early due to undetected heart disease Paavo Nurmi- great marathoner/Olympian Babe Didrickson- Words greatest woman athlete Bill Rogers- Ultra Marathoner Secretariat- Triple Crown winner

24. Legendary Hearts Paavo Nurmi &Bill Rogers

25. More Legends Babe Didrickson

26. More Legends Secretariat