The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© The ConversationYour heart changes in size and shape with exercise – this can lead to heart problems for some athletes and gym rats
By William Cornwell AURORA, Colorado©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
25 Comments
Login to comment
falseflagsteve
I’d be more concerned about obesity and lack of exercise than this, get your priorities right.
Jind
I exercise 2 1/2 hours, 4 days a week, both Dynamic and Static exercises.
My doctor always says I am doing good in my annual physical.
Not doing exercises, I feel lethargic.
I would rather die of Athletic heart than be lazy and obese.
Redemption
I am into always using stairs up to ten flights several times a day.
starpunk
When I was just a teen there was a fitness runner named Jim Fixxwho promoted jogging and he promoted Preparation H for joint pain. When I was in Navy recruit training at age 18 I read that he died of a heart attack while jogging.
Bad coincidence or did he do it too much?
Redemption
Could’ve been the preparation h?
Mocheake
Agree 100 percent. Nothing like a good workout and being energetic.
Jlove
To renew my car racing license (24H endurance races) I have to perform medical tests. 45 minutes on the bicycle, body all wired up, with ever increasing resistance till no more. To pass you have to achieve 80-90%. The doctor got a stern face and I asked what was wrong. He answered everything is wrong, you achieved 155%! I‘m 65, come on guys, you can do it too.
Wick's pencil
Oooh, so this is why so many athletes have been getting heart attacks recently.
virusrex
The article do not make the point this should be a priority above the most common causes, just inform that his do happen and people should pay attention instead of just assuming it is not possible.
Athletes are NOT getting heart attacks recently, at least not more than what it has happening before, this rumor has been demonstrated as false scientifically.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.065908
Jind
@Starpunk,
My nephew much younger than me in his 30s never exercised and died of heart attack while getting back from work. Life is uncertain.
Just live it.
GuruMick
So I will now blame my heart problems on...ahem...being an athlete.
Sven Asai
Really a completely useless discussion. Active and professional sports kills, no sports at all kills too and also ignorants of that whole topic with very little sports and not thinking much about, like me, will of course die one day from having ignored it. Whatever you do, it's wrong anyway and clearly predictable won't save you from dying.
virusrex
It may seem so but only to people that did not read the article, for those that do it is clear that identifying risks can help people quickly recognize them and be prepared to many possibilities, pretending is useless to prepare for something so clearly described (even if many measures are available to reduce the risk) is what brings nothing to a discussion.
zibala
According to the experts, if you keep your body mass index in the normal range, never smoked, have a healthy diet, and follow medical professionals' advice on alcohol and physical activity then you will live longer.
Easy, No drugs.
Strangerland
Any respectful physician will tell you that you shouldn't drink alcohol.
virusrex
A lot of the propensity to disease, and longevity is independent of lifestyle,
https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/longevity/
It is estimated that about 25 percent of the variation in human life span is determined by genetics
Pretending that a healthy lifestyle is both a guarantee of health and something that can be automatically achieved just by attempting it is invalid and what has caused the growing epidemic of chronic disease. Supporting these changes with valid pharmacological help is part of what the actual experts in public health recommend. Not all lifestyles are realistically possible to achieve by will force alone, nor can they fully compensate for genetic predisposition, place of residence, socioeconomic status, etc.
Raw Beer
Yes, the advice of some experts should be followed, but we should also question some the treatments doctors recommend. According to a Johns Hopkins study, the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer, is iatrogenic (caused by medical "errors").
stan
My long time family Dr recommends a glass of red wine every evening.
He's very respected in the community.
zibala
The experts are pretending? I'm informing what the experts say.
Why do you disagree with the experts?
zibala
Read up on the risks of the weight loss drugs-- do you agree with those experts? The say nothing about those drugs adding to maximum longevity.
zibala
Looks like a pretty big study saying what I said and contradicting your personal claims:
We found that maximum longevity was achieved in participants maintaining a normal body mass index, who never smoked, ate a healthy diet, and had physical activity levels and alcohol intake that met public health recommendations through mid-life and late life.
Associations between patterns of modifiable risk factors in mid-life to late life and longevity: 36 year prospective cohort study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978682/
virusrex
When the evidence points to a better one, not when you like better another one, you have before recommended treatments that have been demonstrated as ineffective, or even increase the risk of patients of dying, that is the point of the experts, they are much more likely to be correct in what is the best possible treatment.
The basis for this myth is an invalid extrapolation, medical errors are not even close to being the third cause of death
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-health/medical-error-not-third-leading-cause-death
The experts are not the ones claiming you can guarantee health and longevity with a lifestyle, that claim is only yours, the experts instead have clearly said other factors are also important and pharmacological treatments justified even on people following healthy lifestyles.
You mean the experts that approved and even recommend the use of drugs because they lower the risk of the patients that are much more likely to fail changing their lifestyles? of course, they made a very good job with the evidence that support their claims and justify using those drugs.
I no part of the study the experts say 100% of the health risks depend on lifestyles and that you can avoid using any drugs following it, that is still a claim only you made and could not find any reference to support. In fact the study makes a point to include use of pharmacological help as a covariate of control, meaning that by definition their population's longevity includes use of drugs, and in no way support your personal claim that they become unnecessary with a healthy lifestyle.
zibala
Everything italicized below is a conclusion based on a 36 year study. The quote is from the experts.
Do you dispute their conclusion, or do you accept their exact words?
We found that maximum longevity was achieved in participants maintaining a normal body mass index, who never smoked, ate a healthy diet, and had physical activity levels and alcohol intake that met public health recommendations through mid-life and late life.
Associations between patterns of modifiable risk factors in mid-life to late life and longevity: 36 year prospective cohort study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978682/
Wick's pencil
of financial incentives.
virusrex
The experts are not the ones claiming you can guarantee health and longevity with a lifestyle, that claim is only yours, the experts instead have clearly said other factors are also important and pharmacological treatments justified even on people following healthy lifestyles. There is no need to dispute their conclusion, what is unsupported is still your misreperesentation.
The same study that includes pharmacological treatment as a covariate that can affect longevity, thus explicitly contradicting your claim that no drugs are necessary.
Irrelevant unless you can disprove the evidence that clearly proves a significant benefit from the use of drugs.