Article-endurance athletes and enlarged hearts

[Nancy]

This article is from the heartcenteronline newsletter:

"Big-hearted athletes might be in danger

Aug 08 (Reuters Health) - Endurance athletes are known to develop large hearts. While this is thought to be a normal adaptation to their training, a new study hints that some athletes could be at risk for heart failure.


It all has to do with the type of gene they carry for the "angiotensin-converting enzyme" (ACE), a substance involved in regulating blood pressure. The ACE gene comes in two variations - either D (deletion) or I (insertion) - and everyone has two copies of the gene, so people are classified as DD, ID, or II genotypes.


"The DD genotype has been associated with a variety of adverse cardiovascular effects," note Dr. Domingo Hernandez and a team at the Hospital Universitario de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.


To see if the ACE genotype had any effect on endurance athletes, they examined 61 such individuals ranging in age from 25 to 40 who trained for about 15 hours a week.


Those athletes with the DD genotype had larger left heart chambers than those with the ID genotype after a similar amount of training time, the researchers found. Seventy percent of the DD athletes could be classified as having an enlarged heart compared with only 42 percent of ID athletes.


While the pumping action of DD and ID athletes' hearts were similar, those of DD subjects took a longer time to fill between beats, according to the study.


Hernandez's team points out that an enlarged heart predicts later heart failure in the general population. "Whether exercise-induced cardiac growth also carries an increased risk of sudden death in DD endurance athletes is of great concern," they write. "The long-term effect of ACE [genotype] on the athlete's heart requires future studies to answer this important question."


SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, August 6, 2003.

Publish Date: August 08, 2003

© Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

HeartCenterOnline Commentary:
To read related news stories, click on any of the following:
Study may help spot heart problem in teen athletes
Lack of gene linked to abnormal heart-muscle growth
Healthy pro-footballers have heart irregularities
Doppler test detects those with gene for early heart enlargement risk

For additional information on these topics visit HeartCenterOnline's following links:
The Cardiomyopathy Center"

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Nancy:

Interesting information. Years ago I was told I had an enlarged heart, but the cardio. doc. said it was no big deal, it was because I was an avid jogger and exercised 6 days a week. Nothing to be concerned about.

Living in Alaska is nice, but sometimes the remoteness leaves us lacking for certain kinds of services. When I was diagnosed, I was told there was no one in Alaska who could handle my problem. Most everyone here goes to the lower 48 states for surgery and the best technology. Oh, and we all send our kids down there for a decent college education, too.

 

[Mark Wagner]

Whoops! Maybe I am in trouble. That's okay, I'll die content and living life with Frank Sinatra's motto .... "I did it my way."

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Mark:

You are a little bit younger than me and you have already had your surgery, correct? So if you like to do marathons, go for it. Especially with Sinatra's motto. Have you been told your heart is enlarged?

I was never a runner, but a jogger. I was doing 50-60 mile weeks and it felt good. I still remember how good it felt to finish my half-marathon. It was the 1st race I had done where men could run. Before that, I had only run in women only races. I was too bashful to run with men. Anyway, all these guys were passing me on the way out, then we hit the turnaround and boy, did it feel good to be passing some the same guys that had passed me earlier!

Now I could never do a half-marathon, can hardly do 4 miles at a time! Depressing. I've resorted to the fat burn program on my treadmill as an alternative to jogging.

 

[Mark Wagner]

Hi Peggy,
Yes, my heart was enlarged, (still is I guess) but has gone down to more normal size. In my case it was not enlarged from my running, but because I was born with a 'bicuspid' aortic valve.
No stopping me now, except for my wifes, 'honey do list!'

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Mark:

I like that, "Quitting is not an option." Good luck on the next marathon. I'll be cheering for you.