Recently, Medscape published an article on a study looking at deaths among professional bodybuilders between 2005 and 2020 to calculate the risk of sudden death, especially related to heart failure (aka. sudden cardiac deaths [SCDs].) While there certainly is an overrepresentation of sudden deaths among elite level bodybuilders, as soon as they tried to explain why, everything went downhill showing once again how incredibly ignorant these people are of simple physiology and biochemistry. So, with my 35+ years in the industry, let’s set some things straight using a bit of real science and a lot of common sense — the missing ingredient in today’s backwards and retarded society.
Note: this article is complex and covers a lot of subjects that I have already dissected many times in previous articles. To keep it readable, I will not put in as many screenshots but rather add links to further reading where all the science is presented. So, if you’re not familiar with some of my points, simply follow the link and read up on it.
“Sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) appear to be more frequent among men who practice bodybuilding, particularly those competing at high levels. A global study of more than 20,000 athletes is the first to report the incidence of sudden death in this population. As the author noted in the European Heart Journal, the aim was not to demonize bodybuilding but to promote safer practices.”
Yes, the increase in deaths in bodybuilding, which was unheard of in the past, began to escalate after the 90’s. Many will blame the increased drug use as bodybuilding changed a lot in the 90’s with the new and highly conditioned mass monsters like Dorian Yates, Marcus Ruhl, Nasser El Sonbaty, Dennis James, and Gunter Schlierkamp — a trend that was continued and even surpassed by the likes of Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler and Phil Heath, but that is not the whole picture. While drug use can be detrimental when pushed to the extreme, it is not the only factor in play. Actually, it’s not even the largest factor by far, and we’ll get to that.
“Bodybuilding focuses on increasing muscle mass and definition through physical exercise and a targeted diet. Unlike traditional sports, bodybuilding competitions evaluate the aesthetics of the body rather than athletic performance.”
Yes, it’s about muscle mass, symmetry, flow, and especially conditioning, as in as defined muscles as possible (extreme low levels of body fat.)
“Researchers identified 20,286 men who had competed in the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation (IFBB) events between 2005 and 2020. Using web-based searches, they determined which athletes died. Over a mean follow-up period of 8.1 ± 3.8 years, there were 121 deaths. Among the 99 cases with documented causes, 73 were sudden. The mean age at the time of death was 45 years. Of the 55 nontraumatic sudden deaths — excluding those from car accidents, suicide, or homicide — 46 were classified as SCDs.
The overall incidence of deaths (sudden and nonsudden) was 63.61 per 100,000 person-years. Among active competitors, those who died within 1 year of their last IFBB event, the rate rose to 80.58. The incidence of SCDs was 24.18 in the entire cohort and 32.83 among competing athletes, who had a mean age of just 35 years at death. Professional bodybuilders had a fivefold higher risk for SCD than recreational bodybuilders (hazard ratio, 5.23 [3.58-7.64]). Available autopsies showed the presence of cardiomegaly and severe ventricular hypertrophy in 4 out of 5 cases.”
Cardiomegaly refers to the enlargement of the heart, and in this case severe ventricular hypertrophy (an disproportionate enlargement of the ventricles.) As we nowadays know that the heart is not a pump, the theory is that the ventricles may play a role in generating pressure waves and facilitating blood flow through the circulatory system, rather than solely relying on the mechanical action of pumping. This perspective emphasizes the heart’s ability to create and maintain blood flow through rhythmic contractions and the properties of the entire circulatory system itself.
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is typically observed in populations with conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure,) aortic valve stenosis, and other factors that increase the workload/stress on the heart. It is more prevalent in blacks, the elderly, the obese, and individuals with hypertension, usually from a bad diet (high carbohydrates and seed/vegetable oils.) LVH is present in 15% to 20% of the general population and is more commonly seen in those with untreated hypertension.
In other words, cardiomegaly is not exclusive to bodybuilders. Actually, it’s more common in obese people who consume a lot of carbohydrates, kind of like professional bodybuilders who even use insulin to handle their carbohydrates in an excuse to grow more muscle mass by forcing more nutrients into the cells.
Risk Factors
“The study pointed to a broader issue in addition to bodybuilders, which could also affect nonprofessional athletes who practice strength training.”
No, strength training has nothing to do with it, or people would have died like flies of SCDs since the late 1800’s and especially after the 50’s when strength training exploded in popularity. Not to mention that every single professional sport utilizes strength training as a part of enhancing their performance. Yet, we do not see the same trend in every single sport. This is common sense.
“What are the possible causes? Univadis Italy, a Medscape Network platform, asked Marco Vecchiato, MD, a specialist and researcher in the Sports and Exercise Medicine Division at the University of Padua, Padua, Italy, and the coordinator of the study.”
“Our study had epidemiological purposes and was not designed to identify, in a cause-effect manner, the mechanisms underlying these premature deaths. However, the literature in the field has advanced some plausible hypotheses, suggesting that a combination of factors could contribute significantly to the increased risk, said Vecchiato.”
The literature in the field? You can’t think for yourself? You have no understanding of biology, physiology, or biochemistry? Well, neither do most of the imbeciles within that field, as we will see within a minute.
- “Intense training regimens, such as high-intensity workouts, place major strain on the cardiovascular (CV) and muscular systems.”
Yes, it does. But this is stress on the whole body and extreme exercise will shorten your lifespan accordingly. I’ve covered this in many articles, including “How Not to Do Research: Extreme Exercise and Lifespan,” and “Exercise, Accelerated Ageing, and Life Expectancy.”
However, if exercise were detrimental specifically to heart health, every single athlete in every single sport where they train more than an hour a day would have heart problems before they turned 50, yet very few do.
As for bodybuilders, most only do resistance training for 60 to 90 minutes a day, 5 to 6 times a week and then some low-intensity “cardio” for 20 to 30 minutes a day. And that resistance training is only high-intensity for 20 to 40 seconds and then they rest for a few minutes. That is nothing compared to other sports, not even compared to Olympic weightlifting, basketball, soccer, ice hockey, football, mixed martial arts, triathlon, swimming, and so on. All of them exercise/train more than double the volume of that of a bodybuilder — including both strength training, cardiovascular exercise and sport-specific training.
- “Extreme dietary practices, such as high protein intake and repeated weight cycling between off-season and on-season periods, can place significant stress on metabolic and CV systems.”
Yes, diet is one of the most important aspects, but this “MD” Marco Vecchiato is obviously totally ignorant about human nutrition as protein has absolutely nothing to do with it.
The problem with bodybuilding is the pseudo-science of nutrition, the retarded belief that we need carbohydrates and that you need to limit your fat intake. Completely the opposite to our species-specific natural human diet. Totally backwards and incredibly damaging to your body. And this is also what sets modern day bodybuilding apart from other sports where the diet is more varied.
As for the differences in body weight during the offseason and onseason, it’s not as pronounced as it used to be because of social media and the need to post pictures and updates to your fans. In the past, before social media and the extreme coverage or the need to do sponsored events, most bodybuilders would cover up and only be filmed or photographed the last couple of weeks leading up to a show, and sometimes the days after. Nowadays they need to stay in decent condition year-round. So, although the weight gain, especially in body fluids, as in holding water due to a shitty diet (carbohydrates and processed garbage food,) is straining on the body and the heart, it’s not such a big contributing factor as it was in the past. And also, in the past SCD was pretty much unheard of.
Besides, we see the same kind of extreme weight cuts in martial arts, wrestling, boxing, weight lifting and other sports that categorizes athletes based on body weight.
“Dehydration techniques, such as rapid fluid loss before events using hydro-saline protocols or diuretics, can be dangerous.”
Dangerous, yes. This goes hand in hand with the above — as in a drastic weight cut that takes place the day before a show. While bodybuilders cut the water weight the days leading up to a show to enter the stage as dry and grainy as possible, other sports do even more drastic water weight cuts just to make their weight class.
The big difference is that a bodybuilder must enter the stage as dry and full as possible, meaning that the water has to be inside the muscle and not beneath the skin. They can not be dehydrated or they would be flat and much smaller on stage. They simply force the water from beneath the skin into the muscles. When cutting water weight in other sports, it’s all about losing as much as needed to make weight, which is dangerous.
Also, most bodybuilders only compete 2 to 4 times a year or so while other sports relying on cutting weight can easily double or triple that amount of competitions. And while it is stressful, it’s not a significant contributor to cardiovascular- or heart damage. It might only be dangerous if you really mess up your electrolytes as in taking harsh drugs to flush out that water, and if you do so with a pre-existing heart condition, that could be fatal.
“The use of doping substances, especially anabolic steroids and similar agents, can severely harm the CV, kidneys, liver, and nervous system.”
Yes, in extreme dosages, all these drugs can do damage to organs including the heart, as some of them depending on their receptor affinity can stimulate the heart to grow under stressful conditions, such as always consuming a lot of carbohydrates, seed oils and other toxic crap.
Keep in mind that every time you consume carbohydrates or anything else that is toxic, as in a plant-based food, your body goes into a fight-or-flight stress response to redirect its resources to reduce blood glucose and eliminate toxins. This will elevate your heart rate and your blood pressure. You can easily check this with a fitness tracker if you do a carnivore/ketogenic diet for a while and watch your stress levels and heart rate during and after a meal. On our natural diet, it will barely register. But if you then consume carbohydrates or any kind of plant-based food, your stress levels and heart rate will go through the roof. Now, imagine what will happen with bodybuilders that have been deceived to consume 6 to 8 meals a day including a snack or two. Their heart rates will be elevated most of the day, and this is enforced by any kind of stimulant drug, even high doses of testosterone. That is a lot of stress on the cardiovascular system!
With that said, many of today’s bodybuilders have become smarter in their drug use and no longer use the extreme 3 to 4 grams of anabolics a week that became popular during the 90’s. And many of them also take peptides that can actually aid in the recovery and healing of the body as long as it is fully nourished.
So, while large quantities of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs will accelerate aging and inflict some damage, especially when used long term in relationship with a shitty diet, it is not the largest contributing factor, or we would see just as many SCDs and other health related issues in strongmen, powerlifters, weight lifters, and so on.
After this, Medscape ended the article with another page only covering doping, as in performance enhancing drugs and the lack of regulation, which is pretty much true for any sport as it is all about money and sponsorship deals. Medical certificates and blood tests are easily falsified, especially in sports where the athletes make millions, as is soccer, ice-hockey, basketball and football. So, policies about “anti-doping” will never matter, it’s only a theatrical stage where they sometimes sacrifice some poor bastard that has not been an obedient little puppet and pissed off the wrong people.
What actually matters
My intelligent readers have already figured this one out. While drugs contribute, the driving factor is the diet. Modern day bodybuilders have been deceived into consuming tons of toxic carbohydrates that skyrockets their blood glucose levels — and they typically have 6 to 8 meals a day(!) And as you know, blood glucose above normal safe levels, as maintained by gluconeogenesis (when not consuming any carbohydrates at all,) will damage all soft tissues and organs, especially the cardiovascular system. Add to this all the processed garbage many of them consume, including toxic supplements. And finally, the idiotic behavior of limiting animal fats, especially cholesterol, the only fats that we as humans need and that are required for any kind of tissue repair and healing — all while adding in incompatible damaging and extremely toxic seed- and vegetable oils.
And this behavior becomes even more exaggerated during their onseason when dieting for a show, where they almost eliminate all animal fats and only consume lean meats, protein powders and a ton of toxic rice and/or sweet potatoes.
What we end up with is a ton of repeated damage from all the plant based crap (antinutrients, defense chemicals, heavy metals, deuterium, and pesticide residues,) a ton of damage from elevated blood glucose due to carbohydrates (including glycation of protein and fats,) a ton of damage from seed/vegetable oils (oxidation and glycation,) some damage from all the drugs, and increased cardiovascular strain after every toxic meal due to the stress response, and then they cut out animal fats that are needed to repair this damage and thus it will accumulate.
This is why we do not see the same damage occur among strongmen, powerlifters, or even weight lifters that also abuse pretty much the same anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs while training a lot harder and much more frequent, as they do not limit animal fats to the same degree and also consume a more varied diet with more animal-based foods and fewer daily meals. While they will age faster and damage their bodies, they can at least keep up better with the damage and that SCD might not strike in their late 40’s but in their 70’s instead.
This is also why SCD, cardiomegaly and severe ventricular hypertrophy are typically observed in unhealthy obese people, as their diets are just as bad, snacking all through the day — being high in carbohydrates and seed/vegetable oils while typically low in animal-based foods. And these people do not exercise hard, cut weight or take a ton of anabolic steroids. They simply f**k up their health by consuming processed foods that contain a lot of carbohydrates and seed/vegetable oils.
In other words, this toxic diet within bodybuilding, that is repeated 6 to 8 times a day due to a retarded meal schedule will keep their bodies stressed most of the day with elevated heart rates and blood pressure. And again, the drug use has already increased heart rate and blood pressure a little, all while their diets most of the time lack the animal fats needed for repair. So it’s not that difficult to figure out why many of them suffer cardiovascular problems and even SCDs.
And with that said, there are many bodybuilders that have realized the importance of animal-based food and especially animal-fats. Still, the majority is trapped in the pseudo-science of carbohydrates, lean “fat-free” foods, and supplements — and as long as these lies live on, we will see premature and unnecessary deaths taking place.
Of course, rapid aging, accumulating health problems and early deaths is the result of any kind of extreme sport as the stress takes its toll. Remember, humans are supposed to be able to live for up to 150 years under ideal conditions following our species-appropriate natural human diet (obligate hyper carnivore.)
The biggest factor cutting our lifespan is an inappropriate diet, and especially that of consuming anything plant-based and processed. And if you add the stress of extreme exercise and performance enhancing drugs on top of that, you will die very prematurely. It’s simple biology and common sense.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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