Medscape recently posted a summary of a new study looking at the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the years after retirement among elite rowers. Let’s see what they found and if it holds any legitimacy.
“Researchers found 1 in 5 former Olympic, world, or national-level Australian rowers aged 45-80 years had the heart rhythm anomaly. The ex-rowers, who had competed for at least 10 years, were nearly seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with AF compared to a control group. During a follow-up period of around 4 years, new cases of AF were also higher among the ex-rowers (6.3% vs 2.3%), according to the researchers, who published their findings last month in the European Heart Journal.”
This is not surprising as the training volume is very high among endurance athletes at a National- or higher level and we also know that every single elite athlete takes some kind of performance enhancing drugs, which can under such extreme training (stress-inducing) conditions further contribute to the enlargement of the left ventricles of the heart.
Note that this is not exclusive to rowers, but applies to any kind of endurance training which stresses the heart repeatedly for long periods of time.
“As a clinician, I was not surprised that rowers experienced more AF,” said André La Gerche, PhD, MD, a cardiologist and head of the Heart Exercise And Research Trials Lab at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and senior author of the study. “However, I was very surprised by the magnitude of the difference. Furthermore, I learnt that the risk persists years after retirement and is not just due to genetic factors.”
No, you should not be surprised as endurance training is very taxing on the heart, the cardiovascular system and the body as whole, and when performed for hours every day for many years, the heart will have no choice but to strengthen itself and grow to withstand the stress and punishment. And again, as these athletes use several performance enhancing drugs to cope with the extreme training volume, that will also stimulate the heart to grow thicker.
And yes, you will see the same extreme difference in risk looking at any endurance athletes, and also some strength athletes as well that train a lot and take a lot of drugs, such as strongmen. However, another big factor is the diet, as I explained in my article “While Drugs Play A Part, Early Deaths In Bodybuilding Is Mostly Diet Related,” where we can see that this is also common among elite bodybuilders, however, they do not even train half as much as these endurance or strongman athletes.
“The findings are “consistent with prior research demonstrating that endurance athletes — especially highly trained endurance athletes — seem to have this higher risk of AF,” said Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, a cardiac electrophysiologist and the inaugural Endowed Professor of Atrial Fibrillation Research at the University of California, San Francisco.”
Yes, we’ve already established that.
“These numbers nudge me in the direction of more aggressively screening for AF specifically in masters-aged rowers, such as with the use of Holter monitors or wearable devices approved to detect AF,” said Jeffrey Hsu, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.”
Yes, wearable devices can actually help most people as they get older, especially if they have been training at a high level in the past, used drugs and or been following a diet high in carbohydrates, seed/vegetable oils, and or plant–based foods. In other words, people who have, or are in the risk zone of developing cardiovascular problems.
I would however recommend a monitoring device in a ring-format, and not something you have around your wrist or chest as the electromagnetic radiation will be quite severe. Smart watches cross important energetic meridians at the wrist level. A ring, however, is very small and the radiation and interference with bodily functions will be almost negligible if put on the middle finger.
“La Gerche and his team captured data from 121 former rowers — 75% men, all White, with a median age of 62 years — who were matched with more than 11,000 control individuals from the UK Biobank who had never rowed and had varying fitness levels. The ex-rowers had similar rates of ischemic heart disease and diabetes as did the control individuals, but lower blood pressure. They also were less likely to have ever smoked.
The athletes showed persistent changes in cardiac function after retirement. Ex-rowers had larger left ventricles, lower heart rates, longer PQ intervals, and longer QT intervals compared to control individuals.”
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia characterized by irregular and often rapid heartbeats, which can increase the risk of blood clots and stroke. Atrial fibrillation, if unchecked, can also lead to complications such as ventricular fibrillation (VF) — an abnormal heart rhythm in which the ventricles of the heart quiver (which can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death if not treated.)
The PQ interval represents the time from the beginning of the P wave, which corresponds to atrial depolarization, to the beginning of the QRS complex, which corresponds to ventricular depolarization. It reflects the time it takes for the electrical impulse to travel from the atria to the ventricles. The PQ interval is moderately heart rate dependent, and its dynamics can be used to assess atrial abnormalities, including the risk of atrial fibrillation.
The QT interval, on the other hand, is the time from the beginning of the QRS complex to the end of the T wave, representing the duration of ventricular depolarization and repolarization. It is a critical measurement because an abnormally long or short QT interval is associated with an increased risk of developing abnormal heart rhythms and sudden cardiac death.
The QT interval changes in response to the heart rate, and it is commonly corrected for heart rate using formulas such as Bazett’s formula to obtain the QTc interval. A prolonged QTc interval is associated with conditions such as long QT syndrome, which can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias.
So, although their heart rates were lower, which is good for heart longevity, the enlargement and accumulated damage from their previous sports career led to increased PQ and QT intervals which will manifest as atrial fibrillation and can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias and, in worst case, sudden cardiac death.
“The research raises the question of whether certain types of intensive exercise — like elite-level competitive rowing — leads to long-lasting, perhaps even irreversible, enlargement of the cardiac chambers, Hsu said.”
Come on now Hsu, this has already been established. We know that elite-level training, especially endurance training, will lead to long-lasting enlargement of the cardiac chambers — especially as these athletes also take tons of performance enhancing drugs. As for being reversible, who knows? If it’s simply structural thickening, then it should be reversible. If it’s a combination of structural thickening and scarring, then it might be more difficult. Still, following our proper human carnivore diet and doing some extended fasting, especially dry fasting, might help through the activity of autophagy.
As for my personal experiences of healing my own heart, please check my old article “My 47-year Birthday Post from Facebook,” and my newer “Quick Life Update And A Little About Cardiovascular- And Heart Health.”
“Marcus flagged a few factors that may have skewed the results. The former athletes tended to be tall, White, and in many cases, drank more alcohol than control individuals — all of these factors increase the risk for AF.”
Even if a few of them drank a bit more alcohol than the average person in the control group, that only affects the central nervous system, which can cause AF.
As for heart enlargement, alcohol can lead to weakening and stretching of the heart muscle, ultimately resulting in an enlarged heart through chambers expansion, and not by thickening as seen with these elite athletes. So, this is not really relevant. And we already know through multiple studies from the last century that extreme exercise and training enlarges the heart.
“La Gerche emphasized the findings shouldn’t dissuade clinicians from encouraging regular exercise or high-level sports training.”
Well, it should, La Gerche, you imbecile. Regular exercise as in manual labor, walking or some strength training is good to keep your body strong and somewhat fit so you can take care of yourself and others and not break as easily if in an accident. However, more intense and regular exercise is not healthy, not in any way. And elite-level training is completely idiotic in terms of health and longevity. I covered this in my articles “Exercise, Accelerated Ageing, and Life Expectancy,” and “How Not to Do Research: Extreme Exercise and Lifespan.”
To conclude, once again we see how the unnatural stress from extreme amounts of exercise damages our physiology in several ways. This should be common sense, but most people do not even think about it due to all the propaganda that exercise is good for you. And while it can be in very small amounts, most people do way too much and they will pay the price further down the road — especially if they also have been deceived to consume plant-based and processed foods. All that damage will accumulate quickly.
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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