Random soundbytes from a conversation with my cardiologist friend

[hemants]

Disclaimer : this is from a friend to friend conversation, it is NOT expert medical advice, I may not remember what he said exactly.

1. A recent study in Israel showed that momentary blood pressure during heavy lifting can go as high as 400.

2. LDL in total is not the culprit for heart disease, rather, there is a subset of LDL (call it "bad LDL") that causes the arterial buildup. It is hypothesized that the liver removes much of this bad LDL which is why abdominal fat is particularly worrysome as it absorbs fat directly from the gut.

3. Cardiovascular exercise raises HDL and lowers LDL. In this regard walking (minimum of 60% of max heart rate)is as good if not better than running.

4. While the heart can adapt to exercise (increased volume for runners, increased wall thickness for bodybuilders) the vessels are passive tissue and do not. As such, the two main causes of sudden death among bodybuilders are brain aneurisms (brain vessel balloons and bursts due to too much blood pressure) and aortal rupture (aorta elbow joint bursts from too much blood pressure).

5. Basketball players have an abnormally high incidence of sudden heart failure.

My $0.02 -> I don't think any of this is cause for worry for normal healthy people but if you get headaches from lifting you may want to look into adopting a lower weight, super slow type training regimen.

FWIW

[the doc]

interesting

as far as #2 goes, those would be the very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), supersaturated in triglycerides

as far as i know, if you have high LDL levels, you often will have high VLDL levels (which are included in total LDL)

#5 is very interesting, I dont dispiute this fact. Sudden deaths from exertion often occur in the first few minutes of intense activity (like shoveling snow). This is why it is always a good idea to warm up with a 5-10 min low intensity cardio activity like walking, rowing, etc... as this gradual increase in activity level will help alleviate this problem

[vman]

This all is pretty much true.

I see my cardiologists ( I have 2 ) every couple of weeks.

At the moment I am having so many tests done i think there is more blood sat in test tubes than there is going around my body.

However at the moment I am breaking a few of the rules therefore my physiology is being '' investigated '' much to my annoyance as im not allowed to anything but light walking....they fear my heart may explode at any moment or sommit stupid.

Basically I had pericarditis ( which is an infection of the sack that holds the heart ) and it is VERY painful...apparently it is what a heart attack is like. The heart cannot pump as hard as it needs to.

upon tests they found out that my heart is slighly larger than normal and has some kind of a sub beat....undetectable by any polar heart reader...only hospital equipment can detect it.

Basically my blood pressure isnt high ( despite all my stresses ) and pulse rate is within perfectly healthy limits. However every 3 beats there is a sub beat where the heart will push out a little more blood.

They think this is to do with that I have naturally large lungs...7ltr capacity and therefore the heart works slightly harder.

It all gets complex but thats why i have been under treatment the past 6 months...and damn is my life boring cos of it.

[Podium Kreatin]

does 4 apply to pro bbers, or also for natties?

[hemants]

I suspect it's pretty much anyone natty or not.

The heart muscle adapts to having to pump a large amount of blood all at once. I suspect that powerlifters focusing on low rep/compound movements would have a larger degree of thickening of the heart muscle.

[vman]

not just the heart muscle itself, but also the pericardial sack. This holds the heart and the thicker the heart gets the thicker this gets too. The problems sometimes is that excess pericardial fluid can be produced and the heart gets restricted.

thus heart attack '' symptoms '' happen.

This is not fatal and even a cold can develop this condition...rare but it happens

[Fuel]

geez, #1 is amazing. gotta breath out on exertion!

#3 is so true. dave letterman had 4 by-pass surgery and he ran every day. gotta run/walk AND lift weights!

i suspect #5 is true because ballers are going through a lot of rests and then short bursts over and over again. it also might have something to do with the genetics of black people and how those genetics deal with b-ball type exertions.