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