Athlete’s heart is a condition where the heart becomes larger due to high amounts of exercise. It is not considered dangerous, but other serious conditions can mimic it. Symptoms are usually discovered by accident and no treatment is needed, but regular checkups are recommended.
Athlete’s heart is a medical condition in which the heart becomes larger than usual. This is commonly caused by a high amount of exercise over a period of time, often more than an hour a day. While athlete’s heart syndrome isn’t considered dangerous, there are other, more serious conditions that mimic the problem. The syndrome is also sometimes referred to as athletic bradycardia.
While there are no outward symptoms of athletic heart syndrome, a low heart rate is a possible sign. It is more likely to be discovered by accident during a screening or scanning process. In most cases, when the condition has been diagnosed, some additional tests are needed to verify that it isn’t a more serious problem such as cardiomyopathy.
The human heart has an ability to adapt that most people are unaware of. Over time, large amounts of aerobic exercise will cause it to grow in size just like any other muscle in the body. How much the heart grows depends on the intensity and frequency of the exercise. Aerobic exercise like jogging can increase heart size, and short, intense activities like weight lifting can increase wall strength.
In most cases, athlete’s heart is a harmless condition and therefore no treatment is needed. If, however, the athlete experiences chest pains or other symptoms of heart problems, she should visit a doctor for more thorough testing. These other symptoms may just be a sign that the body is having difficulty changing to cope with the new heart size or they may be an indication of a serious problem. Sometimes an athlete with a larger heart will experience an arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.
Typically an athlete will need to train for more than an hour each day before the athlete’s heart becomes a problem. Even then, there’s no guarantee that will happen. The condition should not always be considered a negative syndrome as it can only be a sign of fitness.
There are occasions where otherwise healthy athletes have died during a sport for seemingly no reason. On closer inspection this is usually traced to some sort of heart problem and this is sometimes mistaken for the athlete’s heart. In fact, the problem is almost always identified as a different heart problem. Even so, it’s usually a good idea for someone with an athlete’s heart to get regular checkups.
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