FYI, yet another article about athletes and heart problems:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_re_eu/athletes__hearts
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I read this with some interest, and I know the subject has come up many times on ST. I have posted in the past b/c I have a benign arrythmia (PVC’s) which I started to notice at least 5 years ago, when I was 24. Every year they bother me more in August than any other month, and as the years have passed I’ve thought that it had something to do with increased training volume/heat and loss of electrolytes in this month. That theory has been pretty much dismissed by my doctor.
This August it has been interesting to note that it has been cooler, and although I am training hard for IMFL, I have been VERY careful to try to replace electrolytes/hydrate (much more so than in the past) and I have only noticed the PVC’s one night, rather than the usual 20 nights in past months of august.
Just my little n=1 study 
If you have a heart problem, and you regularly stress your heart, you are more likley to die from a heart attack. isn’t that just common sense? Is this sort of thing really newsworthy? It’s like saying hockey players with osteoporosis are more likely break a hip. No shit sherlock
Here’s the thing though. Most of these athletes probably don’t know they have a heart problem. When I first started having tachycardia episodes I was sent all over the place trying to get a diagnosis, it took 3 years and a knowledgeable cardiologist to figure out what was going on with me. I actually had one cardiologist tell me that I was wasting her time, I believe her words were “You are young and in good shape. Why are you wasting my time with this, what is the real reason you wanted this test done?” This was after I showed her print outs of a HR graph from 3 separate exercises when I had a tachycardia episode.
You have a young person in good shape who starts complaining that they are feeling funny, shortness of breath, dizzy, etc. with intense efforts and most doctors are going to assume exercise induced asthma. They just aren’t used to seeing young athletic people with heart problems.
I don’t understand why so many athletes with PVC’s … or some kind of heart disease.
This feb I started having some PVC’s and after that some little discomfort in the heart region. I did all the exams that were possible to do and the final diagnosis were Stress / Depression / Anxiety. I’m better know but the discomfort is still there …
In two weeks I will do my last 1/2IM of this phase of my life ( my baby will born in November ), and let’s see how my body will react ( I suppose that my level of anxiety will increase ).
A lot of my friends from triathlon reported PVC’s in the past … ( this is scary !!! )
To clarify: PVCs are common and are not a heart problem They are not heart disease.
The reason athletes get them is that the more fit you are, the larger the stroke volume of the heart. Which in turn leads to a lower resting HR. The heart is an electrical system which is supposed to get it’s starting orders from the Sinus node… but when there are long periods of time between heart beats (ie; the low resting HR athlete), there is extra time for other electrical points to start things instead (further down the electrical chain in the heart)… this leads to the PVC.
Often worst in the morning or evening in bed because that’s when your HR is the lowest and there is the long delay between beats to allow ‘abberant electrical initiation’ of the electrical cardiac system.
Actually, PVC’s can occur in people with or without heart disease. Some people have them and notice them, some people have them and don’t notice them unless they are on an ekg and see the print out. PVC’s are not a problem in and of themselves, they are just annoying/uncomfortable.