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What Weird Heart Rate Monitor Numbers Mean (or Don’t) About Arrhythmias

Chelsea LittleNovember 3, 2017

Athletes engaging in big volumes of endurance exercise are at some increased risk of heart problems – compared to those who do moderate exercise. The level of that risk is under debate. At the same time, recreational athletes using heart rate monitors during their training will sometimes see numbers go up as high as 220 or 225 beats per minute (bpm). Such racing heartbeats are called tachycardia, and some of the possible underlying causes can...

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We’re Not Invincible: More Heart Arrhythmias in Endurance Athletes (Book Review)

Chelsea LittleJuly 27, 2017

When I heard that there was a new book coming out about heart arrhythmias in endurance athletes, I was interested. Several years ago, I read some of the research papers that the book’s authors refer to. One was a cohort study on participants in the Vasaloppet, the 90-kilometer ski marathon in Sweden. Those researchers found that skiers who competed in more Vasaloppets had more heart arrhythmias – as did those who finished the race the...

General News

This Month in Journals: What Happens When We Get Old

Chelsea LittleApril 4, 20135

By the time we hit 70, the physiological differences in how men and women respond to exercise have disappeared. Plus, we'll be smiling and thanking our parents for making us ski, because ex-athletes experience fewer fractures at that age. In other research, continuing the definition of "athlete's heart" and confirming a genetic basis of the training response.

This Month in Journals: Assessing Athlete Heart Health; Monitoring Training Load Though Saliva;… and Reindeer

Chelsea LittleJanuary 16, 2013

In scientific research coming out in the last month, researchers try to find ways to prevent Sudden Cardiac Death in athletes through better screening; markers in saliva can be used to test response to a training load; cross country ski suits, reviewed in different temperatures; no point in taking nitrate supplements; and, finally, how skiers affect reindeer in northern Scandinavia. Because who doesn't love reindeer?

General Health World Cup

How Can the Heart Adapt to the Tour de Ski?

Chelsea LittleOctober 24, 20111

When racers like Therese Johaug and Ivan Babikov reach the final day of the Tour de Ski, their bodies are already exhausted from day after day of racing. Their legs are tired, are they’re not alone: a recent study found that some aspects of heart function can not only decline, but remain suppressed after several days of consecutive races. But thanks to the human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to repeated stress, Johaug, Babikov, and...

Biathlon General Olympics World Cup

After a Year of Health Struggles, Nilsson Forced into Early Retirement

Chelsea LittleOctober 3, 2011

Swedish biathlete Mattias Nilsson is hanging up his rifle at age 29, he abruptly announced on Thursday. After struggling with health problems all year – including hemochromatosis, when too much iron builds up in the body – Nilsson received confirmation last week that he had a leaky heart valve and that it was dangerous for him to continue competing in endurance sports. “I had been somewhat prepared that this could be the news, but not...