Athletes and Heart Health

Athletes of all ages and abilities, often think that exercise protects them from all of their dietary choices, “Hey, I don’t have a weight problem so I don’t have a problem…”

Not quite.

An accumulation of not so great food choices will eventually add up. For some, the bill comes due quicker than for others. Genetics have some influence, but our daily choices make all the difference.

Athletes and for the record, I mean anyone who trains for a specific event, not how well you perform at that event, can reverse their hard-earned fitness gains by drinking. There is a lot of drinking associated with sports and fitness.

This can be dangerous.

One small alcoholic drink a day can increase the risk of Atrial Fibrillation (AFib). Afib is common among athletes giving the less sporty types another reason to say “Hey I told you all that exercise was bad for your heart.”

No, it is not.

What is bad for your heart is dehydration, doing too much, not taking time to recover, drinking alcohol, poor food choices, not resting when you should… the list is pretty long and it is related to exercise, but heart problems are not caused by too much exercise, they are caused by our daily lifestyle choices.

First, it is important to know that there is no limit to the cardiovascular benefits of exercise. The more you do, the lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.

If more exercise is better, then what is the real problem?

What about alcohol?

Alcohol is ingrained into the culture of sports.

However, it is not going to improve your performance. Alcohol interferes with our muscles’ ability to recover from activity, for up to 3 days after you have a drink.

Have you ever done this?

You are training for a specific event. Maybe a run, bike ride, triathlon, a big game. The day comes, you feel great, at the finish line there is a beer garden. Everyone is celebrating or commiserating, you join in.

Or, you are training and it’s the weekend, you deserve to celebrate all your hard work. So you kick back relax and have a couple.

This is what happens next:

You can’t store alcohol so your cells stop everything else to process and remove this poisonous toxin.

Any drink with an alcohol content above 4% increases urine output, delaying recovery and increasing dehydration.

Alcohol impairs deep sleep, increasing fat storage and muscle loss.

Alcohol also results in electrolyte imbalances, low blood sugar and gastric irritation. This can occur on long workouts even without adding alcohol, now it is compounded.

The day after you are impaired, even without a hangover, your strength, endurance, reaction time and coordination will be reduced and this will affect your workouts.

2-3 days after having a drink you are more likely to have heart rhythm disturbances. Activity already increases your heart rate, adding alcohol stresses your heart and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

If you have an injury, alcohol interferes with your ability to recover, slowing recovery time.

What about the food?

When drinking it is also more likely we will be eating fatty foods. Our willpower is diminished and who eats carrot sticks with a glass of wine?

Research published in the journal Heart in January looked at 10 years of data with over 750,000 people to assess the relationship between fried food and cardiovascular disease deaths. For every 114 grams of extra fat consumed per week, the risk of CVD goes up. This is linear, more fat equals greater risk.

114 grams is about 1/2 cup or one stick of butter, vegan or otherwise.

Suddenly I think my air fryer purchase was a brilliant idea.

Alcohol and fried food go together like beer and nachos.

They also contribute to weight gain in the form of body fat and here is one more heart health risk. The European Society of Cardiology studied more than 525,000 adults with an average age of 42 and found that more bodyweight increased the risk of heart disease even in active adults.

Study author Dr. Alejandro Lucia of the European University, Madrid, Spain says,

“One cannot be ‘fat but healthy.’ This was the first nationwide analysis to show that being regularly active is not likely to eliminate the detrimental health effects of excess body fat. Our findings refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity.” 

Science Daily

The study looked at the relationship of BMI, activity, and three risk factors, having diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. Everyone regardless of their BMI, who exercised had a lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol compared to those who did no exercise at all.

Dr. Lucia says,

“This tells us that everyone, irrespective of their body weight, should be physically active to safeguard their health.”

Science Daily

He also states that being active is better than not being active. Walking 30 minutes is better than walking 15 minutes. However, being overweight or obese is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease regardless of exercise. This finding was found in men and women, exercise did not erase the negative effects of being overweight for cardiovascular risks.

Reduce your risk

No matter what anyone says, exercise is not a risk factor when it comes to heart disease. More exercise regardless of your size is better than less. However, less alcohol, fewer fried foods and less body fat puts less stress on your heart and reduces your risk even more.

If you are already exercising don’t throw away all your gains with your lifestyle choices.

Shayla