# BBC: Endurance exercise 'interferes with heart rhythm'



## HeadsorTailswind (Jan 22, 2014)

BBC News - Endurance exercise 'interferes with heart rhythm'




> But he added: "Although endurance exercise training can have harmful effects on the heart, it is more than outweighed by the beneficial effects."
> Prof Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study shows the heart's electrical wiring changes in mice that exercise for long periods, and these changes in heart rhythm are sustained afterwards.
> "If the findings are reproduced in humans they could have implications for heart health in older athletes. But much more research is needed before we could draw that conclusion."


So it's necessarily not all bad news.


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## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

The study mentioned in that article was done on mice.


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## Guod (Jun 9, 2011)

Also, it's worth mentioning that historically athletes have a tendency to live longer than the general population. Though, that's at the Olympic and above level and YMMV if you've spent a good amount of time either running into stuff or pumping your veins full of PEDs or both (NFL).


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## Gregon2wheels (May 7, 2013)

So the news here is: everything in moderation?


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

brianmcg said:


> The study mentioned in that article was done on mice.


Yes, but the mouse study only found a possible mechanism to explain an effect that was already known in humans.


> Endurance athletes are generally very fit.
> Yet, paradoxically, they are more likely to have heart rhythm disturbances, known as arrhythmias, especially as they get older - although the risk is still small.


The surprise finding in the mouse study was that the slowing of resting heart rate in endurance athletes was mediated not by the central nervous sytem, but by changes in the heart itself.

They reached no conclusions about the implications or recommendations for athletes.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

So does the risk go down if a problem is noticed and endurance type training is moderated I wonder, or is it premanent?


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## HeadsorTailswind (Jan 22, 2014)

Srode said:


> So does the risk go down if a problem is noticed and endurance type training is moderated I wonder, or is it premanent?


Like JCavilla said above, the study had no recommendations on increasing the HCN4 levels. A further test is needed.



Gregon2wheels said:


> So the news here is: everything in moderation?


That, also add some vigor to your exercise and check your resting heart rate.

Here's the much more technical article from Nature magazine:
Exercise training reduces resting heart rate via downregulation of the funny channel HCN4 : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group


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