Runner's World Article

[jondeanp]

I saw this in the latest edition of the magazine, and fortunately it's available on the website for me to share here

I thought it was an interesting read generally but especially for the fitness/ athlete types amongst us.

I've recently seen a cardiologist following my second AF episode. I also had a treadmill test last year. From both sources i have been given the all clear to continue running, although following the last episode i have now been prescribed Flecanide PiP

runnersworld.co.uk/health/i...

[Elbows]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting read although not much was new to me as an ex semi pro cyclist who as always monitored his heart rate and performance. What was new to me tho and I quote Professor Sanjay Sharma ‘... it may be that the type of AF athletes get is somehow different. It’s almost unheard of for athletes with AF to have strokes, despite stroke being one of the major health risks associated with the condition. Perhaps the absence of other risk factors for stroke, as a result of regular exercise, protects them.’

All good athletes and coaches will stress the importance of recovery and the dangers of overtraining. Critically the article concludes what I have already stressed on this forum that global fitness of athletes outweighs the stress we put on our bodies. But stay tuned and listen to your body, there's always a performance road back from AF and remember in the words of the article '...keep in mind the fact (acknowledged by every single study mentioned in the article) that the many and varied benefits of exercise far, far outweigh the potential risks.'

[Jonathan_C in reply to Elbows]

I am quite interested in that first quote. My understanding is that the risk of stroke comes from blood clots forming when blood is pooling, and the blood pools because it is not all pumped out of the heart because of the erratic heart beat.

So does the point in the article suggest that exercising in A-fib causes the heart to pump so hard that blood doesn't pool?

I have instinctively assumed this from the beginning (but still take my flecainide even when I exercise!).

[Iveagh1 in reply to Jonathan_C]

I think the reduced stroke risk from a-fib in athletes,if true, might be at least partly because of the reduced clotting of blood conferred by endurance exercise. So, to a degree endurance athletes, or endurance runners anyway are already on endogenous anticoags.

[Hidden]

Thanks for posting John, some interesting stuff in there. I think it's regrettable we all tend to get locked into habits more and think there is no life without them. I have changed my lifestyle considerably with lots of positives and would not go back to pre-AF habits.

I have Lone AF and started with Flecainide PIP, which because I didn't take robust early action progressed into me having to take Flec daily to get stability.