results of a new study are defying the conventional wisdom that exercise doesn’t make the human heart slow down. It seems that extreme exercise can actually tire the heart and slow it by ten percent. Ed Edelson reports:According to HealthDay News the
For the study, Dr. Euan A. Ashley, an assistant professor of cardiology at Stanford University and his colleagues set up shop at the finishing line of an ultra-endurance race called the "Adrenalin Rush," held in the Scottish Highlands. The annual event is grueling even by "iron man" standards, with one or two competitors usually requiring hospitalization after every race.
As athletes crossed the line after 90 hours of biking, climbing, swimming, paddling and rope work, the researchers tested their hearts.
The athletes' average heartbeat had slowed from what was measured before the race, by about 8 percent for athletes who did not carry the ACE fitness gene and 13 percent for those who did carry it.