How exercise changes your heart | Top 10

+ kratom’s complicated legal status US Edition - Today's top story: Your heart changes in size and shape with exercise – this can lead to heart problems for some athletes and gym rats [View in browser]( US Edition | 25 February 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Happy Sunday − and welcome to the best of The Conversation U.S. Here are a few of our recently published stories: - [NRA loses New York corruption trial over squandered funds – retired longtime leader Wayne LaPierre must repay millions of dollars]( - [How frontotemporal dementia, the syndrome affecting Wendy Williams, changes the brain – research is untangling its genetic causes]( I became a runner a bit later in life, when I was deep into my 30s. At first, it was just for exercise, then I got into 5Ks and 10Ks and eventually began training for the New York City Marathon. It was my second 26.2-miler, but I didn’t really train properly for my first. At my peak, I was running 50-some miles a week, motivated by personal achievement and the many health benefits of regular exercise. One thing I never thought about was athlete’s heart. As cardiologist William Cornwell [describes it in one of last week’s most-read articles](, athlete’s or athletic heart is when people work out so much and so strenuously that their heart begins to remodel itself. The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus professor explains how various types of exercises alter the heart in different ways. “Athletic heart doesn’t necessarily cause problems, but in some people it can increase the risk of certain heart issues,” he writes. Honestly, I don’t think I ever worked out enough to be at a real risk of athletic heart. But I do wonder if I witnessed the consequences firsthand about 17 years ago when I stumbled upon the U.S. men’s Olympic trials in Central Park one morning. During the race, in which some of the top American marathon runners zoomed around the park at paces of about 5 minutes a mile, one of them collapsed and died. It astounded me that someone in the best shape of his life could die like that. The autopsy showed the cause of death was due to an irregular heartbeat as a result of his scarred, enlarged heart. But this is a real risk only for elite athletes. For the rest of us, Cornwell reminds us, “exercise undoubtedly remains one of, if not the best, methods to maintain a healthy lifestyle.” And most of us, including me, need to be doing more of it, not less. That’s also the message health and biomedicine editor Vivian Lam, who edited the story, hopes to leave you with. Bryan Keogh Managing Editor Readers' picks An enlarged heart can lead to abnormal heart rhythms. Professional Studio Images/E+ via Getty Images [Your heart changes in size and shape with exercise – this can lead to heart problems for some athletes and gym rats]( William Cornwell, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus People who regularly engage in significant amounts of exercise, as endurance athletes do, may develop enlarged hearts. While athletic heart is adapted for performance, it can be cause for concern. - [Nearly 2 million Americans are using kratom yearly, but it is banned in multiple states: A pharmacologist explains the controversy]( C. 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