Mountain and stream

Masters Athlete Physical Boulder

By Steve Parcell, ND
I understand masters athletes. It helps to be one myself. I compete in cyclocross and road cycling in the Greater Denver/Boulder area. The masters athlete is not a person generally well understood by conventional insurance based doctors. This is because they are trained in hospitals doing sick care. They don’t typically see athletes.  Though older athletes are generally very healthy they may put themselves at risk for heart problems. This is because the heart does not always adapt in a healthy way to intense exercise as one gets older.  We hear about endurance athletes dying of heart related problems. Why is this? The most common causes are:

  1. Atherosclerosis: Plaque breaks off and causes a heart attack.
  2. Cardiomyopathy: Heart muscle undergoes changes that can cause irregular heart beat which can lead to a heart attack.
  3. Valve problems: Heart valves may start to fail leading to decreased cardiac output and heart failure.

The aging athlete (over age 40) should definitely have a sports physical. The physical should include a stress echocardiogram and selected blood work. Nothing is better than a stress echo to assess cardiac function under load. I also like to perform a heart scan to look for plaque and a carotid ultrasound to assess plaque thickness in that large artery.  I also like to do a special cardiac muscle strain assessment. Blood work looks at nutritional as well as hormonal components.

Don’t be caught by surprise by a cardiac event. Older athletes should know that the level of exercise they are engaging in is not doing any harm.