Mountain and stream

Comment on Velo News article "Cycling to Extremes Are endurance athletes hurting their hearts by repeatedly pushing beyond what is normal"?

Great article. The three main problems masters athletes need to get screened for are plaque in the arteries (atherosclerosis), electrical disturbances (arrythmia), and unhealthy changes to the wall of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). One thing that the article failed to mention is the importance of prevention through detailed screening. EKG, stress echo and calcium scoring can be used to evaluate whether an athlete needs to back off on exercise. Conventional medicine is not great at this type of screening because it is geared toward intervention once the problem has occurred! My masters athlete workup fills this need.