I was doing the tests for an upcoming operation and they said one side of my heart was enlarged. it could eventually, if kept ignored, lead to a heart attack. also the stretch marks are supposed to be a bad thing too. the lady said i should see a dermatologist or some thing.
the tests were done on days with 5hour sleep and no normal food and such, that could have made them worse, also it was the next day after a tiering workout.
a few times i have felt pain in the left side after some intense cardio work (right after the pain in the kidney ha ha). like kicking/punching the shit out of a sand bag for about 10-20 minutes after DE workout got me into a bad ass state. that was a day before the test too.
i’m only 18. how common is this and what could i do to prevent further heart destruction? anyone else had this problem?
I assume this is left ventricular hypertrophy. My cardiologist cousin said that it can be caused by an increased demand of blood from excess exercise. She warned me that if I gain too much muscle or engage in too much cardiovascular work, I can bloat my heart to a point that all my coronary blood vessels would have no room for blood to flow.
damn … so if you have heart problems you are doing some thing too good … kind of … that;s nice to know.
i guess the upcoming jaw operation should take care of over training for a few months …
so taking it slow and decreasing volume could help if i understood the problem correctly. like taking heavy loads, low reps, long rests, short cardio on off days …not to increase the oxygen demand too much.
I don’t know if I had the same situation as you or not…
I’m not a doctor or a medical professional, but this is a thumbnail version of my story.
10 years ago I was testing for a PD and during the treadmill stress test the EKG showed a problem with the ST wave. After some research I learned that the left ventrical was enlarged/thicker. This got me to thinking about an article from the early 1980’s in Muscle and Fitness by Dr. Squat (Fred Hatfield).
In the article (which I think you can still find on his web site)he stated that runners have a heart that can pump a larger volumn with each heart beat. Lifters had hearts that pump with more force due to the demands of pumping blood under the strain of lifting heavy weights.
Neither heart is defective, it just has adapted due to the training stresses placed on it.
I had to do a couple of extra tests to convince the state I was health enough to be accepted for the state PD retirement system. (read more Dr’s visits, tests, money)
So, my recomdation would be to find the article from the early 1980’s and have a sit down/office appt with your Dr to discuss the issue. Get an appt with a heart Dr who has worked with/in athletics.
You might want to schedule another test and/or other tests when you can get better rest before hand, etc. You might have biased the test with the lack of sleep and workout from the day before.
It is worth checking out for your own knowledge and peace of mind. You might have a condition that can be corrected if caught early, etc.