The Effect of Athletics on The Heart

Disturbances of the Heart
by Oliver T. Osborne, M.D.

(Page 5 of 22)

We can no longer neglect the seriousness of the effects of competitive athletics on the heart, especially in youth and young adults. Not only universities and preparatory schools, but also high schools and even grammar schools must consider the advisability of continuing competitive sports without more control than is now the case. In the first place, the individual is likely to be trained in one particular branch or in one particular line, which develops one particular set of muscles. In the second place, competition to exhaustion, to vomiting, faintness, and even syncope is absolutely inexcusable. Furthermore, contests which partake of brutality should certainly be seriously censored.

A committee appointed some time ago by the Medical Society of the State of California [Footnote: California State Med. Jour., June, 1916 p. 220.] has recently reported its endorsement of Foster's "Indictment of Intercollegiate Athletics." After five years of personal observation of no less than 100 universities and colleges, in thirty-eight states, Foster concludes that intercollegiate athletics have proved a failure, and that they are costly and injurious on account of an excessive physical training of a few students, and of such students as need training least, while healthful and moderate exercise at a small expense for all students is most needed.

Experts, [Footnote: Rubner and Kraus: Vrtljsehr. f. gerichtl. Med, 1914, xlviii, 304.] appointed by the Prussian government to investigate athletics, reported that for physical exercise to be of real value it must be quite different from the preparation of a specially equipped individual trained for a game. Exercise should benefit all children and youth, while athletic prowess necessitates taxing the organism to the limit of endurance, and hence is dangerous and should not be allowed in schools or universities.

McKenzie [Footnote: McKenzie: Am. Jour. Med. Sc., January, 1913, p. 69.] found that exhausting tests of endurance were not adapted to the development of children and youth, because the high blood pressure caused by such exertion soon continued, and he found athletes to have a prolonged increased blood pressure. As is recognized by all, boat racing is particularly bad, especially the 4-mile row. Such severe exertion of course increases the blood pressure, even in these athletes, and the heart increases its speed. There is then exhilaration, later discomfort, and soon, as McKenzie points out, a sensation of constriction in the chest and head. This is soon followed by breathlessness, and soon by a feeling of fulness in the head, and then syncope. The heart, of course, becomes dilated. Heart murmurs are often found after much less severe exertion than boat racing. They may not last long, or they may disappear under proper treatment. He reported that after exercise there were heart murmurs in seventy-four of 266 young men who were in normal health, and that nearly 28 per cent of all normal young men will show a murmur after exercise. He thinks that it is rare to find, after a week, a heart murmur in a previously healthy heart, if the athlete has not passed the age of 30.

There can be no doubt that even one, to say nothing of more, such heart strains is inexcusable and may leave a more or less lasting injury. Such heart strains and exertions are not entirely seen in athletes. A man otherwise well may cause such a heart strain by cranking his automobile, by pumping up a tire, by strenuous lifting, by carrying a load too far or too rapidly, or by running, and an elderly man may even cause such a heart strain by walking, hill climbing, or even golfing, if he does these things. More or less acute dilatation occurring in such persons is likely to recur on the least exertion, unless the patient takes a prolonged rest cure and the heart is so well that it recuperates perfectly. Any chronic myocarditis, however, may prevent such a heart from ever being as perfect as it was before.

Torgersen, [Footnote: Torgersen: Norsk Mag. f. Laegevidensk., April, 1914.] after making 600 examinations of 200 athletes, and 1,200 examinations of members of the rowing crew, decides that it is absolutely essential that there should be skilled daily examinations of every man during training, and a record kept of the condition of his heart, urine, and blood pressure, before and after exercise. When he found albumin in the urine it was always accompanied by a falling of the blood pressure and a rapid heart, with loss of weight and a general feeling of debility.

Middleton [Footnote: Middleton: Am. Jour. Med. Sc., September, 1915, p. 426.] examined students who were training for football, both during the training and after the training period, and found that after the rest succeeding a training period there was an increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure over the records of before the training period. This would tend to indicate some hypertrophy of the heart.

Insurance statistics seem to show that athletes are likely to have earlier cardiovascular-renal disease than other individuals of the same class and occupations.

Suggestions for The Control of Athletics

1. Gymnasiums and athletic grounds in connection with all colleges, preparatory schools, seminaries and high schools are essential, and they should be added to grammar schools whenever possible.

2. Physical training and athletic games, and perhaps some type of military training are valuable for the proper development of youth.

3. Some forms of competitive games and some competitive feats are valuable in stimulating training and healthful sports.

4. All competitive sports and all hard training should be under the advice and supervision of a medical council or a medical trainer. Competitive sports which are generally recognized as harmful, mostly on account of their duration as related to the age of the competitors, should be prohibited.

5. Each boy should be carefully examined by a competent physician to decide as to his general health, his limitations and the special training necessary to perfect him or to overcome any defect. Such examinations are even more essential in schools for girls.

6. In all group training, the weak individuals should be noted by the medical trainer, and they should receive special and more carefully graded exercise.

7. In all strenuous training or competitive athletic work, the participators should all be examined more or less frequently and more or less carefully for heart strain and albuminuria and also for a too great increase of blood pressure.

8. All training and all athletic sports should be graded to the age of the boy or girl and not necessarily to his or her size. Many an overgrown boy is injured by athletic prowess beyond his heart strength.