Our hearts age just like the rest of our bodies. Older hearts generally have less ability to pump hard and fast. Yet older veteran athletes have been shown to maintain strong heart function.
This study tested the hearts of 10 life-long athletes. Their average age was 73, and all of them took part in intense exercise from three to seven hours each week. Researchers took echocardiograms (heart ultrasounds) of the athletes. Special blood tests were done while resting and during increasingly difficult exercise. These tests measured the action of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. Researchers also tracked the athletes’ blood pressure and heart rate.
The athletes’ heart tests were compared to a control group. The control group was made up of 12 healthy nonathletes or moderately active people with an average age of 75. The control group did the same tests as the athletes.
As expected, the athletes could do much more intense exercise–about 50% more intense–than the control group. The echocardiograms showed that particular parts of the athletes’ ventricle walls were thicker than in the control group. Even at rest, the athletes had better efficiency with each heart beat. The amount of blood pumped at rest was same, but during exercise, the athletes’ hearts could pump way more blood.
The authors attribute the athletes’ heart health to better function of the left ventricle. Apparently in older athletes, the left ventricle compensates for some of the power that the heart has lost with age.
Despite the effects of aging, the athletes had heart function as good as that of sedentary young men. Clearly, life-long training had significantly slowed down the heart’s decline. So if you want to keep your heart in shape, pump up your heart health with regular exercise. This study suggests that exercising regularly can help your heart keep pumping efficiently well into your 70s.