Cycling could lead to old age heart arrhythmias, but it’ll keep you walking

This is an old post but here is an update and my experience of cycling into old age. Aged 77 my doctor advised taking it easy when doing time trials? The doctor doesn't cycle. This year, two ten mile time trials, March and April. Average heart rate for the first, 182 bpm, average heart rate for second time trial 177 bpm, wow I'm getting fitter. I ride with a fellow club member who happens to be 84 and weather permitting we do a once a week 'cream tea' ride, a leisurely ride that we amusingly refer to as our 'cream tea training ride', a 38 mile round trip. My time trial times indicate a low fitness level but I do manage to beat my standard time for the ten miles by not a lot, unlike some of our super vets. My heart rates are freakish to say the least but they are consistent, always have been, with a resting HR of 50-52, and a max seen this year of 192. I enjoy my cycling, be it my preferred leisurely rides or the infrequent 'training' rides. So, plus one for the posters who agree that we will expire at some point, just live it while you can.

For some this type of research does have value. I'm 63 and at 42 was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM, usually inherited heart muscle disease). I often experience arrhythmias. I rode last year's London-Surrey 100 in support of the Cardiomyopathy Association and had to get clearance from my cardiologist before doing so. At the moment most cardiologists will advise patients like me to carry on taking exercise like this provided we tolerate it with no obvious ill effects and don't take risks by trying to sprint like Cav. If the Indiana team have found something that checks out, then that will probably change the advice and extend a lot of lives.

There is no widespread screening for HCM in this country, unlike the US where young athletes are increasingly being screened. You'll often see newspaper reports of apparently healthy young people dying suddenly during or just after exercise - inherited heart muscle disease is a likely cause. The research is far from being "anti-cycling" and it's obviously important to fully understand the effects of systematic exercise on heart physiology.

I tend to agree with those who say this research can largely be ignored by most people, but it does have serious relevance to thousands of people with a particular type of problem.

I have been doing a my own research into diet and exercise over the past few months and have come to the conclusion that over eating and constantly eating rhubarb and custard sweets or if they aren't available werther's original toffees in-between meals is counter productive to cycling performance and general health.

I have notice a definite drop in my performance and often find that I have to take naps in the afternoon due to intense sugar rushes.

Obviously these naps have cut into my available time to go out on the bike. That said this will stop the likelyhood of getting arrhythmias in the future.

At 47 year old, I still feel I have plenty of time to find the right training programme and diet schedule to beat Robert Marchand world record.
55 years build up to the record I think I will be flying by then.
Watch this space see you in 2069.

Meat and dairy are not bad for you and the medical establishment is slowly drip feeding this info to us. It is impossible for the "experts" and the government to admit suddenly that all their previous utterances were not true. Oh, and avoid soya products.
Everything in moderation (except soya) and eat natural food as much as possible.

Why is there two R's in Arrhythmia? Surely one is enough; its A-rhythm-ia, not Ar-Rhythm-ia; unless you are a cider farmer.

I had a precautionary ECG. The doctor said "Don't worry, more people die from lack of exercise than an excess of it."

Quite a defensive lot, aren't we? Let the scientists do their thing, don't fret about the tabloid's misreporting.

My takeaway conclusion is that we're in a jam as a country if cycling 5 or 10 miles a day just getting about the place makes us crazy athlete outliers! Just how inactive are these "moderately active 20-30 year olds"?<:P

We're living in such a risk averse society we're actually killing ourselves through lack of any risk.

Another nationally publicised piece of research that confuses the public. Woot.

Fact is, hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of pounds can be saved by our population improving their lifestyles through exercise. This also has knock on effects on drinking, smoking, depression and having lovely tight buns.

Sadly, there are always exceptions to the rule. But I'm a big fan of The Greater Good. This survey may frighten off those who really need to exercise. If (made up figure) 99% live longer and 1% don't, its a great shame for the 1%, but I'm all for it.

With exercise you have 100% certainty of death.

Without exercise you have 100% certainty of death.

May as well ride a bike and have some fun before the inevitable happens.

So, some marathon-running lab mice suffer ill effects and from this we get a headline that being a very fit old cyclist might cause heart problems.

FFS!

Oh I'm now so worried that I think I will just go back to bed, pull the blankets up over my head and pretend nothing bad will ever happen.

arrhythmias - am I just supposed to know what that is?

I don't worry about such things, the the only thing that can kill me is death

Does anybody have any reliable statistics for the percentage of deaths that involve the heart stopping beating?

Seriously, I'd take anything The British Heart Foundation say with a huge pinch of salt. Those idiots are still recommending meat and dairy as part of a "balanced" and "healthy" diet to prevent heart disease.

A completely nonsense bit of research. Note the sentence ;

"If the investigation’s results can be repeated in humans, the findings could have implications for the heart-health of elderly athletes,"

Two excellent words used, "If" and "could"

I suffered a series of cardiac arrests as a result of endurance exercise and was lucky enough to be revived each time, i now have a defibrillator fitted in my chest and am on constant medication to regulate my heart rhythm. This happened when i was 50 so i like to think that it is not just something that happens in old age. Keep your eyes on the news (or google "footballer collapses and dies on pitch" or "marathon runner dies") and see how many seemingly fit people this happens to.

We're all gonna die, get used to it.

Chris Hoy isn't an endurance cyclist, is he?