Your heart is built for endurance. It can squeeze, but it is also flexible, capable of expanding like a balloon to suck blood into itself. It can do these exercises constantly without ever getting tired. In that way, the heart is like a marathon runner and long-distance bike rider. These athletes are slim and strong. They can exercise for hours on end without stopping. To understand how your heart can develop left ventricular hypertrophy we needs review the two basic types of exercises muscles can do.
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Two basic ways of exercising
Low-resistance, high-repetition exercises that build tone, endurance and strength. This is the type of exercise bikers and runners do.
Low repetition and high weight. This builds big muscles and increases the force of the muscle.
Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
The heart can also become thick if it is exposed to the need to carry heavy weights. As the heart squeezes against the pressure generated by the arteries, we can think of blood pressure as the weight the heart is lifting. If blood pressure is high, this translates to the heart doing heavy bench presses every day. Over time, the muscle of the heart becomes thick like that of a bodybuilder. Thickening of the heart is a condition known as Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, or LVH for short. Cardiac hypertrophy is associated with a doubling of the chances of dying from a cardiac event. A thick and inflexible heart can also fail over time, causing a common complication known as heart failure. People who have thick hearts develop arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation much more often.
How serious is left ventricular hypertrophy?
Thickening of the heart can develop over the years without ever producing any symptoms. Because of its significant impacts on health due to dire complications, LVH is one of the things your doctor screens you for in your yearly annual visits. This is easily accomplished with a simple cardiac test called an electrocardiogram. If an electrocardiogram suggests left ventricular hypertrophy is present, it is usually confirmed with different types of cardiac imaging. Once diagnosed, left ventricular hypertrophy can be managed by treating hypertension. With proper blood pressure control over the years, prognosis is good.
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