Long-term endurance exercise is associated with enlarged aorta
It’s long been known that endurance athletes have larger hearts on average than the rest of the population and that cardiac enlargement is a healthy adaptation to exercise. But what wasn’t known until now was whether the aorta — the main artery leaving the heart and supplying the body with oxygenated blood — followed suit, and if it did, whether that might pose problems as athletes aged. “The prevailing wisdom is that the aorta is a relatively stable structure with minimal plasticity,” said Aaron L. Baggish, investigator in Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Cardiovascular Performance Program. “But this concept comes from studies done almost exclusively on young competitive athletes — typically under 25 years of age.” As a sports cardiology fellow at MGH’s Cardiovascular Performance Program, Timothy W. Churchill, noticed that a surprisingly high number of master athletes — the rapidly growing population of aging men and women who continue to train and compete...