How can a sudden cardiac arrest be different for athletes – depending on their sex

When Versity Rover Ruth McDonalds competes, she is thinking about working hard and winning the race. The ability to affect a medical emergency – while always possible – is the last thing in his mind.

“Every game, you have to be comfortable with pain and be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he said. “So something or cardiac arrest like an injury is nothing in your mind, because you are focusing on working so hard and achieving the best results.”

Sudden heart arrest in female athletes is a growing concern for sports medical experts because doctors say they are feeling how little they know about the health of the heart of women athletes, and their risk levels to the situation.

While rare, sudden heart arrests are one Major causes of death For young athletes. As A Canadian study Published in March, men are 10 times more likely to experience sports-related cardiac arrest than women.

But women, when their Hearts suddenly stop, according to the chances of survival, according to many studies,

Causes unclear

Cum-writing of Canadian studies, Dr. Paul Dorian says that there are no clarification for inequality between male and female athletes.

But he pointed to a problem: Heart’s arrest in male athletes is more likely that due to the strict arteries, due to the disturbance of heart rhythm like an arrhythmia.

Dorian, a cardiologist at St. Michael Hospital in Toronto, said, “Think of it as a heart attack. So they are plumbing problems that then cause power problems.”

In female athletes, on the contrary, heart arrest is often due to a different reason, Dorians say: they are more likely due to heart diseases due to hertible reasons, or which develop from the virus.

Another factor, Dorian says, it is that women may not always feel that they are going to be cardiac arrest. While men are more likely to have classic symptoms of emergency, such as chest pain or chest tightness, women are more likely to experience symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath and exhaustion.

Another major factor that can affect a person survives or suddenly dies from the arrest of the heart: Dorian says how quickly reacts, Dorian says.

stand around Step in Not again and again To revive a woman, whether via CPR or the woman is put on an automatic exterior defilater, also known as AED.

Researchers do not have much data. It may be that some buyers do not recognize the symptoms in women, or they feel reluctant to contraction of the chest, or to remove a woman’s shirt and place the defibrillator pad on her chest.

Physical difference

A heart expert and head of medicine at the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. Paula Harvey says that there are also differences between male heart and female hearts – in size, electrical system and blood vessels.

“We are behind the game, so to speak, when it comes to understanding the biology of the hearts of women in relation to a variety of sports and the effect of different types of stresses,” he said.

Some major questions want to answer: The best ways to screen female athletes for structural heart disease and electrical heart problems can put them at risk – and the best ways to answer someone who is a cardiovascular complexity or emergency, while on the playground.

Harvey is trying to fill some of those spaces, doing research how age and hormonal changes, like menopause, can affect the heart health of women.

In particular, Harvey is studying female athletes, who have stopped having periods and show symptoms that meet menopause, as they are not eating enough calories to balance all their training – and how energy imbalance affects heart health.

This can be hard on the cardiovascular system, suggests Harvey’s research, which he recently presented Women athlete conference in BostonShe thinks that enough athletes are not aware of the problem, which she says that can be easily cured – and symptoms are reversed – by eating more.

“Even a granola bar to increase that number of calories,” he said.

Chief Medical Officer of Rowing Canada, Dr. Steven Joseph also thought that a lot of sex differences and risk factors for a sudden cardiac arrest have been revealed.

“We are just starting to feel that there are important physical differences,” he said. “Many old studies were based on male athletes and they are not transferable.”

Joseph is hoping that there will be more research that can inform athletes and coaches how to safely train – and manage risk factors.

Because – Harvey, Joseph and Dorians all agree – physical activity has a lot of benefits for overall health, not only for heart health.

They just want everyone to be able to do it safely.