Dr Larry Creswell
I had a chance to participate in this year’s Henley Bridge-to-Bridge Swim. The event is a 14-km (downstream) swim in the Thames River, starting in the town of Henley and finishing in the town of Marlow. I had a great time.
In my column at Endurance Corner, entitled “Going Long in the Swim,” I describe how I adjusted my usual swim training leading up to the event and how I managed the day’s swim.
I’m not sure what the next swim adventure will be. Strait of Gibraltar?
In my most recent column at Endurance Corner, I answered a reader’s question about blood donation and endurance sport. With careful thought and planning, most endurance athletes can donate blood safely.
Blood donation is truly an opportunity to save somebody’s life.
For additional information about donor requirements and how to find a donation center, contact the American Red Cross.
Last month at Endurance Corner we invited readers to submit their heart-health questions. In today’s column, I did the first periodic installment of From the Mailbag. I answer Gavin’s question about how to go about screening for heart conditions that might place athletes at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) during a triathlon. I review information about causes of sports-related SCD and then describe a general approach to pre-participation screening for athletes. This involves careful medical history-taking, physical examination, and judicious use of other diagnostic tests such as EKG, echocardiogram, or stress test.
Please drop me a line if you have a heart-health question that might serve as the basis for an upcoming From the Mailbag column.
In my monthly column at Endurance Corner, I share my take on the results from a study of the Mediterranean diet and its influence on heart problems.
One take-home message is that all fats are not created equal. Perhaps we already knew that. But in the largest-ever study of its kind, the investigators have shown that a controlled diet–modelled after the “Mediterranean diet”–can have a big impact on the heart in a relatively short period of time.
In my monthly column at Endurance Corner, I try to answer the question, “Does the Heart Get Tired?” Avoiding the notion of “tiredness,” I talk about the phenomenon of cardiac fatigue and relate that to endurance sport. This is useful reading for the endurance athlete because recent warnings about potential long-term health risks related to exercise often mention cardiac fatigue as one red flag.