NFL Players Face Blood Pressure Hurdles
Professional Football Players Have Higher Rates of Hypertension Than Other Healthy Young Men
May 26, 2009 -- They pump iron and work out often to stay in top shape, yet professional football players are more likely to have high blood pressure than are average healthy young men, a new study indicates.
“This unexpected prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension has led to plans for an NFL-wide survey and in-depth investigation of the mechanisms of these findings,” researchers say in the May 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Proposed areas for investigation include strength and resistance training, long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, salt intake, and sleep-disordered breathing.”
On the positive side, the study also found that despite being larger and heavier, NFL players have similar cholesterol profiles as average, otherwise healthy young men.
What’s more, professional athletes had a lower incidence of “impaired fasting glucose,” considered a pre-diabetic condition, and they were less likely to smoke.
Andrew M. Tucker, MD, of Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and lead author of the study, tells WebMD that most people look at large individuals, including large football players, and assume they have problems associated with obesity, such as prediabetes.
“But the average football player is pretty lean, and that includes wide receivers as well as offensive linemen,” Tucker says. “These guys are incredibly active, and even though many are huge, they are fit. Despite what their tummies might look like, they have large amounts of muscle mass.”
But being big, “whether you are a football player or an average person,” puts a person at greater risk for high blood pressure, Tucker tells WebMD. “Size matters.”
However, there is something unique about football players. “When we compared NFL players weighing 200 pounds to 200-pound people, the NFL players’ pressures were much higher.” That’s somewhat of a mystery, Tucker says, but may be related to strength training pumping up blood pressure, higher salt intake, or the use of anti-inflammatory pain medications.
The study arose out of a concern about the cardiovascular health implications of the large size of pro football players and also those young men who aspire to become pros. Greater player size and sporadic deaths of active and young retired professional players have raised questions about an increased risk of cardiovascular disease among these men.
NFL Players Face Blood Pressure Hurdles
Professional Football Players Have Higher Rates of Hypertension Than Other Healthy Young Men
May 26, 2009 -- They pump iron and work out often to stay in top shape, yet professional football players are more likely to have high blood pressure than are average healthy young men, a new study indicates.
“This unexpected prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension has led to plans for an NFL-wide survey and in-depth investigation of the mechanisms of these findings,” researchers say in the May 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Proposed areas for investigation include strength and resistance training, long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, salt intake, and sleep-disordered breathing.”
On the positive side, the study also found that despite being larger and heavier, NFL players have similar cholesterol profiles as average, otherwise healthy young men.
What’s more, professional athletes had a lower incidence of “impaired fasting glucose,” considered a pre-diabetic condition, and they were less likely to smoke.
Andrew M. Tucker, MD, of Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and lead author of the study, tells WebMD that most people look at large individuals, including large football players, and assume they have problems associated with obesity, such as prediabetes.
“But the average football player is pretty lean, and that includes wide receivers as well as offensive linemen,” Tucker says. “These guys are incredibly active, and even though many are huge, they are fit. Despite what their tummies might look like, they have large amounts of muscle mass.”
But being big, “whether you are a football player or an average person,” puts a person at greater risk for high blood pressure, Tucker tells WebMD. “Size matters.”
However, there is something unique about football players. “When we compared NFL players weighing 200 pounds to 200-pound people, the NFL players’ pressures were much higher.” That’s somewhat of a mystery, Tucker says, but may be related to strength training pumping up blood pressure, higher salt intake, or the use of anti-inflammatory pain medications.
Football Pros and High Blood Pressure
The study arose out of a concern about the cardiovascular health implications of the large size of pro football players and also those young men who aspire to become pros. Greater player size and sporadic deaths of active and young retired professional players have raised questions about an increased risk of cardiovascular disease among these men.