DALLAS, Oct 1, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Former National Football League
football players don't appear to have the same heart disease risk factors as
non-athletic counterparts, U.S. researchers say.
Drs. Alice Chang and Benjamin Levine, both of the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, say when body mass index standards are
applied, more than half of all professional football players are considered
overweight or obese -- an indicator for heart disease risk.
Chang says although a majority of these players are not as fit and active after
retirement, they still had fewer risk factors for heart disease than men of the
same age and body size from the Dallas Heart Study, an investigation of
cardiovascular disease that involves thousands of Dallas County residents.
The study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, examined 150 former
pro athletes and 150 normal counterparts with an average age of 55. The median
BMI for both groups was higher than 31, which is considered to be in the obese
range.
However, retired NFL players do not get a clean bill of health -- as a group
they were found to have developed similar amounts of coronary atherosclerosis --
hardening of the arteries. Although they were less likely to have diabetes, they
had higher rates of pre-diabetes, high fasting blood-sugar numbers that increase
their risk for developing diabetes in the future.
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