Study: Heart attacks killing triathletes during race

From 9News
New study from the Annals of Internal Medicine shows hearts attacks are killing triathletes during the race.
Author: Erica Tinsley
Published: 09/21/17
A new study is highlighting the dangers of competing in triathlons.
The Annals of Internal Medicine study shows 135 people have died from sudden heart attacks during triathlons in U.S. from 1985 to 2016.
Researchers say 67 percent of the deaths happened during the swim, which is the first part of triathlons.
85 percent of the deaths were men.
We spoke with emergency room doctor, Comilla Sasson and the President and coach of the Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club, Charles Perez.
Both say simply not warming up properly is putting extra strain on competitors hearts.
“It’s very easy to get anaerobic without even having done any kind of warm up and that’s going to be a big issue right there because your heart starts racing,” said Perez.
Dr. Sasson added, “When you’re in the aerobic zone your heart is the most efficient that it will be. You’re pumping blood just to make sure you’re getting enough blood to your muscles and vital organs. When you go into that anaerobic threshold, your heart is on overdrive, right, you’re trying to get blood the most vital organs at that point so you’re just kind of hitting the ground running really, really hard and if you don’t do a proper warm up that really puts a huge strain on that heart.”
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