Big, Beefy Football Players May Face Heart Problems Later

Oct. 27 -- MONDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Crushing the notion that you can be both fat and fit, new research has found that current professional football linemen already have some risk factors for heart disease.

In a study comparing professional football players to minor and major league baseball players, researchers found that football linemen were more likely to have higher fasting blood sugar levels, larger waist circumferences and a greater waist-to-height ratio.

Although the idea that a football player could be at risk for heart disease might seem paradoxical because football players have to be in top physical condition, the lineman position also requires players to bulk up, with many tipping the scales at more than 300 pounds. All that extra weight may put players at risk later in life.

"We've identified a subset of players that are exercising like crazy and they're extremely fit, but the exercise isn't completely protective," said one of the study's authors, Dr. John Helzberg, co-director of the division of gastroenterology at Saint Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Helzberg was quick to point out that the study was not designed to look at the rates of heart disease or deaths from heart disease later in life but to identify only current risk factors. The hope is that by identifying the risk factors, steps could be taken to tackle the risk factors now, and interventions could be designed to help players when they retire.

Results of the study were scheduled to be presented Oct. 26 at the American College of Gastroenterology's annual scientific meeting in San Diego.

Previous research has suggested that football players face myriad risks later in life, such as higher rates of chronic pain, depression and even dementia. Helzberg said the idea for the current study came from a news report that suggested that football players were twice as likely to die before the age of 50 as baseball players.

To get an idea of how football players' health really compared with that of baseball players, Helzberg and his colleagues assessed a range of risk factors in 69 professional football players and 155 baseball players -- both minor and major league.