Medical Update Part 2

Yesterday I gave a bit of a medical update about how my heart is doing. If you haven't read it then you really should because it is awesome. If you have read yesterdays blog I suggest you click back and have a look now. It is okay I will wait.....

Okay, good.

Now in yesterday's blog I wrote about having some blood taken last week for genetic testing. Specifically testing to see if there is a chance I have a genetic condition called Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy or ARVC if you are a cool kid like me. The genetic test won't say for sure one way or another, but it might give the doctors more of an idea.

Now one of the things that has bugged me about this potential diagnosis is that if I a genetic condition, then I have had it all my life, genes don't just develop problems. But I have done intense levels of sport for years without problem, is a genetic problem likely.

To be honest I don't know the answer to that, I think the fact that I have done lots of sports for about 25 years makes me think ARVC probably is a bit unlikely. However, from what I understand it isn't impossible.

Studies have shown that people with ARVC may not have symptoms, or they may not have many symptoms. So having ARVC doesn't necessary mean you have heart issues or are even aware of having anything wrong.

Some studies have also seemed to indicate that if you get a person with confirmed ARVC and no symptoms and then put them through a regime of intense exercise regimes their symptoms seem to get worse. Now I am not sure how widely confirmed that finding is, but it has been tested at least once I gather.

So, theoretically I could have had ARVC all my life and only just been getting symptoms because I have finally pushed my heart too far.

Once again I am not so sure about that as I have been pushing my heart pretty hard for a very long time and so I would have thought these symptoms might have shown up earlier, but I guess it can't be ruled out, hence the test.

However, given that other studies seem to have found that long term endurance athletes sometimes develop ARVC type symptoms without having the underlying genetic condition seems to make more sense to me.

I guess we shall see, a few months time and we should have a better idea one way or another.

Interesting stuff though.