Supersized US football players are prone to high blood pressure, but fare better on some other health measures than more average-sized men, new NFL-sponsored research shows.
The mixed results suggest that intense physical conditioning can help reduce but not wipe out heart disease-related risks from excess weight.
Compared with other men their age, the NFL players studied were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure — 14 percent versus 6 percent for non-players.
Among the biggest players — linemen with a body mass index (BMI) in the obese range — about 90 percent had either high blood pressure or pre-hypertension, which is less dangerous but still risky.
The biggest players also had worse levels of “good” cholesterol and blood fats called triglycerides, but fewer signs of pre-diabetes than non-players.
The NFL and study authors downplayed the negative findings from a pool of 504 players of all sizes. Except for high blood pressure, the authors said, players on average faced no greater heart disease risks than men their same age in the general population.
But heart disease experts not involved in the study said grouping lean quarterbacks with big beefy linemen doesn’t make sense.
“It’s mixing apples and oranges,” said Cleveland Clinic heart specialist Steven Nissen.
He said the results show “it’s unhealthy to have excess body fat whether you’re an athlete or not.”
The study was set to appear in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Daniel Jones, a former American Heart Association president, said more favorable results on some measures “shouldn’t be reassuring” because high blood pressure is related to future heart problems.
The new study involved 504 players.
The group included almost 200 of the largest players — offensive and defensive linemen — but also a sizable portion of leaner players, including nearly 100 quarterbacks, kickers and wide receivers.
Their 2007 health records were compared with data from almost 2,000 similar-aged non-playing men in a different health study.
Nearly 58 percent of the players had a BMI of at least 30, in the obese range. But all 109 of the offensive linemen were obese, versus 16 percent of the comparison group.
The good news was that in both groups, only about one quarter had unhealthy levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, roughly 8 percent had high levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and about 13 percent had high triglyceride levels.
Seven percent of players and 9 percent of the biggest ones had elevated blood sugar levels that raise chances of developing diabetes, versus 16 percent of non-players.
But 42 percent of the 109 biggest players had unhealthy levels of good cholesterol and almost 22 percent had high triglycerides.
Andrew Tucker, the team physician for the Ravens, said the blood pressure results were unexpected. He said the league was investigating possible reasons, which might include diet, weightlifting and use of painkillers that have been linked with elevated blood pressure.
Also, to avoid heat cramps, players are encouraged to get plenty of salt, which might be a culprit, Tucker said.
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