Find out the life expectancy of professional athletes who experience excessive physical activity during their entire sports career. Now it is no secret to anyone that professional athletes receive substantial fees. Very often in the media there is information about the salaries of players of famous football clubs, representatives of the NBA, etc. Representatives of Olympic sports also receive good money for winning the main four-year tournament.
Very often, parents want to send their children to sports clubs for this very reason. Note that modern sports have become much "younger", because in order to achieve high results in many sports, it is necessary to start practicing as early as four or five years old. Undoubtedly. High salaries are good, but health may be worth considering as well. Today we will tell you how long athletes live.
How long do athletes live - statistics
To begin with, we present the statistical information provided by the Federal Center for Physical Culture and Sports of Russia. We will immediately inform you that these numbers will definitely not please you. Only 12 percent of professional athletes can be considered healthy at the end of their careers.
In total, there are about four million pro-athletes in Russia, of which about 270 thousand are candidates for various national teams. Athletes who can compete at the Olympics can count on significant fees, and there are about five and a half thousand of them in Russia. As a result, if you want your child to go in for sports only because of the possible prize money, then he has only nine out of ten chances to keep his health.
Why does professional sports have a negative impact on health?
Everywhere you can hear that sport is good for health. This is true, but only if you are practicing on an amateur level and using moderate physical activity. In professional sports with such an approach to training, there is absolutely nothing to count on. The loads that pro-athletes experience cannot have a positive effect on health, since they are excessive for the body. Let's take a closer look at how long athletes live and why the risk of losing their health is very high for them.
The heart is the most important organ for a person and it is worth starting with it. In order to withstand the strongest loads, without which professional sports are unthinkable, the heart muscle is forced to change. You've probably heard the term "sports heart". The athlete's heart muscles are capable of pumping from 150 to 160 milliliters of blood in one contraction. For comparison, this figure in an ordinary person is from 50 to 60 milliliters.
In addition, the heart of a pro-athlete is capable of performing about 180 contractions per minute. For ordinary people, only in a state of panic, this figure can reach 130 beats per minute. Sports medicine specialists are confident that if ordinary doctors were dealing with the phenomenon of "sports heart". Then they would simply grab their heads, as this may seem simply impossible.
Of course, the heart of an athlete is improving, but also its resource is small. The heart muscle is simply physically incapable of working properly, say, for 70 years in such a mode as it happens during training. In order to continue living a normal life after the end of their sports career, pro-athletes are forced to be in good physical shape until the last moment.
It is known for sure that such a world-famous boxer as Muhammad Ali, before a stroke, jogged daily at a distance of 5 to 10 kilometers. At the same time, problems with the work of the heart muscle are possible not only after the end of a career in sports, but also much earlier. By the age of 18, serious changes in the heart muscle can be recorded. It should be admitted that the "sports heart" fails much earlier than usual. This is part of the answer to the question, how long do athletes live?
For a long time, scientists were convinced that an increase in the speed of blood flow leads to an improvement in the quality of nutrition for the brain. In theory, this fact suggests that with active sports, brain activity should improve. Today it has been proven that this is true, but not in all areas of the brain, but only in certain areas.
If we talk about the athlete's brain, then the maximum metabolism, and, therefore, activity is noted only in those departments that are responsible for coordination, motor skills and motor activity. More precisely, athletes have a well-developed brain stem and areas near the central sulcus.
This is quite understandable, because those departments are developing that are most often involved. Representatives of various specialties have more developed those parts of the brain that are actively working during the performance of professional duties. What happens to other areas? It turns out that this question is quite simple.
If any part of the brain ceases to receive enough nutrients, then its activity decreases. This can explain the frequent depressions in the athletes who completed the carter. Moreover, some of them are trying to find an outlet in alcohol, which is also a consequence of the process that we just talked about.
Powerful physical exertion does not pass without leaving a trace for the articular-ligamentous apparatus, all elements of which quickly wear out and after that can no longer be fully restored. In the joints of a person there is such an element as geolin cartilage. Its characteristics are quite unique in terms of sliding performance. In an ordinary person, he is extremely rarely injured, unlike athletes. If the geolinic cartilage is damaged, then its restoration takes a long time. Of course, with the help of modern medical means, this injury can be eliminated, but it must be remembered that this element of the joint is not designed for the loads that athletes experience during training. This leads to wear and tear, after which arthritis begins to develop.
While the athlete is young, he simply cannot notice it. However, with age, all damage to the geolinic cartilage comes to the surface. It should also be noted that the metabolism of athletes is about ten times higher than that of a common person. This leads to the fact that calcium is actively washed out of the bone tissue, which leads to the development of osteoporosis. Other micronutrients are also rapidly consumed, which significantly reduces the resources of the whole organism.
We continue to talk about how long athletes live and see how professional sports affect the female body. In order for the human body to be able to withstand a daily cross, lasting about 40 kilometers (in training, athletes run approximately the same total distance), the endocrine system must work at the limit of its capabilities.
This leads to the fact that the number of various neurotransmitters in the brain of athletes exceeds normal levels by about seven or eight times. The situation is similar with other hormones, such as adrenaline. Leading domestic experts in the field of sports medicine note that during active training in our climatic conditions, a huge load falls on the thyroid gland, which wears out quickly. At the same time, the entire hormonal system is having a hard time.
The female body is not at all programmed for such loads and therefore the athletes get more men. The thyroid gland in the female body regulates the work of the ovaries, which can and very often leads to disruptions in the work of this organ. Thus, the menstrual cycle is disturbed in athletes, the development of infertility is possible, etc.
After the collapse of the USSR, for more than a decade, athletes, in fact, were left without adequate pharmacological support. When rehabilitation sports centers were restored in Russia, about 70 percent of the members of women's teams in various sports had serious gynecological disorders.
In addition to the thyroid gland, athletes often have a disorder in the work of the adrenal glands. Their resource is quickly depleted, and they begin to perform their work in a sinusoidal manner. Simply put, when the athlete's body is under strong stress, the adrenal glands normally cope with their task. When the athlete is at rest, this organ may not work at all. This leads to chronic fatigue and a person is able to perform even the simplest work through strength.
An equally important milestone in the work of the hormonal system is the end of a sports career. The body begins to adapt to new living conditions, and since the thyroid gland is already impaired, metabolic processes cannot proceed normally. The consequence of this can be obesity or dystrophy. As you can see, the picture is bleak, but we will continue and answer the question, how long do athletes live? It is worth talking about the nervous system, because it is often said that many troubles in a person arise precisely from the nerves. The sports career of any athlete is replete with stressful situations that are quite obviously not beneficial.
Strong physical exertion is stressful for the body, any success or failure of an athlete also leads to stress. In fact, during a year of a sports career, most athletes experience so many stressful situations that an ordinary person will not meet in his entire life. As you know, when the body is under stress, it mobilizes all of its reserves. This leads to the depletion of the resources of all organs. Add this fact to what you said. Here is the answer to your question - how long do athletes live?
The Olympic champions in this video tell about life after retirement from professional sports:
