Does Bodybuilding Destroy your Heart or Viagra?

When a celebrity bodybuilder drops dead from a heart attack, it rapidly hits the front page of the papers and becomes the topic of the daytime for many news outlets online. Armchair health experts and licensed doctors and nutritional experts debate about why an athlete or bodybuilder after years of training and maintaining a healthy looking build would drop dead of a heart attack or have by-​​pass surgery to unclog arteries. Non-​​exercisers may relish in the news. Finally, another reason for them to remain sedentary! But bodybuilders that want to build muscles and athletes that are training for endurance and performance want to know if they can find a bodybuilding supplement that works to gain muscle, enhance performance, and still protect the heart. First, let’s take a look at the connection between your heart health, bodybuilding, muscle growth. Your heart is a muscle that thrives with exercise. Its job is to work tirelessly day in and day out to pump blood throughout your corpse. And if you’re lifting weights, training for a sport, and structure muscles then you are going to be involved in more frequent and varying levels of exercise than the “average” civilian. As a result, this exercise will put greater strain on your heart and require it to pump enough oxygenated blood to feed your activity. And this is a good thing when your heart is healthy.

Exercise can, in fact, strengthen your cardiovascular system when it’s healthy and is supported with the right lifestyle choices that compliment your training. This means: eating clean, drinking enough water to flush your system, and taking dietary supplements to support and enhance your overall fitness training. However, if you are not getting the best mix of nutrients in your diet, then the effects on your heart and entire cardiovascular system can be fatal. And the problem with bodybuilding and heart disease is that too often guys train with the sole goal of getting big fast at the risk of their heart health. They take an assortment of protein, creatine, steroids, potions, powders and pills in various forms to achieve instant bulk or shrink-​​wrapped abs with the least amount of effort in the least amount of time. For bodybuilders seeking muscle, this doesn’t seem like a “problem” at all until they are lying on the operating room table.

And while many of these dietary supplements are in reality safe and give you the results you’re looking for, without the full nutritional story you could be setting yourself up for health and heart problems in the future. Athletes looking for a performance boost are increasingly turning to a little blue pill more usually taken for its off-the-field benefits Viagra.  The World Anti-Doping Agency is currently studying Viagra effects in athletes, but hasn't yet banned it. Experts are divided over whether it actually offers athletes an edge. Viagra, also known as Sildenafil. It was originally developed as a heart medication; its use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction was only accidentally discovered.

The medication works by increasing the effects of nitric oxide, which makes blood vessels expand. That should theoretically allow blood cells to travel to the lungs more efficiently and to also receive more oxygen. It may also better heart charge. Viagra is also approved to treat pulmonary hypertension, a condition where the lungs' blood vessels tighten. Doctors have used the drug experimentally to manage pregnant women with high blood pressure and to ward off jet-lag. But whether Viagra makes athletes faster, higher or stronger is uncertain. "Just because you have more nitric oxide doesn't mean that you are going to be a better athlete," Butch said. "If you have all the nitric oxide you need, and if you generate more from Viagra, it's not clear what result that would have." Still, some preliminary studies have shown that cyclists taking Viagra improved their performances by up to 40 percent. Athletes often mistakenly assume that a medication will travail in their bodies the same way it does in sick people. For instance, in people with lung problems who take Viagra, the medication widens their blood vessels so they can absorb more oxygen.