Originally posted by eonblue:
Im not a doctor but from what i understand sports can make this worse. If I understand athletes have a higher EF capacity. Physical activity strengthens your perhieral nervous system which would cause your EF to pump more blood than usual. When resting the EF function bottoms out. Being a heavy guy like star it takes a lot to mantain his anatomy and hia body may not be able to handle such extreme physical activity without his heart suffering.
A normal size person pumps about 5 liters/min at rest, for a 300+ pound guy, maybe 8 L/min. A conditioned cyclist can pump >20 liters/min over a sustained period of time, which is an amazing feat. A football lineman doesn't pump that much but does so against a higher pressure.
How many liters you pump per minute is your heart rate multiplied by how much your left ventricle pumps per beat. If your LV volume at rest is 100 cc and you pump out 70 cc per beat, your ejection fraction is 70. If your ejection fraction is 44%, you need a higher heart rate to pump the same volume. Also, if your EF is depressed, you will have a problem when your blood pressure (the resistance to pumping) is higher, as when a lineman strains.
One point I didn't mention in my first post is that Star may have coronary blockages that are severe enough to reduce his ejection fraction. One would say he may be too young for that, but Thomas Herrion wasn't.