Health Risks for Overweight American Football Players

Justin Bannan is a big man he stands at

180 nine centimeters and weighs 140

kilograms as a defensive end for the

Baltimore Ravens football team he needs

that weight to block his opponents a lot

of times you're taking on you know two

offensive linemen at a time and these

guys are huge baman size is comparable

to other professional players the Ravens

head position dr. Andrew Tucker says for

the last two decades bigger is seen as

better for linemen being a larger size

and in the blocking scheme as well as on

the defensive line has become

increasingly important while size has

mattered on the playing field it is

raising concerns among sports medicine

experts dr. Tucker has studied the risk

for cardiovascular disease among 500

players in the NFL we sort of expected

that the largest our largest athletes

the offensive defensive linemen would

compare not so favorably to the general

population with respect to glucose and

cholesterol in fact our larger athletes

as well as the average NFL player

compares better than the average

American with respect to glucose and

comparable from lipids but these young

athletes showed a greater prevalence of

high blood pressure compared to other

men their age high blood pressure can

lead to heart disease stroke and kidney

failure especially as we age and become

heavier in a 2006 study of early

mortality among players in the National

Football League medical experts

suspected body weight was a factor in

their deaths fifty-two percent of those

players died of heart problems stroke

and cancer those are common problems

linked to obesity 23 year-old Thomas

herion weighed almost 150 kilograms when

he collapsed after an exhibition game in

2005 an autopsy showed an enlarged heart

and a coronary artery was blocked 40

30 Reggie White had retired from the

Green Bay Packers when he died of

cardiac arrhythmia in 2004 take a nice

deep breath and now staying in good

physical condition after those playing

days are over is a concern for Justin

baman I don't think you're going to

Train exact same that you are now when

you're when you're retired so I think

you're really going to make some changes

in your life and you know maybe lose

some weight the NFL study was published

in the Journal of the American Medical

Association Melinda Smith VOA news