Why endurance athletes get heart blocks

An international team of scientists from Manchester, Montpellier and Copenhagen have identified why some endurance athletes experience a heart rhythm disturbance called “heart block”.

The University of Manchester-led study found that long-term exercise in retired racehorses – the best available model of the athlete’s heart – and in mice, triggered molecular changes in a part of the heart known as the atrioventricular (or AV) node.