Focusing on staying active can be the difference between good health and troubled from ailments.

As per a research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008, the larger body sizes of professional soccer players do not increase risks of atherosclerosis or cardiovascular disease after they retire.

It was remarked by Benjamin D. Levine, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, that active players can easily prevent pre-diabetes progression by following a healthy, active lifestyle.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Perhaps by remaining fit, the players were able to prevent the progression of pre-diabetes from becoming real diabetes,” said Benjamin D. Levine, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. “The prevalence of obesity, using normal criteria, is really high when you look at NFL players.

“But the BMI is only a crude measure of fatness. For the athletic community it may be biased against very dense, muscular people who may have a high BMI but not as much fat. The BMI might not tell the whole story.”

This study was based on retired players from another era. The football players today are about 50 percent larger than they were a quarter of a century ago, said Levine, who is also professor of internal medicine in the Division of Cardiology at UT Southwestern. “Today, there is a lot of incentive for football players to get as big as possible through eating, extensive training or by using anabolic steroids and growth hormones. The criterion for success is that bigger is better.”

Whether current or recently retired players are at greater risk for cardiovascular events or death merits further study, given the larger body sizes of today’s NFL player, he said.

The study noted that retired National Football League (NFL) players displayed a reduced prevalence of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, sedentary lifestyle, and hypertension when compared to other men.

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