Maximizing Performance: 3 Cardiac Insights Every Athlete Must Know

Join Divya Parekh as she interviews the renowned Dr. Ankit Shah, a specialist in sports cardiology. Dr. Shah's journey into this niche field is deeply personal, stemming from the tragic loss of a college teammate, which highlighted the critical importance of heart health in athletes.

You can reach him through his website at www.sportsandperformancecardiology.com or directly at [phone].

Click this link to learn more https://success.divyaparekh.com/unfairadvantage/

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Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Hello, everyone, this is Debian. I cannot tell you how thrilled I
am to bring doctor unkit Shaw today. We are going to be covering a
lot of good topics for athletes andI want to share with you. Doctor
Unkitshaw is a sports cardiologist, andfor young athletes, we don't even think

(00:38):
about the things that they need tofocus on. So before we get started,
let's ask doctor un Kitshaw. So, doctor Shaw, can you share
with us what got you in thatsports cardiology. Yeah, as I was
thinking about what I wanted to do, you know, I thought about merging
to my best interest, which wascardiology and athletes in sport and sports creology

(01:03):
was the perfect fit. I actuallywrote crew in college, and unfortunately I
had a teammate who died suddenly ata cardia arrest after finishing first place,
and he was not able to beresuscitated. And so when we think about
young athletes, you know, unfortunatelysome of them are born with heart problems
or they have genetic heart disease.And so while they're some of the fittest,
healthiest looking people, they actually someof them have underlying heart disease.

(01:25):
And so this is a really nicefield that helps sort of navigate both the
young athletes and the older athlete.And that's one of the things that we
don't think about because there are parentsand I know so many of my friends
have young kids, and they think, like, you know, if you're
that cardiology is only for older people. So can you tell us, like,
you know, if you're whether you'rea parent or a young athlete,

(01:48):
or if you're a young athlete yourselflike you are in sports, So what
are the things that they can lookout for? Yeah? Absolutely, I
mean, so one of the firstthings is dividing a little bit by age.
If you're less than thirty five,you're thinking about things that are going
to be something they're born with agenetic heart problem or a congenital heart problem,
and so signs and symptoms that youshouldn't ignore or chest pain, shortest

(02:09):
of breath, passing out, lightheadednessor dizziness. If you see all of
your other teammates are going and youalways are the slowest. Organs have to
stop more or take more breaks andyou can't keep up, that might be
a red flag. So the biggestthing is not sort of ignore symptoms.
Okay, so you mentioned about that, you know there may be some athletes
who may have congenital heart problems,but so many times because when they're young,

(02:32):
people don't even check for it.So you've talked about the symptoms.
So just as an athlete, especiallylike you know whether you're in college playing
D one division or any or likeeven if you're in high school or now
if you're in olympics or professionals,what could they do so that they know
that they do not have continital orthey can rule it out. The best

(02:55):
thing and the biggest thing is goingto see a primary care pedutrician every year
and making sure you go through thewhole list of symptoms. They'll ask you
about your family history and be honest, if you're having symptoms, don't ignore
them. Let him or her nerveand they'll send you to cardiologists refer the
work up in certain scenarios and EKGor what your cardiogram can be indicated,
and that can pick up a lota lot of the causes of sudden death

(03:16):
and athletes and this is such aspecialty field. And as you talked about
looking at the symptoms, so canyou share with us. I'm going to
go back to the first thing thatyou mentioned about your growing teammate as to
what happened, What mark did itleave on you? Yeah, I mean

(03:38):
that being at that age and losinga teammate, and obviously I mean having
someone who again you thought was extremelyhealthy and one of the fittest athletes in
our team, and for him todie suddenly, it's obviously profound and it
has, you know, impact,and this is part of my giving back
and just sort of learn and tryto prevent another athlete from dying suddenly if
I can. And I know becauseyou, as we have talked previously,

(04:00):
you were very young at that time, and such a loss can be prevented
for the most part. I mean, actually, this is a nice segue
into what we can do. Andso sometimes, regardless of whatever screening you
do, cardiacoris will happen in youngathletes or in older athletes, and so
being prepared is the best thing wecan do. So emergency action planning,

(04:21):
which is like the defibrillators, havingAEDs on the sidelines, in the practice
environments on the field is one ofthe best things that we can do.
Families and students should learn CPR.Ah that you brought up a really good
point that family and students should learnCPR. So what would you say,
is like the common practice nowadays?I mean, so American Heart Association has

(04:45):
like a two minute online hands onlyCPR video, So taking that, I
mean, the best thing would beactually getting a class and being certified,
but not everyone has to do that. So you can watch the American Heart
Association videos on hands only CPR andthen learning how to use an AD.
They actually are auto made it andso even if you've never used it,
you shouldn't be nervous because when youturn it on and open it up,
it actually walks you through each stepand says put the pads on the patient

(05:08):
that tells you to step away orto chart or you know, hit the
shock button. So it actually walksyou through the whole process. So we
have not talked about the prevention.We have also talked about what you can
have on hand now as far asactually the concern, what can they do
in the day to day lives tokeep their heart healthy. Yeah, I
mean, so we know that exerciseis one of the best things you can

(05:28):
do to keep your heart healthy,and then everyone should be doing I mean
at least one hundred and fifty minutesa week of moderate exercise, which can
be brisk walking. The athletes thatwe see typically are doing way more than
that and biggerous exercise. And youknow, I think the common risk misconception
is that you can eat and drinkwhatever you want if you're an athletic,
and so I see that all thetime. But unfortunately those are risk factors,

(05:49):
and so I try to educate allmy patients while my athletes on the
fact that you have to maintain therest of your lifestyle also in a healthy
way. There's also this sense thatif I an athlete, I don't have
any underlying medical problems. What we'veseen and when we studied some of the
ultra runners from a local race,is that you know, about eighteen to
twenty percent of ultrarunners have a cardiacrespector so don't ignore blood pressure, cholesterol,

(06:13):
diabetes, because all of that canbe treated and should be treated regardless
if you're an athlete or not.No, that's you said it, like,
you know, Okay, I'm exercising, I don't have to pay attention.
So this brings home really a goodpoint that it's important that how you're
living your life just because you're anathlete doesn't mean you stop there. You

(06:34):
take care of the rest of thelife. Right. So, doctor Shane
know you've worked with a lot ofprofessional leagues and professional teams. So can
you share with one of the teamsthat you work with and any story that
you may have that how you havehelped athletes maintain not only the performance but

(06:55):
good hot health. Yeah, absolutelyso. I mean locally when as part
of mens A health is actually cardiologyfor a lot of the local teams here
Baltimore Orioles, Washington Capitals, BaltimoreRavens And I am still the team cardiologist
for USA Swimming, the national team, and you know, athletes and taking
care of them is in a lotof different perspectives. This field is very
unique. So there's obviously the patientin front of you, where the athlete

(07:16):
comes in to see you with symptoms. But when you work with some of
these teams that are national, youknow, I've gotten a phone call from
my colleagues who are on the fieldso to say, so to speak from
around the world, from different partsof Asia, when they had an athlete
who was an emergency room in Asiaand they called me and said, he
is this the right plan? Shouldwe be doing this and so you can
sort of help guide an athlete fromaround the world. And then more recently,

(07:42):
we had a tournament locally and therewas an athlete who had seen a
cardiologist in London, had an issuelocally, and so we connected virtually with
his cardiologists, with the athlete,with the athletic trainers. It's really a
full team sport, and we createda plan for him and we got his
heart procedure done the next day andhe was back tennis two weeks later.
So it's really really nice. Sothat's fantastic that just because if you have

(08:05):
any issues doesn't mean that your careeris over. Yeah, definitely not.
I mean there's a lot of thingswe can treat that if we find and
then hopefully be fully corrected and goback without much risk. One of the
things that we've learned is that youknow, this whole engaging the patient and
having them be a little bit autonomousand so shared decision making. That we
try to engage the patient and say, hey, this is what we know,

(08:26):
but there's a lot that we don'tknow. We think potentially this is
a low risk condition and if youwant to pursue it, we'll sort of
work with you and keep you assafe as possible. In certain scenarios,
we do think it's too high riskand we'd sort of recommend against competitive sport,
but we can still try to keepthem active. Oh that's fantastic,
And you have mentioned about a lotof different values like, Okay, you

(08:48):
can do this, you can havethese things, but what can they do
actively? So let's say if somebody, you know, any regular athlete,
were to come to you, socan you share, like, you know,
how do you take care of themand how do you help them with
their performance? Ye? I mean, it really depends on what they're coming
in with. So if it's anathlete who or someone who's just trying to

(09:09):
get started with activity and exercise,we world of recommend that they slowly build
up and engage with them. Forpeople who are already try athletes, we
would put them through our testing oryou know, based on their history and
make sure they're safe to continue andthen you know, certain space on some
of the tests we do. Wedo part upon exercise testing. It can
provide them some data that they canthen take back to their coaches and work

(09:30):
to sort of specify their training programsand a lot of our audience may be
thinking, you know, they havetheir athletes and they're thinking, Okay,
I know that doctor Chad's heart isin the right place because his wife's bigger
than who he is. He wantsto give back to the community, and

(09:50):
think about it as young as hewas in college. You're like eighteen nineteen
years old, and here you arepetched by your teammates unexpected accidental demise,
and he is in here for theirhearts. And as I have observed him,
I have observed doctor shall bring hisheart and care to athletes. Can

(10:11):
you share that what would be differentcoming to you versus going to any other
place? Yeah, well, there'svery few people that are Fellowship trained in
sports critology. But then bigger thanthat, I mean, I think you
know, I think you coming intothis office, you'll know that we actually
genuinely care about your symptoms and wantto work with you to either figure out
if there's something wrong or to makesure everything is okay. Your practice is

(10:35):
a little bit different in that wetry to you know, we have a
lot of patience coming from out oftown, and so we will try to
coordinate all of the testing same day. I'll review everything before you leave,
and so we'll have a plan atthe end of the day or end of
the visit with what to do nextor if everything looks okay to sort of
you know, recommend that you don'tneed any exercise restration. And you know,

(10:56):
in terms of the practice model itself, there's no phone trees. People
are into the phone, the appointmenttimes are longer and not sort of hurried
and limited. Yeah, and asI know, you have athletes coming to
you from on around the country.So if you're an athlete, and or

(11:18):
if you're a parent of an athleteand want to have good performance and good
healthy life, and if you're lookingand I don't about y'all, I know
for me it's important to have theright doctor, the right lawyer, the
right accountant, and you know,those people who are in your corner and
who will not only root for you, but who will uplift you and take

(11:41):
care. Then you will be thebest hens of Doctor Shah. That what
I can tell you. And I'veseen doctor Shaw over the years an amazing
care. You cannot find a betterdoctor than doctor Shaw. So if you're
there, definitely check it out andcan you share with us website and where
people can find you. Oh,absolutely, and I'll say it's very common

(12:03):
for us to see second opinions aswell. So a lot of people who've
seen one to two or three cardiologistsand want to come in with all that
data and to review it and canyou know, make sure everything was done
correctly or give you a different path. So our website is www dot Sports
and Performance Cardiology dot com and thephone number is two four oh eight nine
two seven zero seven zero. Well, thank you doctor Schelle for joining us

(12:26):
today and it was such a pleasurehaving this conversation, and thank you for
providing the nuggets. And you canlisten and you can reach out and for
any other things of course, youcan reach out to us as always.
You know we are here to supportyou at your service all the time.
See you next time, take care, Bye, Thank you,