DR PAUL THOMPSON

Get your heart rate up for the olympics!  We talk to Dr Thompson about heart health and olympic running.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Let's rimp open up fresh helping therough tibble show. Keep doctor Thompson there.
This dude is so punctual man,he has done so much studying.
He is going to be on time, if not fifteen minutes earlier. And
this will be the smartest man onour radio station probably for the next three

(00:24):
months. Hey, doc, what'sup? Not much, just you know,
enjoying the hot weather. Oh okay, well, before we get into
all the Olympics and all the otherstuff. Because I do walk in this
weather. I do enjoy it atsixty What for older patients like me on
the heat index and should be webe looking at the quality of the air

(00:48):
or the temperature, humidity. Whatare the things I should focus on before
I go out there and walk thetrack for three miles? The most important
thing is actually humidity. And that'sbecause it's hot and dry, you can
still stay cool. And how doesthat happen? You lose heat by the
evaporation of sweat. It takes energyto evaporate water. It takes the hot

(01:11):
sun to evaporate that puzzle. Ittakes so you lose energy from the body
when you evaporate sweat. If there'sa lot of humidity. That means there's
already a lot of water in theair and it's harder to get that sweat
to evaporate. So you know,you can if it's very humid, you
can get into heat trouble even whenit's not that hot. So the thing

(01:36):
I think you should focus on isreally the humidity. Now, the humidity
obviously affects the air quality because you'remuch more aware of heavy air because it
is heavy it has a lot ofwater in it. But you really humidity
is the issue. All right.Let me run down the credentials of this
man, doctor Paul D. Thompsonfrom we know him from Hartford Healthcare,

(01:59):
Bone and Joint That's where we firstbecame friends, and then we found out
how much of an athlete this dudeis. Nineteen seventy two US Olympic qualifier
for the Marathon Trials nineteen eighty eight. You worked for NBC as the medical
analyst that was the Soul Games AmericanGames in Cuba nineteen ninety one. You

(02:20):
did the same for ABC. Fiftyplus years medical practice, plus you just
wrote the book five hundred Rules ofCardiology. Nineteen seventy two. Olympic marathon
runner what was your training like backthen? So, well, thank you
for you know. I actually alsohad hairback then. That's why I got
the work that wasn't on my listof credentials. Search. Well, the

(02:44):
hair's gone, the job's gone.So what was my training? Well,
believe it or not, I wasa third year medical student. So I
was a three year medical student.I wasn't great, but I was okay,
and I wanted to qualify for theOlympic marathon trial. So let's make
a distinction here. I really wantedto qualify for the Olympics, but I

(03:04):
was nowhere near good enough. SoI simply wanted to be one of those
Americans invited to try out for theOlympics, and so I wanted to try
out on the marathon. So whatI actually did is I I was a
three year medical student, and soI got my wife. I was at
Tofts as a medical student, andTOUGHS had a relationship with the main medical
center, so you could go tothe main medical center and you could spend

(03:27):
your whole third year of training there, your whole year of clinical training.
If I had stayed in Boston,I would have done one month at you
know, the Lemuel shadd A Hospitalone month at Tufts. In other words,
I would have rotated throughout. Butby going to Maine, my wife
and I were able to rent anapartment, low income apartment, I may

(03:49):
add six miles from the main medicalcenter, So I would run the six
miles to work every morning, andI would run the six miles home every
night. There was also a trackon the way home, and so I
would sometimes stop at that track anddo interval training. So it was a
way to continue to train, eventhough you know, I knew I was

(04:11):
not going to be that greet.I wasn't going to make a living as
a competitive distance runner, but Iwas going to be able to make a
living as a cardiologist. And youknow, Rob, I've been really blessed
because I've been able to do myinterest in sports and combine that with my
interest in cardiology. Yeah, talkabout the Olympians and the way they train

(04:32):
now and the nutrition. I'm sureit was a lot different in your day.
I was was blessed in the eightiesand nineties. I don't know if
you ran into Fritz Hagerman and hiswife. They were with the Olympic team
and running as well out of OhioState. They would come in and they
would talk about nutrition and stuff likethat, and it pales in comparison to

(04:54):
what they're doing with athletes today.Is that helping the athletes get better?
Is it? It is helping intheir conditioning, etc. I think it
helps a lot. And the differenceis money because before, you know,
you didn't have the money to payto actually pay a coach, to pay
nutritionists. So you know, likegreat coaches like Bill Squires who coached Bill

(05:17):
Rogers, a local hero, Imay add from Newington, but Bill Rodgers
was coached to a guy named BillSquires, and Bill Squiers actually did it
for free. He coached the GreaterBoston Track Club for nothing. But now
because there's money in the sport,you can have a nutritionist and that stuff
clearly helps. Now why does ithelp? Because if you can keep yourself

(05:39):
lean and strong, you're going tobe a better runner than if you're doing
the same amount of training but you'reweigh a little bit more because obviously,
when you're running, you're actually carryinga load. That load is your body.
So you know, one of thebig problems we have in female athletes
is this whole thing with anarexia,they're not because they figure out pretty quickly

(06:01):
that they can run faster being extremelylean, and you can overdo it that
can lead to a problem. ButI think all this stuff really helps the
athletes. I'll fare around, nodoubt about it. But you know,
there's nothing like just putting in thework, putting in enough training to get
good. Now, when I wastraining, because as I mentioned, I
was a medical student, I wouldrun probably about eighty miles a week on

(06:26):
a good week. But to bea good marathon or ten thousand meters runner,
you have to be putting in closeto one hundred miles. Bill Rogers
would always put in between one hundredand twenty one hundred and fifty miles a
week. So you really it's yourjob. Talking to doctor Paul Thompson,
Hartford Healthcare, Bone and Joint wetalk to you all the time about this

(06:49):
particular topic. By the way,author of the new book five hundred Rules
of Cardiology, Sudden cardiac arrest inathletes. Now, this has come up
in my life life too often.It's not that often, one is way
too often. But I've had threesignificant situations in my life where I've known
these student athletes, and they seemslike they are the most fine tuned machines

(07:14):
I've ever met, and then ona workout, somehow, some way,
they have cardiac arrest. Have webeen able to make any progress on this
in the last couple of years?Have you been able to determine any kind
of factors that can give you morewarnings than what we've known in the past.
So we have, We've made alot of progress now. I wrote

(07:34):
my first paper on studding death duringexercise way back in nineteen seventy nine.
It was published in the Journal ofthe American Medical Association, and we've come
light years since then. Probably themost important thing there are a couple of
things that are you know, there'sa lot of screening that we do for
athletes, like athletes now, theyget ECG's, they electric cardiograms, they

(07:57):
get a lot of testing. I'mnot sure sure that helps as much as
a couple of simpler things. Oneis making sure that coaching staff, trainers
know CPR how to do cardiac pulmentaryresuscitation. And one of the things I've
always pushed with you, Robin bennIs, I pushed the idea of learning
to do CPR, not only becauseyou may help a teammate or someone on

(08:20):
the athletic field, but you alsomay help your grandmother, are a relative,
or just anybody. Those areas ofthe country where a lot of the
public no CPR have better survival ratesfrom when the heart stops when you have
a cardiac arrest. The other thingis the automatic defibrillators. There are now
these defibrillators alone, or what isa defibrillator. Well, when you have

(08:43):
a study cardiac death, your heart, rather than contracting gush to squeeze the
blood around it, quivers, andthat quivering can be stopped by an electric
current. You know, just likeyou see an er you see a TV.
They put electric paddles on you andyou get shocked. There are now
these automatic defibrillators that all you haveto do is open the box, put

(09:09):
the pads on, attach the padsto the east to the machine, and
the machine will say I'm going toshock them because they need to be shocked.
So that helps a lot. Andthen the other thing is paying attention
to athletes who have symptoms. Somany people who drop dead from a heart
attack or drop dead from a cardiacproblem they've had symptoms, they've been dizzy,

(09:33):
they've almost passed out, they havejust discomfort. Now why did I
say discomfort, Because a lot ofheart problems are not heart paying their heart
discomfort. In fact, it's calledangina. And what does angina mean.
Well, it's Latin for the wordchoking. So a lot of people ignore

(09:54):
their heart discomfort because they don't thinkit's from their heart. One other thing,
the top of the stomach, thetop of the stomach is called the
cardia. The top of the stomachis called the same word as the heart,
so a lot of and that's becausethe top of the stomach and the
heart come from the same part ofthe embryo. So a lot of people

(10:16):
who think they have heartburn, noticethe term heart burn. A lot of
people who think they have heartburn areactually having a cardiac problem. So I
think, you know, you know, we always used to say that anybody
who you know who treats themselves,anybody who treats themselfs has a fool for

(10:37):
a doctor. In other words,if you take care of yourself without going
to a professional, you're kind ofbeing foolish. So if you have symptoms
or a patient out there, aperson out there has symptoms. It doesn't
have to be pain or often discomfort. It can be mistaken his heartburn,
it can be mistake in his stomachcomplaints. You got to talk it over
with somebody. Yeah, So youknow, I just you know, was

(11:00):
come miles in light years from whereit was when I published my first paper.
But you know, every one ofthese deaths is a terrible tragedy because
they often happen in young people.But even if they happen in people over
the age of sixty, Rob,it's a disaster. I love how you
threw my age there. I wantedto talk more about the AED because I
was. I was just in Cincinnati. You can look it up on my

(11:24):
bio. I was just in Cincinnatiand Gretzki there way and they and they
have to turn seventy seven, andyou look, you look better than I
do at sixty, I know,all right. So they had these ad
machines. They have them on everylevel, and I happen to be sitting
there by the elevators talking to anactual EMT about these and stuff like that.

(11:46):
And it's a great topic that youjust brought up. I saw it
on Real Sports. How many youngathletes have died because they can't get access
quick enough to the AED Just let'sjust say Connecticut. Has Connecticut tried to
because I'm looking online right now they'refifteen hundred dollars to two thousand dollars apiece.
Have they Have they gone to thehigh schools and junior highs and said,
hey, listen, every school shouldhave at least one in the school

(12:09):
and one portable one that they couldpossibly take on trips. Because I know
it's a lot of money, butit could possibly save lives down the road.
Is there anybody that's pushing for thatright now in the state? So
I don't know the answer that Iknow that a lot of schools are teaching
CPR. In fact, there wasa move to get CPR for when the

(12:33):
criteria for graduation. But most schoolshave defibrillators, but I don't know where
it is and a legal point todo to tell you the truth? Well,
I was just talking about, likefor the athletic stuff and things like
that. All right, let meask you about the Olympics. How is
our track and field team? Howdo they look awesome? But they look
good? I must admit I followeda lot less. Now, Rob than

(12:54):
I did when I when I hadmore of a vested interest in it.
But you know, we always alwaysfeel the good team. We're certainly not
as strong in the distance events aswe aler. For example, you know
in nineteen sixty four in Tokyo,you know where Mills won the ten thousand

(13:15):
meters and Bob Shull won the fivethousand meters. But yeah, we have
a strong team. It's just asyou know, distance running is really dominated
now by the African countries. Letme ask you about that. Now.
I am a huge fan of trackand field. These guys hate when I
talk about the highlights that I amwatching of the World Games. I'm a

(13:39):
huge should Carry Richardson fan. Ican't wait to see this Quincy Wilson,
the sixteen year old kid. I'mtrying to get Dibbs to love our shot
put female, Chase Jackson. She'sgot tattoos all over. I think you
guys would be best friends if youever met. But why is it?
Why is Kenya awesome and African countriesare awesome at distance running? Now?
I think I know the answer,but I want to hear your answer,

(14:01):
and then why are the Jamaicans sogood at sprinting. Yeah, you know,
there's a book written about the performancegene I think it was. It
is written by Dave Epstein, whoused to be an old friend and used
to be one of the sports illustratedwriters. But a lot of this has
to do with genetics, and alsoit has to do with the environment.

(14:22):
For example, if you don't haveenough room to have soccer fields, well
then a lot of people are muchmore interested in sprinting. But you're right
right now, in the United States, there's a lot of competition for the
best athletes, so they don't necessarilygo into track and field. But I
do have a theory. I thinkthe thing that has to do with with
the distance running in the Kenyons inthe Africans is the fact that they run

(14:46):
from a very early age, Likeit's very often that you'll hear stories that
they ran four miles or six milesto school back and forth every day.
So why is that important? Becauseas you exercise train, you increase the
size of your engine, you increasethe size of your heart. And I've
often speculated and lectured about this thatif you stretch your heart, if you

(15:11):
enlarge your heart when you're young,it stretches the pericardium. Now the pericardium
is that is that kind of plasticbaggie that sits around the outside of your
heart. It's a clear amount oftissue that is perry for around cardium.
It's around the heart. As youget older, that terracardium gets stiffer because

(15:31):
it gets more fibronic. So I'veoften speculated that starting exercise that long distance
running at a young age allows youto develop a bigger heart, and a
bigger heart can squeeze more blood withevery beat, and that makes you a
better distance runner. So that's onefactor. The other factor is this,

(15:52):
they're all lean of the Dickens,and they train like the Dickens. One
of my friends, Bob Ratcliffe,who is a very good distance runner at
Brown University and now as a sportsagent, he represents a lot of Kenyans
and he's gone over and trained withthem and he says, it's just amazing
how much volume they do. Youknow. They I talked about Bill Rodgers

(16:15):
doing one hundred and twenty five,one hundred and fifty miles per week.
These folks who keenly do that,and they do it in a pack of
them that pushes them. So thereare a lot of reasons. But I
think it's genetics. I think it's, you know, being so lean.
I think it's having to run toschool. And also altitude. Many of
them are raised at altitude. Ifyou're at altitude, your body makes more

(16:37):
red blood cells. It's almost likeyourself injecting yourself your blood boosting. So
yeah, all those factors matter.I think you missed the fifth one.
If there's lions and cheetahs chasing youaround, you're going to be fat.
That was my theory. Run itfor your light. That my theory.
I know you laugh, all right, I just wanted to make you laugh.
I joke was I find, youknow whenever I listen to you guys

(17:00):
in the car on the way home, and I'm like, you know,
I think you're a riot, evenwhen you don't intend to be. Thank
you. Well. I hope everyoneknows. We do not write any of
our jokes. I mean as faras like no one else writes them,
Like we literally just sit down andstart talking and the comedy ensues. Yes,
absolutely, but not from you,doctor toms Away. Love you man,

(17:21):
You're the best. Thank you somuch, sir,