Iker Casillas News Has Me Rattled

[MarkyMark88]

Here you have a 37 year old athlete whose played the highest level of soccer (football) for decades with access to top medical professionals and testing for some of the richest teams on the planet..... has a heart attack. I feel like when I have my annual physical and blood work next month I should ask if my doctor can refer me to someone who can open up my chest and physically look at my heart to see if it's ok. If all of the testing he's had over the years can't detect an abnormality idk what can. Maybe he eats like shit in the off season, like big macs every other day with pizza in between.....idk. It's this kind of stuff that makes me lose sleep at night.

[nomorepanic]

How do you know he has loads of tests etc can I ask?

[MarkyMark88]

Just the fact that he's a top professional athlete. Pre-season physicals alone are probably more extensive than the average Joe gets, for any team of any sport. I remember watching the Netflix special Sunderland Til I Die they had a goalkeeper transfer in mid season and one of the scenes was of him having an ultrasound of his heart. These guys have to be considered healthy to be able to play.

[nomorepanic]

I really don't think they would be checked liked that all the time.

Anyway he is not you and it has no relation to your health and well being

[Beachlady]

Here you have a 37 year old athlete whose played the highest level of soccer (football) for decades with access to top medical professionals and testing for some of the richest teams on the planet..... has a heart attack. I feel like when I have my annual physical and blood work next month I should ask if my doctor can refer me to someone who can open up my chest and physically look at my heart to see if it's ok. If all of the testing he's had over the years can't detect an abnormality idk what can. Maybe he eats like shit in the off season, like big macs every other day with pizza in between.....idk. It's this kind of stuff that makes me lose sleep at night.


My brother-in-law died suddenly of a massive coronary while on a car trip with my sister. He had no previous heart issues. He was in his early 50’s. His brother decided to get checked out at a top hospital, just to be on the safe side. A year later he dropped dead on the ice while coaching hockey. He was 46. They had some kind of congenital heart defect that was undetectable. Casillas likely had the same kind of problem. Apparently he had a stent put in at a cath lab and is doing well.

The bottom line is: when it’s your turn to go, it’s your turn, and when it’s not, it’s not.

[MyNameIsTerry]

This has happened to footballers in the UK at big clubs. But consider how many of them play football and how rare this is?

It happens to elite marathon runners too. I have read articles that suggest extreme cardio may cause weaknesses if there isn't some weight based exercise involved too and this might be why such elite atheletes beocme at risk. This wouldn't apply to anyone else.

Given he was involved in an intense training sessions at the time it could be the reason. It happens to marathon runners that way too. But isn't that just the issue that extreme exercise can have consequences no matter how fit you are?

Your logic seems to be that someone so elite should be beyond this type of event. That would imply we normal bods are more at risk. Yet are we dropping all the time? How rare is it?

[bin tenn]

This has happened to footballers in the UK at big clubs. But consider how many of them play football and how rare this is?

It happens to elite marathon runners too. I have read articles that suggest extreme cardio may cause weaknesses if there isn't some weight based exercise involved too and this might be why such elite atheletes beocme at risk. This wouldn't apply to anyone else.

Given he was involved in an intense training sessions at the time it could be the reason. It happens to marathon runners that way too. But isn't that just the issue that extreme exercise can have consequences no matter how fit you are?

Your logic seems to be that someone so elite should be beyond this type of event. That would imply we normal bods are more at risk. Yet are we dropping all the time? How rare is it?

Yep, I've heard the same about extreme cardio, that it may actually lead to such events. I don't know the statistics, but based on how many "elite athletes" I've heard of succumbing to these things compared to how few people I've personally known, I'd say that seems to be true.

[jray23]

I'm not going to lie, that news rattled me a bit too. Heart worries are always my most common health anxiety, and additionally my dad is due to have valve replacement surgery in a few weeks so I've had the thoughts come up more than usual. I likely wouldn't have even clicked on it if it wasn't such a high-profile name.

The part with Casillas that got me more is that he is a goalkeeper - the other few random cardiac events that have happened in the soccer/football world in the dozen or so years I've followed were always position players - so they're running around a lot - easily argued against because I don't do that kind of training - therefore isn't applicable to me. I can't believe that keepers would have that kind of regular intense training but they are required to be in good shape, and yes, these days top flight players undergo medical testing all the time, including heart tests, that really is true.

But things happen. I've reminded myself of two things:. 1). That was him. I am me. The event that happened to him does not change what has or will happen to me one bit. and 2) A cardiologist who flat out told me last year - there is no test that can 100% guarantee that you're not going to walk out of here and die instantly tomorrow from a cardiac event. But there's also no guarantee you won't die in a car accident on the way home and you do that anyway with no concerns. We just have to learn to accept that there is no complete certainty of health and do the best with what we can control to be in good health.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk