Exercise for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Treatment

Antonello D’Andrea, Tiziana Formisano, Lucia Riegler, Raffaella Scarafile, Raffaella America, Francesca Martone, Marco di Maio, Maria Giovanna Russo, Eduardo Bossone, Maurizio Galderisi, Raffaele Calabrò, D’Andrea, Antonello, Formisano, Tiziana, Riegler, Lucia, Scarafile, Raffaella, America, Raffaella, Martone, Francesca, Maio, Marco di, Russo, Maria Giovanna, Bossone, Eduardo, Galderisi, Maurizio, Calabrò, Raffaele, Maio, Marco

During last decades, most studies have examined the exercise-induced remodeling defined as "athlete's heart". During exercise, there is an increased cardiac output that causes morphological, functional, and electrical modification of the cardiac chambers. The cardiac remodeling depends also on the type of training, age, sex, ethnicity, genetic factors, and body size. The two main categories of exercise, endurance and strength, determine different effects on the cardiac remodeling. Even if most sport comprise both strength and endurance exercise, determining different scenarios of cardiac adaptation to the exercise. The aim of this paper is to assemble the current knowledge about physiologic and pathophysiologic response of both the left and the right heart in highly trained athletes.