Why is a rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure from exercise healthy for your cardio system, but the same effects from drugs like alcohol and nicotine cause damage?
In: Biology
PSA: I’m not a doctor – I got my degree biomechanical engineering – so please don’t take this as medical advice.
If your heart is beating really hard for a really long time, just like any muscle it’s going to get tired and need rest, it’s just better at recovery than other muscles in your body. If you get a leg cramp, you stop running and limp for a bit – what happens if you get a heart cramp? You die if it’s bad enough.
If your blood vessels have lots of pressure for a really long time, they’ll spring leaks – just like a sprinkler system – if you have too much pressure in the system for too long you’ll spring leaks. Sprinkler leaks? Long weekend or pay someone to fix it. Blood vessels leak? You die if it’s bad enough.
In both cases if you repair the damage or let things rest, they can recover and be used just fine – but if they’re under this stress for too long they can’t recover and repair. Your body does this automatically – when you’re not running, your body is making sure everything is getting repaired and is in a good state. Things that keep your blood pressure high for too long or your heart rate high for too long won’t give your body enough time to do that.
Remember Chris Farley? He had a heart attack after 17 hours of cocaine and hookers. He had a heart cramp and died – the activities and drugs kept his body going too hard for it to rest, so it gave out. That’s what makes some drugs dangerous, and that’s why doctors want to help keep both in a normal range. Normal just means that your body should be able to maintain things in between those high moments.
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