Hello welcome and thanks for downloading the more or less podcast.

Each week we pluck numbers in the news or from everyday life.

Then with the help of experts from across the globe we try to figure out how pinpoint accurate those numbers really are.

This week we'll busy ourselves with a question from loyal listener, Lelitha McLennan, about the potential

links between certain types of exercise and a specific kind of heart problem.

A redestat and cycling weekly saying that one in five endurance athletes will develop

arrhythmia. What do you make of that?

Arythmia, by the way, means an abnormal heart rhythm.

Now we've had a rummage around and found the stat Alita mentioned hiding in a study from 2009 which claims that yeah male

insurance athletes have a greatly increased risk of developing a specific

form of arrhythmia it's called atrial fibrillation or AF for short but hang on does that mean an exercise is bad for you

the first message I want to get across is that there is no better medicine than exercise.

We have yet to invent anything in medicine that surpasses the benefits of exercise.

There you have doctor's orders from Professor Sanjay Sharma, a sports cardiologist at St George's University in London.

But is there a point at which healthy exercise

for your heart that is.

Let's start with atrial fibrillation.

What is it, dog?

Arial fibrillation is a common arrhythmia and it is characterized by erratic beating of the top chambers of the heart.

These are the atria.

So the atria in atrial fibrillation beat at 600 beats per minute so they're not actually

contracting effectively they're just quivering and some of those electrical beats get

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