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Curious Cases

The Painless Heart

Curious Cases

BBC

Technology, Science

4.84.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why does my heart not ache after exercise? asks listener Keith. Rutherford and Fry explore how and why heart muscle cells are special. Dr Mitch Lomax is a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth. She helps actual Olympic swimmers get faster. She explains how most of the muscles attached to our skeletons work: Tiny fibres use small-scale cellular energy, which, when all these fibres work in concert, turns into visible muscular movement. Mitch also explains how the dreaded Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS, can hit, taking a stair-wincing 48-72 hours to peak after exercise. But skeletal muscles turn out to be quite different to heart muscles, as consultant cardiologist Dr Rohin Francis explains. Heart cells are more efficient and don't get fatigued like skeletal muscle cells. They are extremely energetic and 'just want to beat'. He also explains that the sensory feedback from the heart muscles is different too. They have a different sort of nerve supply, with fewer sensory nerves, so that there is less chance of pain signals being sent to the brain. However, heart cells' incredible abilities are counterbalanced by one Achilles-like flaw: They cannot easily heal. Professor Sanjay Sinha is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Senior Research Fellow and a Professor in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the University of Cambridge. His job is to fix broken hearts and he explains to Adam how new research into stem cells could be used to fix normally irreparable heart cells. Producer - Jennifer Whyntie and Fiona Roberts Presenters - Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:04.6

MUSIC

0:10.6

I'm Dr Adam Rutherford.

0:12.0

And I'm Dr Hannah Fry.

0:13.4

And you are going to send us your everyday mysteries.

0:16.3

And we are going to investigate them.

0:18.3

Using the power of...

0:19.6

Science!

0:20.4

Science!

0:21.1

Science!

0:22.0

I like it.

0:22.9

MUSIC

0:26.6

Hello, the Curios. A tale of true heartache for you today.

0:31.4

Yeah, but not like that.

0:32.8

Not like that.

0:33.9

In another way.

0:34.8

In a very biological and medical way.

0:37.2

MUSIC

0:43.5

Today's question concerns a matter of heartache.

0:46.7

It comes from listener Keith Williams, who sent in to QSKZBBC.co.uk

0:51.6

and he writes,

0:52.7

To the Good Doctors,

...

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