Athletes To Aid Heart Disease Research

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30513, 7 August 1964, Page 1

Athletes To Aid Heart Disease Research

Leading national athletes competing in the New Zealand cross-country championships on Saturday are being asked to co-operate with the Christchurch Hospital in blood tests which the hospital pathologists believe may help research into the prevention of heart disease.

The tests will be an extension of a series of pilot blood tests on a number of athletes in Canterbury. A circular from the pathology department to all athletes competing in the championships says: “We have shown that their

blood, once clotted, will lyse or unclot more rapidly than the clotted blood of less active and more inert citizens. This unclotting capacity of the blood is called fibrinolysis and is thought by some medical authorities to retard the development of degenerative phenomena in the cardiovascular system; especially atherosclerosis or ‘hardening’ of the arteries. If this is so, it would help explain why physically active persons have fewer heart attacks than inactive persons. “However, since - you and many other athletes will be in Christchurch this week-end, we hope to extend our survey significantly. To this end, we cordially invite you to call at the Blood Bank of this department between 9.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sunday, August 9, and have a few drops of blood taken for this test, which as far as we know is not being done elsewhere in New Zealand.”

The doctor who is doing the tests will be in attendance at the championships on Saturday as medical officer for the Sports Medicine Association.