Patent foramen ovale

[donfrancisco]

Dear Coach,

Yet another trainee of mine has been presented with troubling medical news. She was told she may have inherited her father's condition: a patent foramen ovale. She is going to perform the test to confirm or disconfirm but she has already been told that if she possesses such a condition she must avoid doing heavy weightlifting immediately.

A patent foramen ovale was the cause of her father's stroke and her doctor said she had a pretty high chance of having it too. If she does, her doctor claims that anything that causes Valsalva or an increase in my trainee's intra-thoracic pressure can cause a stroke.

My questions for you are (1) is this last statement correct and (2) if so, does a diagnosis of patent foremen ovale mean she must stop weight training?

Thanks,

Francisco

P.S. I know you are not Marcus Welby but if you don't know the answers I was confident you would refer me to one of several SSC doctors.

[Scaldrew]

I'ma link you to this cos I saw no mention of it in your post. Other than that I have nothing to add because I have absolutely no clue. I hope an SSC doctor chimes in.

Heavy Lifting and Heart Health | CJ Gotcher & Austin Baraki

[Pluripotent]

PFO does not cause stroke. All it does is allow a clot that forms on the venous side to cross to the arterial side, bypassing the lungs. The clot formed for some other reason, but without a PFO, it would have created a pulmonary embolism rather than a stroke. That is why it is called a paradoxical embolism.