Hibernating bears avoid heart problems, may offer insight into human heart health
By Nicholas K. Geranios, APSaturday, July 17, 2010
Hibernating bears have healthy hearts
PULLMAN, Wash. — Grizzly bears love pastries, can be 50 percent body fat and spend nearly half the year sleeping.
Yet the hibernating bears don’t suffer heart attacks, have no hardening of the arteries, no fatty deposits or any circulation issues, said Charles Robbins, director of the Washington State University bear research center.
Robbins, who founded the center in 1986, and other WSU scientists are seeking to learn how bear hearts stay so healthy, and whether the answers can be applied to humans.
“The changes in the heart that occur in hibernation are things you and I couldn’t survive,” said Lynne Nelson, a veterinary cardiologist who has spent seven years studying the bears. “Yet bear hearts are very healthy.”
