Although the increase in heart mass seen in the mice isn't as large as the python experiences, it's still over 10 percent, about what you might expect from an exercise program.

When a Burmese python swallows a tasty rat dinner, the reptile makes new heart muscle to help digest the big meal, biologists have found. The predator has a special protein to expand its cardiac ...

Her study on the python heart appeared in the journal Science, and she joins us from Killarney, Ireland, where she was nice enough to interrupt her vacation to come on to the program. Welcome. DR.

Eating Your Way To A Healthy Heart (If You're A Python) : The Salt Pythons can eat up to quarter of their body weight, or 40 pounds, in one meal. It turns out those huge meals make their hearts ...

Yet once a python has finished its meal, its heart quickly returns to its usual size. Heart Remodeling. Hicks, the University of California ecologist and evolutionary biologist, ...

Large muscle mass doesn't equate to better performance. You can inject the mice with it to make their heart muscle increase in size, but it won't go through the conditioning the python does during ...