Running May Be Harmful to Your Heart

I think this article is talking about extreme and long term endurance exercise. Micah True who was an ultra runner died either this year from an enlarged heart. I heard that is common for ultra runners. I don't think it would be an issue for most of us.
 
I agree, the article is talking about extremes. This has been brought up before and people always seem to take an all or nothing attitude, which I just don't get. Everything in moderation. Too much of anything is bad for you. To quote from the article:
The answer is simple. Intense physical exercise for long periods has the potential to take a toll on the body, in some cases aging it more quickly

A safe upper dose limit potentially exists, beyond which the adverse effects of physical exercise, such as musculoskeletal trauma and cardiovascular stress, may outweigh its benefits.”

In short, exercise is great in small doses, but too much physical exertion too quickly or for too long a period can actually put a person’s heart at risk, especially if he or she is over age 35.
Click to expand...

Most of us are aware of the effect of overtraining and increased cortisol that is produced when you tax your body too much. It's really just common sense, imo.
 
I am not so sure that the enlargement has to do with the exercise or not because it does occur in people who aren't endurance athletes. Sometimes people are just going to get sick regardless of their exercise routine. You can do damage to yourself if you aren't trained, if you are over trained, if you don't eat enough calories, or if you aren't taking enough rest. You can start to shred little bits off your heart if you are working at an extreme intensity for a very long time, those little bits of tissue can cause problems. However, you would be hard pressed to get to that stage. You would be exercising for ultras, you would be ignoring your body's messages to rest, eat, or ignoring the need for salt. I don't think that a normal runner (even someone with a goal of a 30 to 50 mile race) is going to encounter that problem unless they already had an underlying heart condition. I'm not a doctor but I have been doing road work for several years. Its no more stressful than a normal Cathe workout, and a lot of the time is less stress on the body. You can adjust your intensity up or down just by speeding up or slowing down.

I think you would encounter other over use injuries before you ran (literally) into these heart conditions. You could get yourself checked out by your doctor. Thats not a bad idea for anybody.

I understand the desire to let people know about the potential hazards of exercise, but I hate it when writers lead people to believe that there is no difference between a 5k and 50k.
 
What is worse is that the article completely ignores the fact that most heart problems stem from an infection. For the past couple of years there has been a terrible infection going around that has claimed the lives of young, healthy, vigorous people. I learned about it on Persiflager's Puscast, a free podcast produced by Dr. Mark Crislip. He specializes in infectious disease. When I learned that it was an infection that was killing people, it changed my point of view about heart attacks. Instead of thinking of it as a disease resulting from a lack of exercise, I came to understand that people like my skinny, healthy, 16 year old nephew weren't faking it and yes he did have three heart attacks within a very short amount of time because he caught an infection. Its not a problem of character, its an attack on the body. It is no more a problem of lifestyle than catching TB is.

sorry, that was my soap box.:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top