Many Americans take up running to lose weight and get Heart Healthy. The problem with this is despite the endorsement of countless running enthusiasts and many healthcare professionals there is no definitive study that shows the health benefit of endurance/aerobic activity. I am not speaking of the person who jogs once or twice a week and does some resistance exercise. I am talking about the hardcore aerobic enthusiast; training for a marathon, tri-athlete, ultra-marathoner. I am not sold on the fact that extensive endurance training is healthy. How many Marathons are run without someone having a heart attack?
The first Marathon, a 26 mile run to Athens ended in death.
Phidippides was again called upon to run to Athens (26 miles away) to carry the news of the victory and the warning about the approaching Persian ships. Despite his fatigue after his recent run to Sparta and back and having fought all morning in heavy armor, Phidippides rose to the challenge. Pushing himself past normal limits of human endurance, the reached Athens in perhaps 3 hours, delivered his message and then died shortly thereafter from exhaustion.
Even the man who re-ignited the popularity of running in the US, Jim Fixx died of a heart attack.
In 1977 Jim Fixx wrote "The Complete Book of Running" which is credited with starting America's running boom. Fixx started running in 1967 and in the ensuring 10 years lost 40 pounds and stopped his 2 pack a day cigarette habit. Sadly, in 1984 at age 52 Jim Fixx died of a heart attack. An autopsy revealed atherosclerosis caused the blockage of 3 coronary arteries. Many, including Dr.Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Institute, have cited genetic factors and Fixx's previous lifestyle as probable causes of the arterial blockage.
One study done by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society found that
"without proper training, marathon running can damage your heart. Fortunately the exercise-induced injury is reversible over time. But it could take up to 3 months to completely recover."
Okay, what is proper training?
A study presented at the European Society of Cardiology's Congress 2010 in Stockholm suggested that
ultra marathoning, whose participants are described as "super fit and experienced athletes" as a whole have markers that indicate heart muscle damage -- and some show signs suggestive of significant cardiac damage
So those new to marathoning and/or not properly trained and those athletes who are super fit and extremists both show signs of heart damage. What about the average marathoner? Trained but not too over the top.
In the February 17th 2011 Edition of The Journal of Applied Physiology a study observed
an unexpectedly high prevalence (50%) of myocardial fibrosis in healthy, asymptomatic life-long veteran male endurance athletes, compared to zero cases in age-matched veteran controls and young athletes.The Blog Natural Messiah does a simple review of the research or you can read the abstract here>.
I am not totally against running, I believe in sprinting and other forms of running that stress quality over quantity. Given ample time to recouperate,running can be great for both an anaerobic as well as aerobic workout. On top of the positive results attained from High Intensity Training, the satisfaction attained afterward is greater high intense workouts versus long and moderate activities.
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com
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