Just a quick heads up on a couple of articles I saw over the weekend indicating that long distance running is bad for the cardiovascular system, despite apparently positive impacts on the normal metrics for cariovascular health.
Kurt notes and points to one on Medpage
Open Water Chicago points to a separate report on the same research in abcNews
An abcnews comment amuses me:
Kurt notes and points to one on Medpage
Open Water Chicago points to a separate report on the same research in abcNews
Researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and Foundation found that these runners faced a greater risk of accumulating plaque in their coronary arteries – despite having less body fat, lower LDL cholesterol levels, and lower heart rates.
An abcnews comment amuses me:
No one is sure exactly what the plaque findings mean.Well, we can guess.
Comments
One quote: "The researchers evaluated blood pressure and artery elasticity in 49 healthy men who regularly trained to run marathons and 46 control subjects who weren't endurance athletes. The marathoners had significantly higher systolic blood pressure (the top number in a reading) than the non-marathoners, about 11 points higher on average, when measured at the brachial artery in the upper arm. Their mean blood pressure was also about 8 points higher on average than the control subjects.
The researchers concluded that the study participants' exercise regimens were related to arterial stiffness, suggesting that more intense exercise may lead to increased stiffness of the large arteries."
Here's the link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100315/hl_hsn/marathonersfacegreaterriskofarteryproblems
The runners in that study were considered as "elite". I don't have details but that meant that they had competed in at least one marathon a year since 1985. That's a lot of kilometers. A lot more than average runner does. These are often people with type A personality and sport drink belt on their waist. Competitive runners train long times near and above the anaerobic threshold. That's very stressful for the body.
Still, endurance athletes are considered as the longest living athletes ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19574095 ).
This study is interesting, but what we need to see is a study linking marathon running to higher mortality. "We can guess" is not science, it's superstition.
If there is interest in this topic, you really need to read the review/analysis done by Dr. Harris at PaNu. He did look at this current study recently, but also previously looked at a study that didn't just measure plaque in runner, but assessed actual past unnoticed heart attacks (heart muscle damage). Not a pretty picture for those who train long distances aggressively.
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/11/1/cardio-causes-heart-disease.html
Scott W
I do think it should make all of us a little more cautious about how we push our bodies, but some of us will push past sensible limits no matter what we're doing. The study was about elite athletes- they can be pretty excessive in how they push themselves.
Cynthia
There's a big difference between the marathon and ultra-marathon communities philosophy towards running, and I imagine you would see similar differences in their overall health - including heart health. Speculation, of course. And it depends on a ton of factors that reach far beyond just training habits.
As an elite ultrarunner who has recently gone primal, this one touches close to home.
For the last couple of years I've been against long distance running - mainly as a result of posts from Art De Vany, but I recently watched a seminar by Christopher McDougall - author of Born to Run and he said that long distance running is natural for humans to do i.e. hunting animals by chasing them for hours/miles and killing them when they are weakend by exhaustion/overheating is something humans have been doing for thousands of years.... so the human body has evolved to cope with long distances.
For an example of this type of hunt, check the URL below which shows a "Persistence Hunt" of a Male Kudu, by tribesman of the San on the Kalahari Desert of Africa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wI-9RJi0Qo&feature=player_embedded
See URL below for Christopher McDougall video:
http://crossfitequipment.co.uk/health-fitness/christopher-mcdougall-born-to-run/
It's difficult to know what to believe - convincing points from both sides i.e. Art De Vany and Christopher McDougall, etc...
Melinda Robinson
knee anatomy facts
Regards
Alexa
I thought that I was doing great until I started taking blood pressure readings. My blood pressure is generally 10 points above what I want it to be (130/85). There are so many factors (stress, caffeine, alcohol, genetics, salt) but I thought I would throw it out there that I am a generally fit 38 year old runner that is confused with my higher than normal BP.