May 17, 2023

"Exercise demands a lot of our hearts. As soon as we start running or otherwise exerting ourselves, our hearts double or triple the rate at which they pump blood..."

"... to our laboring muscles. Over time, this exertion strengthens our hearts, just as it does other muscles, remodeling the organ, including its atriums, which are the upper chambers of the heart. The atriums deliver blood to the lower chambers, the ventricles, which pump it onward. In general, these changes are desirable and welcome. But for reasons that remain mysterious, years of repeated, strenuous workouts and races may exact a toll on the heart, according to some emerging research...."

37 comments:

n.n said...

Obsession may have a pleasant fragrance. Rule of thumb: conservative or moderation.

Enigma said...

Doing too much of anything will stretch and deform your body.

https://willismusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/dizzy_gillespie.jpg

madAsHell said...

I just do resistance training.

I resist going to the gym.

Andrew said...

RIP, Jim Fixx.

Ted said...

Everything good for you is bad for you, and vice versa! (Also see: Coffee, chocolate, alcohol, fat, carbs, aspirin, virtually all medications, etc., etc.)

Chipotle said...

So ... moderation?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
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Rabel said...
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typingtalker said...
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Maynard said...

I have a hunch that the fake vaccine may also play a role in heart problems among athletic men and women.

FleetUSA said...

Dr William J Rowe of Ohio studied this in relation to space travel as well since the 90's. Unfortunately he passed last year: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyprogress/name/william-rowe-obituary?id=36558226

JPS said...

Puts me in mind of that old joke, absurdly attributed to Neil Armstrong of all people:

"I believe that each of us has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine doing exercise."

I once did some easy math: How many beats does my heart need to make if I take it easy and leave my pulse at 70, versus if I run it up to 150 for half an hour a day and then have a resting pulse of 52 the rest of the time? Of course, the assumption is that I don't eventually weaken my heart by doing so.

Joe Smith said...

Research funded by Pfizer®

...probably.

Old and slow said...

This is nothing new. It has been common knowledge among runners for years that there are added risks associated with hard training. The thing is, runners don't run to be healthy. They run because they love to run. There are many better paths to good health than extreme cardio workouts. I thought everyone knew that. Either way, it still beats sitting on the sofa with a glass of bourbon in hand.

Jupiter said...

You have to love these guys. It turns out that young, fit athletes started dropping dead from heart attacks in 2021 because -- it's always been very dangerous to exercise. They took the risk, and it finally caught up with them. Nothing to do with any injections they all recieved at that time, that no one had ever received before. Nope. Uh-uh. Exercise bad. Jab good!

Strokes too. People young enough that their risk of stroke is minimal have always been at high risk of strokes. We just never noticed until they got vaccinated. It's -- what is it? Oh, yeah! Science!

Yancey Ward said...

Anybody who does weight training understands that you can overwork a muscle so badly that it tears eventually. I imagine most people who run or do other cardiovacular exercise don't overwork the heart to the extent they damage it. Those that damage it are probably in that far right tail who do lots of marathons or ultra marathons.

rehajm said...

I fit the profile but I got LBBB which may or not be Afib depending on who you talk to. The defibrillator doesn’t save people with LBBB but some cardiologists push it anyways…

…a point of gee wiz conversation with mine tomorrow this is…

rhhardin said...

Why is too much exercise bad? Because it's too much.

MikeD said...

Old & slow's comment pretty much encapsulates the facts. I was never a "runner" but did go thru multi-year gym rat sessions. On turning 60 I acquired a canine companion, so switched to off road foothill trail hiking. (Yeah, I lived alone,tnx to quack Kaiser urologist who ripped out healthy prostate) Anyway, also diagnosed with COPD at time so watched blood oxy level. Ignored heartrate monitor's 120-140 BTM's. Anyway, couple of years ago had a pre-surgery EKG which primary Dr. sent to cardio Dr. for verification. Cardio said it looked to be transplant donation quality. I was 78 yo then.

Krumhorn said...

Then I guess I'm good.

- Krumhorn

wild chicken said...

I used to do a lot of long distance bike riding and after a few years felt like I was tearing myself down.

Of course the popular bias is All Exercise Good but it's easy to get obsessive and push way too hard.

Trouble is, when you let up on the gas you decondition quickly.

gilbar said...

i just got back from my 3rd walk this week; they're about an hour to an hour 15min each.
There's some hills, but i'm just walking.. NOT running.
IF Running is as hard on your heart as it is on your knees.. You're STUPID to run..
IF Running is as hard on your knees as it is on your knees.. You're STUPID to run..

My 67 year old brother-inlaw was mister "Let's Go Running!!"..
Now that he's got titanium knees (and a hip); he barely walks.. you do the math

gilbar said...

if you "Love Running", you 'love it' because of the endorphins it makes your body produce..
Any Clues, WHY running makes your body produce endorphins? I'll give you a hint, they are pain killers.

Dave said...

The truth is, few of us have the mental discipline to exercise hard enough to hurt ourselves.

WK said...

I have never seen a world class marathon runner that at age 28 looked like they were less than 45 years old.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

The article is a waste.
It states that some athletes have increased risk of A fib.
A fib is associated with an increased risk of stroke, and with decreased cardiac output.
What the article did not say is if these deleterious effects result in a net decrease in quality or quantity of life, when accounting for the positive effects of the associated exercise.
If the exercise program results in 5 extra years of life, but the A fib takes away 2 of them on average, you're better off exercising. If it remove 7 years on average, hit the couch.
There is no shame in dying with A fib.

rcocean said...

I guees now, I'll never run that marathon, I was never going to do.

Christopher said...

Like one or two others so far, I thought it was well-established that extremely long endurance events aren't good for long-term health.

My thing is cycling. I completed a Century since it was a life-long goal, but didn't do another and it's probably eight years now. Mayyyybe I have one more in me. Half-centuries are more to my taste and not terribly difficult on a bike.

Probably the best bike-exercise I get are the five-mile interval sprints I do around my neighborhood, much of which I can get some pretty good speed going. Can realy get your heart and lungs working but not abusive over so short a time.

Michael said...

Years of long distance running and a few marathons later I developed (?) AFIB. Two ablations later and I am back. Slow. But back.

MartyH said...

Is this an omen? I’m doing a 200 mile bike ride Saturday and starting with four others who are half my age.

As for the health consequences, I think I’d prefer my body give out before my brain does.

Biotrekker said...

It's "atria". The plural of atrium is atria. It's the same for datum and data. It's not difficult to get this right. For years now, journals and newspapers have written "the data is" this or that, but data "are" -- plural. It's a small point, but it's emblematic of today's culture of intellectual laziness and inattention to detail.

Josephbleau said...

Health care advice changes over time, next they will say it’s not helpful to eat 500grams of white flour everyday.

Hubert the Infant said...

My guding principle when it comes to stuff like this is that your lifestyle should be consistent with how humans sevolved. For instance, living at 68 degress 24/7 with artificial light so that it is bright 16 or 17 hours per day cannot be good for you. The same goes for eating food with, say, 2000 calories day after day. Humans evolved to expect feast or famine, so you should vary your caloric input.

As far as running long distances, I thought that being able to do that was supposed to be one of the great evolutionary advances early humans made. That was how they ran down prey that were much faster but lacked humans' cario-vascular endurance. Given that, does it make any sense that running long distances can be bad for you if you have trained appropriately? Further, given how many overweight and obese people seem to walk for exercise, I cannot help but doubt that it is a good replacement for vigorous exercise.

Joe Bar said...

I have atrial fibrillation, and I used to run a lot. Am I considered a "long time endurance athlete" now?

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

I had a colleague back in the 80's who was an avid runner. His theory was that if we are given at birth a preset number of heartbeats and when that number is reached we die, so running is good because it lowers the heartrate. For some reason he dismissed the heartbeats he was spending like mad while running.

He also said that statistically, people like me who only sleep five hours a day die four years sooner than folks getting eight hours. I pointed out that three and a half hours a day translates to on a day per week or about four days per month. Or about month every year. If I live to the age of 70 that's 70 extra months, (nearly six years) that I was awake for life and he wasn't. On balance, I'll end up with two more years of experiencing life than he will.

Josephbleau said...

"I think I’d prefer my body give out before my brain does."

It's good that we don't have a choice, in the short term, I don't want my pristine brain to be inside a pain racked broken body. That was my mother's fate.

The best I have heard is Dr. Joseph Campbell saying that when you get old the radio stops, and the fenders come off, the tires go flat, and after a while on the road you are flying out there with no body left at all.

gilbar said...

"they say", that each hour you spend running, increases your lifespan by one hour.
Sounds like a Lose Lose situation