Wall Street Journal Article: Too much running

Stress, cortisol and inflammation is a *kitten* when the body is pushed.

The way I read it, it sounds like going from no running to running makes a HUGE impact on your health. But going from running to running a lot more doesn't make the same huge impact. Still an impact. Still better than doing nothing, but if going from 0 to 20 miles a week improves your health X amount, going from 20 miles a week to 40 doesn't improve it twice that amount. Just the law of diminishing returns.

Yes, but not JUST that -- on top of the diminishing returns, you have a slight increase in risk for certain types of cardiac problems. The theory is that there are changes to the anatomy of the heart that happen when you repeatedly push it for prolonged periods. These changes may lead to arrhythmias (and hence heart attacks) and other problems. It's a real concern, but at this point the risk looks pretty small to me - for me this small risk is far outweighed by the tangible benefits I get from distance running.

Here is the original Mayo Clinic review if anyone wants the detailed scoop:
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)00473-9/fulltext

I have BVD; it's a new finding, and we are deciding on treatment. Thanks for posting. I am a runner. You led me to this article which answered a lot of questions for me, and my help you understand the issue better. I'm also starting to figure out why my ankles and knees hurt badly enough after running that I had to give it up after my second pregnancy. I had suspected that in some way my pregnancies led to these symptoms. Now, ten years later, I am on a rx diuretic for edema. My chiro flipped out on me and demanded that I get answers about the cause of my edema! He was right,
; I have BVD and an enlarged left atria!

Will I continue to run competitively? Yes, and I pray that whatever meds the cardiologist puts me on or surgery he recommends will not interfere with it! I have lost 40 lbs from running and have 30 to go. After I meet this goal and pocket a couple of medals, I will consider running only for recreation. :drinker:

http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/85/1/63.full


Physiological changes of the heart in sporting activity

Physical activity is needed by healthy adults to improve and maintain health. It has a beneficial impact on personal fitness, reduces the risk for chronic diseases and disabilities and prevents unhealthy weight gain. In 1995, the American College of Sports Medicine and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention published national guidelines on Physical Activity and Public Health which were recently updated.70 All healthy adults aged 18–65 years need moderate-intensity aerobic (endurance) physical activity for a minimum of 30 min on 5 days each week or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 20 min on 3 days each week. Combinations of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity can be performed. It is interesting to see how the new recommendation emphasizes that physical activity above the recommended minimum amount provides even greater health benefits. It is important to highlight the difference between recreational sports activity and competitive activity in which athletes undertake a hard training programme. A competitive athlete is one who participates in an organized team or individual sport, which requires systematic training and regular competition against others and places a high premium on athletic excellence and achievement.71 Competitive athletes have typically a strong inclination to push themselves to extremely high levels of exertion, often exceeding their native physical limits, sometimes for prolonged periods of time, regardless of other considerations. On the other hand, individuals participating in recreational sports engage in a range of exercise levels from modest to vigorous on either a regular or an inconsistent basis, which do not require systematic training or the pursuit of excellence, and are without the same pressure to excel against others that characterizes competitive sports. The lack of systematic athletic conditioning in the definition of recreational sports is expected to decrease the risk of cardiovascular events.72 In competitive athletes, physiological changes of the heart occur. Long-term athletic training is associated with cardiac morphologic changes, including increased left ventricular cavity dimension, wall thickness and mass, that are commonly described as ‘athlete's heart’.73 Those changes represent a physiological adaptation to increase the efficiency of the heart and vascular system, in part in response to increases in volume and peripheral resistance with intense athletic training. The duration and type of exercise appear to affect the degree and type of cardiac changes that an athlete may experience.

Two main types of sports can be differentiated: endurance or dynamic training (such as long-distance running and swimming) and strength and power training (such as sprinting or weightlifting). In athletes, long-term cardiovascular adaptation to dynamic training produces volume load on the LV through increased cardiac output and increased maximal oxygen uptake. Dynamic exercise (e.g. endurance running) is more likely to finally result in a predominantly increased LV chamber size with a proportional increase in wall mass.

Conversely, strength exercise causes largely a pressure load with little or no increase in oxygen uptake with the result of an increase in LV mass without increasing chamber size.73

A marked increase in aortic root size is recognized in elite strength-trained athletes,74 in all segments (the annulus, sinuses of Valsalva, supra-aortic ridge and ascending aorta), and is most evident when the duration of the training is taken into account.

The transient hypertension due to increased heart rate and cardiac output has been well documented in strength training and is exaggerated during the Valsalva manoeuvre. The blood pressure and cardiac output response during weightlifting can explain an increase in aortic root diameter through a structural reorganization of the aortic wall and consequent morphologic alteration of the aortic root. Aortic regurgitation represents the result of increased aortic root diameter when aortic valve cusps are unable to expand in area, and the degree of cusp overlap is reduced.75,76

An increased left and right ventricular (RV) and left atrial cavity size (and volume), associated with normal systolic and diastolic function, are well recognized in about 50% of trained athletes. Only limited data are available about the RV morphology and function in competitive sporting activity, because its complex shape makes it less suitable to the echocardiographic technique. However, recent studies show that the RV mass is increased in both dynamic and strength exercise, in similarity to the changes of the LV mass. In contrast with the parameter of ventricular mass, the parameters of RV volume seem to be increased in the anaerobic power athletes (strength training) but not in dynamic training (e.g. marathon runners).77,78 However, its significance remains to be determined and needs further clarification, and longitudinal studies on the morphological changes of the RV in professional athletes during training and during deconditioning later in their life need to be performed.

Left atrial remodelling is an additional physiological adaptation frequently present in highly trained athletes, especially in endurance sport, and is largely explained by associated LV cavity enlargement and volume overload. There is no evidence showing that athlete's heart remodelling leads to a long-term disease progression, cardiovascular disability or SCD.79,80 The cardiac remodelling in competitive athletes is reversible with cessation of training.81,82

Athletes usually have a normal cardiovascular examination. The finding of pulse rates as low as 30–40 beats per minute is common, and usually reflects increased vagal tone. Other distinctive findings, such as a slightly displaced apical impulse, an atrial or ventricular gallop and a systolic regurgitant murmur may also be noted.

Electrocardiographic abnormalities such as sinus bradycardia, sinus arrhythmia, atrial or ventricular premature beats, AV blocks, voltage criteria of right/left ventricular hypertrophy, ST elevations or T-wave changes may be seen in up to 40% of competitive athletes. They represent the result of electrophysiological remodelling associated with physical training.83

Because of the electrocardiographic and echocardiographic changes seen in athlete's heart, differentiating these physiological changes from pathological conditions can be relatively difficult. For example, an abnormal ECG or echocardiogram in an athlete may be difficult to distinguish from one seen in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy and myocarditis. Although in most athletes the increase in wall thickness or cavity size remains within normal limits, diagnostic dilemmas arise when the remodelling adaptations mimic pathological conditions. The differential diagnosis between physiological and pathological heart adaptations to exercise has critical implications for dedicated athletes (and their physicians) because cardiovascular disease may represent the basis for disqualification from competitive sports to reduce the risk of sudden death. Furthermore, some athletes with cardiac disease judged to be at high risk may subsequently become candidates for an implantable defibrillator and prophylactic prevention of sudden death.84

Please consider adding me if you can relate to my situation!

Read an interesting article today on the dangers of too much running/aerobic sport:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323330604578145462264024472.html
Discuss?

And I don't even like running...

Fewer trucks to run into.

So I wonder if this study was done by someone sitting at a stop light waiting for a big group of runners in a race to clear out so they could get to the McDonald's down the road.

Not only that it destroys your joints

I run about 10 miles a week at 6mph, im on the cross trainer for about 10 miles and stepper the rest of the time. I like you love to run it makes me feel like I did something worth while at the gym but is a killer on the body.

:huh: :huh: Running does not "destroy your joints".....

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-23/health/hm.running.aging_1_joints-knee-mason?_s=PM:HEALTH

http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/joint-myth?page=single

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134861448/put-those-shoes-on-running-wont-kill-your-knees

it's a myth. Yes, you can injure yourself running (you can injure yourself in the shower....) but it's not hard on your joints (unless you have a pre-exisiting condition that contraindicates running)

I'm generally not a fan of these correlation studies. There are just way too many variables present.

For example, long distance runners and the more elite athletes generally have to consume far higher carbs than most other people. Maybe their cardiovascular issues stemmed from them eating too much crap and thinking they'll be fine cause "they're athletes and healthy"? But this does not necessarily mean it's the actual training and activity that caused this.

It's akin to investigating vehicle crash fatalities and saying "well in 40% of the crashes the radio was on, so the radios must have distracted drivers causing the fatalities. Let's do something about radios".