Last week the New England Journal of Medicine published a study on cardiac arrests and heart attacks for marathoners and half-marathoners. The results were heartening, heart attack risks are low.
Cardiac arrest and heart attack rates were lower in long-distance events than for college sports and triathlons, and comparable to those of healthy joggers and recreational exercisers.
The risk of heart attack in a marathon is 1.01 per 100,000 people. The death risk is .63 per 100,000. The risk is higher for men than women, is higher for marathons than half marathons, and is highest in the last fourth of the race. They are finding heart attacks are due to "demand ischemia" and some medical experts are now recommending long-distance racers take it easy the last part of the race rather than doing that final all-out sprint to the finish.
The biggest cause of death found on autopsy was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a pre-existing genetic condition.
Hundreds of other studies have shown that people who regularly do aerobic exercise have lower heart attack and death risks than those who do not exercise. Most experts recommend at least 150 minutes/week of moderate aerobic exercise for all of us.
My takeaway...keep on exercising, and see your Doctor to discover if you have any pre-existing medical conditions.
(source: Runnersworld.com, Peak Performance, Heart attack risk "low" in distance races.)
Looking together in the same direction.
Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment