More on Heart Attacks and Endurance Athletes.  

Not to beat a dead horse, but after the interest in yesterdays post, I did a little more digging. I came across this article.

if you run marathons or participate in other forms of exercise which last for three hours or more, your approximate risk of suffering an acute heart attack or sudden cardiac death during - or within 24 hours of - your effort is reported as 1 in 50,000 athletes.

Unlike the previous article I referenced in yesterday’s post, this article describes a similar study conducted by researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, where they studied participants in the 1999 Tyrolean Otztaler Radmarathon, a cycling race which covers 230k, with an altitude change of 5,500m. This study involved 38 experienced, well-trained amateur cyclists who were free of cardiovascular risk factors and without evidence of heart disease. Their conclusion was that younger, fitter athletes, who put more stress on their hearts (via greater training volume and higher racing intensities), were the ones most likely to incur myocardial damage.

The article also references several other studies in other events including Ironman, Ultraman, and marathons. What should be noted here is that for the average amateur endurance athlete, training to finish, or maybe knock a few minutes off a PB, should not be at that much of a risk.

Consider that, research indicates that well-trained endurance athletes have about 40% of their sedentary counterpart's risk of dying from a cardiac problem on a typical day. If strenuous exercise is really so bad for the heart, why aren't endurance athletes keeling over at higher rates?

Have a read, the article is backed up by a list of 13 reference documents. Now that’s how to write an excercise article.

As for me, I think I’ll continue training and take my chances. I kinda like the odds.