Running for long distances at a fast pace may put older patients at the same level of cardiac health as those who don’t run at all, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Excessive wear and tear on the heart being cited more and more by doctors who see extreme athletes with no mortality gains. For example, those who run faster than 8 miles per hour had gain in mortality, in contrast with those who ran at a slower rate and had significant gains.
In a study involving 52,600 people followed for three decades, the runners in the group had a 19% lower death rate than nonrunners, according to the Heart editorial. But among the running cohort, those who ran a lot—more than 20 to 25 miles a week—lost that mortality advantage.
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Those two studies—presented at recent medical conferences—follow the publication in recent months and years of several other articles finding cardiac abnormalities in extreme athletes, including coronary artery calcification of a degree typically found in the utterly sedentary.
Dallas’ own Kenneth Cooper, who was quoted in the article, said that people who run more than 15 miles per week are doing so for reasons other than health, and he believes exercise this extreme at a later age may make people more susceptible to cancer.
For die-hard runners the WSJ suggests not running faster than an eight-minute mile and keeping that mileage to under 20 a week.
Source:
http://healthcare.dmagazine.com/2012/11/29/excessive-exercise-may-have-no-health-benefits-long-term/