A new study, published online June 4 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, suggests, however, that this “excessive endurance exercise” might actually be putting people at risk for permanent heart damage…
http://news.yahoo.com/ultra-marathons-might-ultra-bad-heart-040100199.html
did anybody ever think ultra marathons were NOT bad for you?
the point of those is to be insane, same as ironman, not to be healthy.
I love how the general press takes articles they don’t really grasp, and then post them with sensationalistic titles…
Here’s what’s bad for you: living a boring “safe” life, and then lying on your death bed thinking, “I wish I had…”
.
This is just bad reporting. I wish people reporting on current research actually knew what they were talking about
and had some sense of ethics (bringing caballo blanco in this discussion is just to scare people…plain stupid).
There are many cardiac modifications that occur when working out. Some are normal adaptations. Like elevated CPKs
(which the article aludes to a couple of times). Just bad reporting. On par with the chocolate makes you lose weight of the
New York Times a few weeks ago.
People that do Ultra endurance events don’t do them to be healthy. Ironically they almost usually have to be healthy to be able to complete them.
I don’t do Ultras but run 3-4 marathons a year, plus all the other intermediate distances and I rather live or die this way than live to be 100 years old with a good heart but the other typical issues that come with the age.
Here’s what’s bad for you: living a boring “safe” life, and then lying on your death bed thinking, “I wish I had…”
+1
.
I wonder if heart rate variability monitoring would help with self diagnosis or at least serve as a hint to go to the doctor (not that I can see them doing much).
+2
The last couple years for me have been focused on ultras, Ironman before that so I have a 7 year background in endurance events. Not very good at it but I’m out there 
I had a heart flutter a couple times half way though a trail marathon 2 years ago and freaked out. Went to the Dr, got a full cardiac workup and was told I had the heart of a 15 year old athlete. I was 41 at the time.
I’m not worried about any issues with my heart. As Francois said, bad reporting, focusing one on sensational aspect of the results. As far as why they are done, I’ve always done them to see how far I can push my body because when the zombies invade I want to be able to outrun everyone around me
I’ve run three ultras over the past couple of years and I don’t regret them one bit, even if they have damaged my heart. The feeling you get at the end of something that grueling makes you feel so alive that it’s worth it.
(bringing caballo blanco in this discussion is just to scare people…plain stupid).
By Scientific American no less. You think their writers would have the whole high school level correlation vs. causation thing down by now.
I’ve run three ultras over the past couple of years and I don’t regret them one bit, even if they have damaged my heart. The feeling you get at the end of something that grueling makes you feel so alive that it’s worth it.
The only ultras I regretted are the ones where I DNFed or DNSed.
i would rather damage my heart from running Ultras, than eating doritos,
.
+3
I agree with most of what you’ve said. Like you, I also had 2 heart flutter occurrences (1 in Feb., the other about 3 weeks ago). I wasn’t concerned at all when I had the first one, and went for a long ride on the next day just to check if everything was alright
However, my last episode let me thinking how far (and fast) I can go without things blowing up again, and I might be holding my pace back til I am confident enough…
A lot of other stuff can contribute to an unhealthy heart: stress, nutrition, sleep, genetics, lifestyle… and as it was said, what is the point of living long if you can’t do the things that you enjoy?
A new study, published online June 4 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, suggests, however, that this “excessive endurance exercise” might actually be putting people at risk for permanent heart damage…
http://news.yahoo.com/...heart-040100199.html
Apparently they are lumping in Ironman and marathons as well as ultras into the “excessive endurance exercise” category:
“In one study, approximately 12% of apparently healthy marathon runners showed evidence for patchy myocardial scarring, and the coronary heart disease event rate during a two-year follow up was significantly higher in marathon runners than in controls.”