t’s one of the more puzzling ironies of exercise — tragic news of people dying during or after completing a marathon. In 2009, four runners died during half-marathons in San Jose, Cal. and Detroit, and last year, two runners died at the Philadelphia Marathon, one at the finish line and another about a quarter-mile from completing the race, all from apparent sudden heart attacks.
Isn’t running supposed to improve your fitness and lower your risk of succumbing to cardiac arrest?
In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers explain the paradox of why a seemingly high number of marathoners have heart attacks. They analyzed heart attacks among 10.9 million racers running either half-marathons or marathons between 2000 and 2010, and found that such long-distance races actually did not lead to an increased risk of heart attack. In fact, the rate was relatively low, and even lower than the risk of having a heart attack and dying while participating in college sports, a triathlon, or even jogging. Of the 10.9 million marathon racers, 59 had cardiac arrest either during or in the hour after their long-distance run and 42 died. That’s a death rate of 1 per 259,000 participants, compared to 1 death per 52,630 participants in triathlons.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/12/running-marathons-wont-kill-you/#ixzz1jM9xcL9o
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