Marathon running, dwelling upon the health perspective
A recent research conducted by a team of doctors has revealed that running a marathon can significantly damage the heart of athletes. Running for a longer distance causes the segments in the heart to function a little under their capacity, negatively affecting
the usual pattern of blood circulation in the body.
However, there is good news as well. Running strengthens other parts of the heart which reverses the changes within three to four months of time span after the run. The more trained and physically fit a runner would be, the less affected his/her heart would
remain.
These recent findings have underscored the need of proper training for the athletes aimed at covering longer distances. “The findings did not suggest that marathons were harmful for the people and they should avoid them, rather, they stressed upon gradually
building the stamina and to avoid embarking upon impossible distances at once”, said Dr. Eric Larose who happens to be a professor of medicine at University of Laval and a research scholar at the Quebec Foundation for Health Research, Canada.
In order to conduct the study, Dr. Larose along with his colleagues had gathered 20 amateur healthy runners, who belonged to an average age group of 45 years and were planning to run a marathon in coming six to eight weeks.
During the study, fitness of the runners was evaluated with a treadmill, which computed their measure of aerobic endurance and the oxygen consumptions of the body. They called this test VO2 max. The research team also went on to doing the blood tests and
scanning the hearts of the subjects by using MRI prior to the race, immediately after the race and then again after three months.
The investigations revealed changes shortly after the race in the left ventricle, which is considered the main pumping chamber of the heart and which is divided into 17 different segments.
While announcing the results of the study Larose revealed that 53 percent of the segments of the hearts decreased in functioning during the marathon. According to him, the decreased functioning can be due to the inflammation caused by the exertion. He also
found that the neighbouring segments had taken up the slack and compensated for the segments that were not functioning up to the par.
Despite the reportedly reduced functioning, the study found that the heart’s pumping ability was not changed. As a whole the heart was able to pump out enough blood throughout the race.
“The fitter a runner would be, the lesser would be the effect which running would cause upon his left vertical. During the study, only one subject had no segmental dysfunction, and it was the best aerobic endurance measurement. On the contrary, the runners,
who had been less trained and, who had lower VO2 points were found more likely to be dehydrated and suffered greater irritation caused by the heart segments” said Dr. Eric.
As the study was conducted at a small level and with a lower sample, the runners who had been in best health and depicted maximum endurance could score a VO2 max little above 50, which was not bad. Since the study was small, Dr. Larose denied considering
the results as the threshold or ultimate goal.
Irrespective of the VO2 max points, when all the tests and MRIs were repeated upon the athletes after a break of three months, they were back on usual or normal conditions. “However”, Larose interpreted, “it does not mean that it takes three months before
the hearts are recovered”.
Dr. Ori Ben-Yehuda, the director of the coronary care unit claimed that though the research was conducted at a small scale, it was well done. He was of the view that though the findings raise some concerns but they are reassuring as well as even those who
had developed more damage were found absolutely normal after three months.
The bottom line of the study was that if one is in great shape, exercise would bring long term benefits for you and almost negligible term risks. The one thing which was sure from the results was that the more trained an athlete is, the easier it is going
to be for him.
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