“We always worry about marathoners who are sort of dropping dead, if you will, and having a heart attack during the marathon,” says Dr. Davinder Jassal as he explains the purpose of his recent study and, simultaneously, gives us our favorite quote of the month.
Jassal (an associate professor of medicine, radiology and physiology at the University of Manitoba) and his colleagues used CT scans and other tests to look at “the extent and severity of cardiac dysfunction after the completion of full marathon running in individuals greater than 50 years of age”—meaning they checked to see how badly aged runners damaged their hearts during a marathon, and how quickly they recovered.
The results (published online in the Journal of Cardiovascular MRI) should calm the loved ones of aged runners. The tests found only transient, reversible dysfunction. The researchers also claim that the “presence of myocardial fibrosis in older marathon athletes is infrequent.”
This news contrasts with other results, which we covered earlier this summer. As noted in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, “chronic training for, and competing in, extreme endurance exercise such as marathons, iron man distance triathlons, and very long distance bicycle races may cause structural changes to the heart and large arteries, leading to myocardial injury.”
Image: Leonardo da Vinci, “Drawing of heart and blood vessels,” via Wikimedia Commons.
