Exercise and Sudden Death

Exercise and Sudden Death

                  

We exercise to prolong life and to remain fit. Now and then we hear of football players who die on the fields.These are young professionals who train hard and yet they die suddenly on the field.

There is yet another group of middle aged men who train for marathons or lift weights. Frederick Montz, David Nagey, or Jeffrey Williams, three brilliant physicians at Johns Hopkins University who died while running. The oldest of the three was 51.

One of the things on my bucket list was to run a marathon which I trained and did when I was 50 years of age. I ran 2 others before my wife put an end to it by saying it was going to kill me one of these days.

Thomas Bassler, M.D., went so far as to say that anyone who could finish a marathon in less than 4 hours could not have serious heart problems. He conducted a study on 14 marathoners who had died of cardiovascular disease, and concluded that all were malnourished.

Marathon runners are fit guys who have to exercise regularly if they need to complete in 4 hours. But now no one believes that endurance training confers immunity.

"I think the risk is inescapable, and it's bigger than we're letting on," says Paul Thompson, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and a researcher who studies sudden death and exercise.

Dr. Thompson's studies showed that 10 percent of the heart attacks treated were exercise related. "Those heart attacks tend to be in people who aren't fit," he says. "But that doesn't mean that's the only group that gets it, unfortunately. There are these very fit guys who go out for a run and drop dead

According to an often-cited 1982 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine:

·         One death per 17,000 men who exercise vigorously 1 to 19 minutes a week

·         One death per 23,000 men who exercise vigorously 20 to 139 minutes a week

·         One death per 13,000 men who exercise vigorously 140 or more minutes a week

·         Regular exercise reduces the risk of sudden death in persons with latent coronary artery disease; but increases the risk of sudden death during exercise for those with heart disease that predisposes to sudden death

Heart diseases  with exercise associated sudden death are coronary artery disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Less common cardiac disorders leading to sudden death in athletes include anomalous origin of the coronary arteries, aortic rupture associated with Marfan's syndrome, myocarditis, mitral valve prolapse and various arrhythmias.

"The person who's at greatest risk of an exercise death is the person with known or hidden coronary artery disease who is habitually sedentary all year round," says Franklin.

You don't need to turn into a marathoner.But you should work out frequently; many studies have shown that the overall amount of time you spend up and moving matters is worth it.

Some endurance exercise is fine, if you like it. Strength training is probably more than fine ; it specifically prepares your body for the shock of sudden, strenuous exertion which is most likely to kill you if your body isn't ready for it.

But any time you exercise strenuously, on the road or in the squat rack, you're taking on a small risk of a big problem. "It's like investing in the stock market," says Dr. Thompson. "You're putting your money down, looking for a long-term gain. But you could put your money in WorldCom and lose it all. There's a risk to everything."