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Jog on! Endurance exercise may damage athletes’ hearts
09 December 2011
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Trained athletes taking part in endurance races, such as marathons or triathlons, may be at risk of damaging their heart, according to research published in the European Heart Journal.
Researchers tested the hearts of 40 endurance athletes before, immediately after and six to 11 days after they took part in endurance races of various distances. They used two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) scans of their hearts, MRI scans and blood tests to look for signs of stress and scarring.
The researchers found that immediately after racing, parts of the athletes’ hearts appeared damaged, specifically the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs to be oxygenated, whilst the left ventricle pumps oxygenated blood around the body. Immediately after the race, the right ventricle in the athletes’ hearts was larger than before the race. This may make it more difficult for the heart to pump blood from the right ventricular chamber to the lungs. However, after one week, the right ventricle had recovered and returned to its normal size. The same changes were not seen in the left ventricle; it remained the same size.
The researchers also found that the longer the race, the greater the damage to the heart. Five athletes taking part in the longest race, an Ironman triathlon, had more permanent scarring to the right ventricle.
Dr Virginia Warren, Assistant Medical Director for Bupa, commented: “These findings apply to highly-trained athletes in the top 25 percent of their field; their relevance to ‘ordinary’ recreational runners remains unclear.
“All exercise causes a certain amount of damage to our bodies. For example, when we go for a run, our leg muscles go through a process of break down and repair, which ultimately makes us stronger and fitter. The heart is also a muscle, so this could explain what is happening to it during these long races and why, after 11 days, it had returned to normal. It seems inevitable that doing extreme exercise over a long period of time (for example, up to 10 hours in the case of endurance triathlons) will cause more damage than is usual.
“Also, from the findings of this study, it’s difficult to know if any of the heart damage found is long lasting – the athletes were only studied for a three-to four-week period. In order to fully understand the long-term effects of endurance exercise, the athletes would need to be followed up throughout their sporting careers.
“The health benefits of exercise are well known and well proven. This piece of research shouldn’t put anybody off exercising or training for an event, such as a marathon or triathlon.”
The athletes included in the study all trained for at least 10 hours each week, had no previous heart complaints and had finished in the top 25 percent of the field in a recent endurance event.
Key facts
- Making changes to your lifestyle is the easiest way to look after your heart. Giving up smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation and eating a healthy, balanced diet help to keep your heart in good shape.
- Performing regular exercise at both moderate and vigorous intensities is one of the best things you can do for your heart.
- The Department of Health recommends that the healthy level of physical activity is 150 minutes (two and a half hours) of moderate exercise over a week in bouts of 10 minutes or more.
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Read the study
La Gerche A, Burns A, Mooney D, et al. Exercise-induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodelling in endurance athletes. European Heart Journal 2011; online 6 December 2011. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr397
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