February 20, 2015 – Strenuous Exercise and Your Heart

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Anchor lead: Does strenuous exercise hurt the heart? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Do you think running a 9 minute mile is fast?  A recent study looking at the longevity impact of running that fast for four or more hours each week compared to those who ran less or more slowly as well as folks who were sedentary came to a surprising conclusion: sedentary people and those who ran fast died younger than the more modest jogging group.  Micheal Blaha, a preventive cardiology expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Blaha: There is a signal in multiple research studies now that heavy exercisers might put some extra wear and tear on their heart, but this is still controversial. And still our general message is regular exercise most days of the week is very healthy.  Extreme exercise many of the days of the week can be harmful and is probably better traded in for a mixture of activities such as jogging, walking, and weight training, and not just heavy exercise most days of the week.   :27

So choose variety, Blaha concludes.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.