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Marathon Runners Have Higher Heart Risks

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 08:00 CDT

New research found older marathon runners may have an increased chance of suffering a heart attack.

Researchers found in a study of male marathoners age 50 and up the runners were as likely as other men their age to have calcium buildup in their heart arteries.

When compared with men who had a similar amount of heart disease risk factors, marathoners actually tended to have more calcium in their arteries.

Calcium is a component of artery-clogging plaques, and predicts a greater risk of suffering a heart attack.

Regular exercise is a heart-healthy habit, so it’s not clear why marathoners would have calcium scores similar to those of other men their age.

In general, marathoners were found to have fewer traditional risk factors for heart disease; they weighed less, had lower "bad" LDL cholesterol, higher "good" HDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

This could mean that marathon running itself contributes to calcium buildup in some, according to study leader Dr. Stefan Mohlenkamp, of the West-German Heart Center Essen.

"Based on published data on the benefits of regular exercise, this possibility seems unlikely," he said.

Mohlenkamp said the answer may be found in the former unhealthy lifestyles of some of the runners in his study. Many, he noted, had only started serious, competitive running in their 40s, and half were former smokers.

Mohlenkamp noted that as a general rule, running is a good thing. "You live longer, you live better," he said. "Our study does not question at all the proven benefits of regular exercise."

The study is published in the European Heart Journal.

Researchers recruited 108 apparently healthy male marathoners age 50 and older. They calculated each man's Framingham Risk Score -- a standard measure that doctors use to estimate a person's risk of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. It is based on age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking habits.

The researchers also used CT scans to calculate each runner's coronary calcium score, and then compared the marathoners with a group of men who had taken part in another study.

Overall, 13 percent of the marathoners had a calcium score above 400, which indicates a large of amount of plaque in the arteries.

Twenty-three percent had scores showing moderate plaque buildup. Those rates were nearly identical to those of the comparison group.

Mohlenkamp said doctors should get a detailed risk factor history for patients, and check whether the patient has ever had high blood pressure or has ever been overweight.

Mohlenkamp said that when it comes to judging whether it's safe for an older adult to exercise at such levels, it is "prudent" to not rely on their current risk factors alone.

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On the Net:

• European Heart Journal

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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