Wall Street Journal article says running 20+ mpw is detrimental to one's health

I must confess that I don't look at muscle-bound weight lifters and think to myself "now THERE is the paragon of health and fitness." Obviously, being skinny is not evidence of health, but neither are muscles bulging behind your ears.

chrisbikeman wrote:

Neil Armstrong's famous quote: "I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I'm damned if I'm going to use up mine running up and down a street."

Interesting...

Average, non-runner: 70bpm = 100,800beats per day

Runner averaging 1 hr of running per day: 1 hr @ 160bpm + 23 hours at 50bpm = 78,600 beats per day

I'm glad I run 30+

The guy who wrote this should get together with perennial obesity-dangers-denialist Paul Campos and collaborate on a comprehensive junk-science-based book or documentary extolling the various proven health benefits of running no fewer than 5 miles a week but no more than 10, and detailing the bonus health points you get if you're careful to be pudgy but not morbidly obese.

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/01/07/unscience/

Kudos to Dr. Paul Thompson of Hartford Hospital for calling out the bullshit in this article

After reading three pages of posts, I finally READ the WSJ article. Here's my take. Exercise confers phenomenal health benefits. It's a shame that doctors look at studies like this and say, "Too much exercise is bad for you." Instead, they should say, "What should we be doing to reduce/eliminate this side effect of exercise.

In 1994, I think, I heard Dr. Kenneth Cooper speak on free radicals and cancer in runners. Running 12 miles/week conferred very significant reduction in cancer risk. At that point, the trend began to turn up. At 30+ miles/week, risk was higher than at 12, but still a lot lower than sedentary individuals. His suggestion was to take vitamins (C, E, selenium, CoQ-10, etc) to boost the immune system.

Fast forward to 2000, I went to an anti-aging clinic. After reviewing my blood work, the doctor said that I was functionally much younger than my biogical age, but I was aging at the the rate of a 75-year-old! My system was literally flooded with free radicals. What was I doing, he wanted to know. I had run a hard 14 miler the day before and I forgot to take my daily vitamins. That made an impression on me. Now I take about a dozen vitamins/day. It might not prevent heart disease, but it can't hurt.

KMB wrote:

The guy who wrote this should get together with perennial obesity-dangers-denialist Paul Campos and collaborate on a comprehensive junk-science-based book or documentary extolling the various proven health benefits of running no fewer than 5 miles a week but no more than 10, and detailing the bonus health points you get if you're careful to be pudgy but not morbidly obese.

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/01/07/unscience/

ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL

Xfitguy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

This is not news to WELL INFORMED people. Look at all the marathon runners, does this look healthy to you:

http://news.adventist.org/images/uploads/images/abel-running-web.jpg

They have virtually no arms, no leg muscles, no nottin. They have slogged every single last muscle out of their body.

If you want to be fit and healthy, go to the GYM. Lift heavy, lift often, eat a lot of protein.

Then, you can look like this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_icAoiyE7Uk/UADRm6iH6dI/AAAAAAAAEps/tRvyDIr_vd0/s1600/Rich_Froning_CrossFit_Games_2012.JPG

Trick question: which of the individuals might be healthier? If you can't answer that question, ask your wife.

Trick Question: Which of these people are making more $$$$$$ and has an Olympic medal? If you can't answer that question, maybe you should go get a life.

who give a $hit

hahah hahaha wrote:

Kudos to Dr. Paul Thompson of Hartford Hospital for calling out the bullshit in this article

Oh, but didn't you read closely? Thompson can't comment intelligently on this because he's one of them!

"The guys advancing the hypothesis that you can get too much exercise are manipulating the data," said Paul Thompson, a former elite marathoner and nationally renowned sports cardiologist at Hartford Hospital. "They have an agenda."

Sports cardiologist James O'Keefe, an author of the Heart paper, counters that Dr. Thompson is an exercise addict. "He, like many chronic exercise addicts, is the one with an agenda," said Dr. O'Keefe, a sports cardiologist at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. "My 'agenda' is my patients."

Glad to see Dr O'Keefe avoiding the ad hominem tactic and defending his findings on a rational basis. I'm imagining this exchange:

Ezekiel Six-Pack, a Houston-based psychiatrist who has often appeared on CNN, and his colleagues recently published a paper turning conventional wisdom on its head: Attractive single people, Six-Pack asserts, have a much poor chance getting laid after a night out than fat ugly people who haven't showered in two weeks.

John Doe, Ph.D., a nationally acclaimed psychologist at Stanford University's School of Applied Thinking, disputes Dr. Six-Pack's conclusions. "If you look at the methodology," says Doe, "it's clear that Dr. Six-Pack went into this 'study' with a pre-determined conclusion and went hunting for evidence to support it. Anyone with a basic knowledge of biostatistics can pull that off."

"That guy's a douchebag," counters Six-Pack, rooting through the thick thatch of shit-encrusted hair ringing his anus and retrieving a few choice dingleberries, which he pauses to examine before shoveling them into his mouth. "He sounds like every other pretty-boy who's afraid of competition from those he perceives as lesser specimens."

Obviously a careful look at O'Keefe's work would be necessary to determine whether Dr. Thompson is in fact right, but 99 times out of 100, when someone makes a "discovery" that contravenes a considerable body of knowledge, he's not a Galileo or an Einstein, he's just a crank.

Then there's Dr. George Sheehan (former chief of cardiology at Riverview in Red Bank, NJ): Marathon PB of 3:00 @ 60 yrs. old.