Does running too much increase the risk of having heart diseases ?

Going to cardiologists and physical therapists causes heart diseases.

Being healthy, active, and running more helps people to live longer, as long as you stay away from those butchers.

But according to some studies they're right, running too much can cause scarring in the heart as well as cardiac arrests... and while it's still uncommon, young and healthy people die while running

If you get sufficiently scared soon enough, you are less likely to get scarred.

“as long as you stay away from those butchers.”

Arent you thinking about heart surgeons?

Besides I’d rather trust the views of a cardiologist over the views of someone from the running media or your typical running addict on letsrun…far less likely to hear an emotionally biased view from the cardiologist.

And looking at it logically…IF a massive amount of exercise / cardio / running was nothing but beneficial, then what reason would a cardiologist have to question that or have reservations? It doesn’t make sense.

When the first reports / studies / opinions appeared, voicing the concerns over the connection of too much cardio / running to heart issues, the running / sports media were all over it, trying to discredit what had been stated.

No real surprise there…there were a lot of people’s livelihoods at stake. Many companies and individuals have their income tied to running and exercise. There are also many people who are too emotionally attached to the activity. They practically judge their self worth as a person based upon their success at their chosen “hobby”.

Obviously studies questioning the value of too much running / cardio would certainly ruffle a few feathers.

No but eating meat dairy and eggs do!

I'm a European cardiologist (not posting under my usual user name) and I run 30 mpw @ age 49.

Don't worry too much about it.

Yes your risk of afib (atria fibrillation) is higher, but your risk of dying is lower.

bjsm.bmj.com

Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is the more the better? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To investigate the association of running participation and the dose of running with the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Journal artic...

Link:bjsm.bmj.com/content/54/15/898

or

jamanetwork.com

Association of Leisure Time Physical Activity Types and Risk of Mortality

This cohort study uses data from the National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study to examine whether participation in equivalent amounts of physical activity (7.5 to

Link:jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkop...

The sweet spot in terms of health and longevity is probably running between 2.5 and 5 hours per week.

Running > 5 hours per week is definitely better than being a couch potato, but may be slightly less beneficial than moderate running.

Your 30 mpw is the maximum amount recommended ( as being acceptable) by cardiologists James O’Keefe and Carl Lavie, who are chief proponents of the idea that too much cardio work could be problematic.

So your weekly mileage corresponds to the upper end of their recommendations.

I don't think Joe Average should be running a lot of mileage in extreme heat n humidity for many weeks.

He's gonna be losing a huge amount of weight in sweat every day and then having to put all that weight back on in the afternoon/evening, day after day.

I thinks that's just way too much strain on the cardiovascular system. But I don't have a solution because it's not like millions of Americans can avoid the summer heat unless someone builds and markets a cheap version of an environmental chamber that anyone could use in their own home.

IIRC, most of the "risks" were found after adjusting for blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. But all of these things are improved by running, so you shouldn't really be adjusting for them. Arterial calcification might be higher in high mileage runners, but again health outcomes are better.

Another one of O'Keefe's studies had way too few participants in the high mileage group, so when one died it skewed the outcome. The a-fib links seems to be real though.

Just take your 6th booster and your free donut, stay on the couch and you’ll be fine.

“The a-fib links seems to be real though.”

So your last sentence points to the fact that although the risks are specific to one particular issue, they are still there. Therefore, anyone using cardio for health reasons alone, or primarily, should take the dose response issue and the idea of minimum effective dose, seriously.

If exercise is medicine, as we are often told, then overdosing is just as detrimental, if not more so than under dosing.

Let’s not forget, despite the OP’s focus on the recommendations of recent studies, that THE original concerns about too much cardio were voiced by THE man who kickstarted the running boom.

Dr Kenneth Cooper who wrote the book “Aerobics”, which got many people running in the first place, later went on to severely modify his views and was quoted as stating that if you ran for more than FIFTEEN miles per week, then you were doing so for reasons other than your health.

Until he switched to walking and cycling Dr Cooper practiced what he preached and only ran two to three miles a day, about five days a week. He cycled and walked the equivalent when he switched. He also added, and recommended a couple of weight training sessions a week. He’s still going strong the last time I heard.

Have people forgotten about this?

One size does not fit all.

“One size does not fit all.”

Meaning?

If you mean that some people can tolerate and benefit from more exercise than others…then you are correct. I’m not arguing with that.

However the problem is most people never know where the breaking point is, until it’s too late. Whether it’s heart or orthopaedic/ injury issues, trainees push the limits and only then find out where their limits are once issues happen.

I think it depends on whether the person you are talking about can handle 30 mpw. Common sense ain't so common. I once went the doctor and he told me to quit drinking water! He said it was bad for me. Ha Ha.

Find different doctors. Not many know much anyway. (My grandfather was a pioneer in neurosurgery.)

Ignore all the crap you read about and just run as you feel, speed, distance all of it. I started running because I had heart disease; running appeared to be the most efficient exercise therapy. Forty five miles per week in high school; 90 mpw in college, 30 mpw now at age 71. Do not be afraid to enjoy running.

If that's your only reason to run, sure-- though the number of people running more than ~30mpw who aren't competitive runners is vanishingly small.

But the risks don't scale in an especially frightening way, and again this doesn't show up in mortality rates, so it's not something you should go around scaring competitive runners about IMO.