List of former elite runners who died of heart attacks

Maybe not elite, but John Hadd, and likely Micah True.

Based on the original post, I am certain that your analysis is going to suffer from a sort of reverse survivorship bias (look this up).

You need to:

1. define a baseline group of people (e.g. every American runner who broke 2:20 between 1970 and 1975 in one of the following marathons)

2. track down every one of these runners and find out how many died of heart attacks.

You could then compute the average rate of heart related deaths and compare this to the average rate of heart related deaths for the population of people who were the same sex and age as these individuals.

While not a causal study, it would at least be possible to interpret.

Best of luck.

what's interesting is all the older people running now

how will they fair ?

You see open races with no one under 40

Was a cause of death ever established for David Kimani?

I haven't had a chance to review it yet, but this article has been getting a lot of attention in the last week or two:

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196

(12)00473-9/fulltext

I think that runners need to be open to the possibility that the science in this area may not be as favorable to the sport as many of us would like to believe.

Ya but Bekele's wife probably had blood like molasses when she died. That's what EPO will do to you. Note that Bekele's times dropped significantly after the passing of his wife, as if he decided that EPO was too dangerous to continue with.

Glenn Cunningham. Of course he was 78 at the time.

eepster wrote:

Ya but Bekele's wife probably had blood like molasses when she died. That's what EPO will do to you. Note that Bekele's times dropped significantly after the passing of his wife, as if he decided that EPO was too dangerous to continue with.

Bekele set the record after his fiance died...

Studies in the area are further confounded by tons of variables not directly related to running.

For example, there is an elevated prevalence of disordered eating habits among endurance athletes. Disordered eating habits can lead to death. Thus, studies which don't rigorously adjust for confounding variables may wrongly attribute excess deaths in endurance athletes to exercise, when in reality other factors, such as disordered eating, are the causative agents.

kang6789 wrote:

For example, there is an elevated prevalence of disordered eating habits among endurance athletes.

Could you elaborate on that?

Kenneth Cooper, Antioxidant Revolution, understoof the problem of too much over 15 yesrs ago.

Old Miler wrote:

Brian Maxwell, Power Bar founder, Canadian Olympian, third-ranked marathoner in the world in 1977.

Maxwell had a heart defect -- bicuspid aortic valve -- was told he needed surgery and not to run but he put off surgery and ran anyway, i.e., he died needlessly.

Lyndon LaRouche wrote:

Vladimir Kuts

I heard that he was over 300 lbs. when he died.

Stinky McCheesefart wrote:

Maxwell had a heart defect -- bicuspid aortic valve -- was told he needed surgery and not to run but he put off surgery and ran anyway, i.e., he died needlessly.

My best friend and long time running partner was told the same thing, had the surgery, and was dead 3 months later.

Lyndon LaRouche wrote:

Vladimir Kuts

lane 8 wrote:

I heard that he was over 300 lbs. when he died.

Kuts died from being a glutton.

Ron Clarke had major heart problems, as result of his terrible diet.

J.R. wrote:

Ron Clarke had major heart problems, as result of his terrible diet.

I've heard that he damaged it when he ran until he passed out at Mexico City.

Imagine, runners dying of the leading cause of death in the US. Shocking.

record holder wrote:

Based on the original post, I am certain that your analysis is going to suffer from a sort of reverse survivorship bias (look this up).

You need to:

1. define a baseline group of people (e.g. every American runner who broke 2:20 between 1970 and 1975 in one of the following marathons)

2. track down every one of these runners and find out how many died of heart attacks.

You could then compute the average rate of heart related deaths and compare this to the average rate of heart related deaths for the population of people who were the same sex and age as these individuals.

While not a causal study, it would at least be possible to interpret.

Best of luck.

Even if he were able to do as you suggest he would still need to control for environmental factors (lifestyle, diet, etc.) and genetic predispositions.

The OP does raise an interesting and important question for serious runners. While there is a mountain of evidence showing that moderate exercise has measurable benefits on health and longevity, at what level of intensity or duration are there diminishing returns - or even long-term harmful effects.

I didn't get that out of your post but if that's what you meant, cool. I know a lot of non runners who drink, eat too much sugar and have stressful lives and then tell me every time a runner dies I'm in danger. Antioxidants and a healthy lifestyle are a good idea for sure. Also agree that at some point we are no longer running for health and are running running regardless of the health benefits. That does not mean I believe it is dangerous though.

Sagarin wrote:

Is this essentially what I said? I didn't blame anything on running, other than "excessive" running probably does promote a greater degree of reactive oxygen species damage and inflammation on top of all the other crap we throw at our bodies. As such, I would eat copious quantities of quality food. Running to stay in shape and competitive running are two different birds, the former promoting wellness and longevity.