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Does running marathons cause heart damage?

Posted Dec 09 2011 1:28pm

John Elder of Egoscue Nashville wrote a blog post about the topic:

“Is marathon running really good for you? I believe it is, but of course,  new research is telling us differentlyA recent study shows that high-endurance activity causes scarring in the right ventricle of the heart. While there’s no doubt that they uncovered evidence to support their case, I don’t think we can simply classify running as bad for us.

While the study makes us jump to worst-case scenario and may scare the living daylights out of some of you, let’s think about our ancestors for a minute. Do you think that our relatives who were hunters and gathers in the truest sense of the word, could afford to not run all day? If they weren’t able to run long distances, tracking their prey, over long periods of time…they’d have starved, and you and I might not be here today.

What I think the researchers are seeing in their study are a bunch of runners whose thoracic spines are too flexed (think “turtle shell,” when looking at one’s side view).”

To learn why thoracic flexion might be the real underlying problem read John Elders entire article: Heart Damage from Marathons

Marathon runners such as Paula Radcliffe could be at risk of permanent heart damage


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