Does “Cardio” Cause Heart Disease?

So, I just want to make sure I didn’t miss a major point here. Marathoners subject themselves (their hearts?) to some form of “shear stress” which causes damage to the heart muscle resulting in dead tissue somewhere, either classifiable as a “Classic” or “Non-classic” heart attack.

Furthermore there is data suggesting that runners of multiple marathons seem to fair more poorly in their heart health.

This sounds like a damnation of running marathons. And that’s fine. It also seems to suggest in the commentary at the end that “Cardio” in general is non-beneficial. I’d like to probe more into this point. “Cardio” is a generalized term for stress on the heart. Under stress, some part of a population will have “early life failures”, particularly if they have a certain class of latent heart defect. Presumably these fail counts will decrease over time. And others will have late life defects, or wear-out and these will increase over time. I am assuming that running marathons causes a “wear-out” mode of failure. Shouldn’t there be some intermediate stress level that the majority of a population could sustain for a lifetime without heart damage? And furthermore, could it not provide some measure of benefit in terms of increased capacity to do fun things?

I just want to make sure that when I get on that Stairmaster to train for my next big hike that I’m not putting my family at risk. Where is the sweet spot? And don’t just say Fusion!

Thanks for the article, DK. As always, you make me think about stuff….

Omar -

Of course Fusion is the sweet spot!

Yes, you got the main points. Shear stress seems to occur in marathon level running and in particular in people who run a lot of them but obviously not all people who run marathons will have this happen. But it appears to be a significant risk. And one of the other reasons marathon running is risky for your heart is elevated systemic inflammation.

One of the problems is that the term “cardio” means, for most people, a sustained, lower level intensity, long duration, repetitive motion activity such as cycling, running, elliptical, etc. But ANY exercise that stresses the heart could be called “cardio” including resistive training. I don’t think the author was condemning things like a stair master unless you’re doing it for a couple of hours at a time several days per week. I think you’re ok, and if fact if you have joint disease it’s necessary, for 30-45 minutes of a repetitive motion activity like a stair master.

I came away with another point and that’s balance. The Greeks were right. A blend of activity of different variety is what, at least from an evolutionary view, our bodies are used to and built for. So, some resistive exercise, some steady state endurance (what everyone else calls “cardio”), some balance, flexibility, power, speed, stamina. You need it all for a protective health effect.

Glad you got a mental boost from reading it and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
DK

Thanks for the post. Dr. Harris has a good blog. I have read most of his stuff.

For good nutrition and training regimens there are other good websites in the blogosphere.

Mark Sisson-former marathoner and triathlete- has a great website – Mark’s Daily Apple. He argues against “Chronic Cardio” (it ruined his health).
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio/

Art de Vany -in top shape at the age of 74- argues against “chronic cardio” from an Evolutionary standpoint:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsLyp8XloCE

Robb Wolf’s website is a fantastic ressource for training modalities for different purposes and non-toxic nutrition to avoid chronic inflammation autoimmune diseases and accelerated aging (which is “normal” in Western Countries
I learned a ton from his podcasts
http://robbwolf.com/

http://robbwolf.com/

Erwan Le Corre’s MovNat is also a good way to go for better movement and performance.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MovNat#p/u/3/csWBf260ins
http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/movnat-day-1.html

Thanks Andrea – I’m familiar with most of these sources and read MDA regularly. I haven’t read Robb Wolf so I’ll check him out but thanks a lot for sharing these sources with everyone and for reading!

Hi Doug,

I was quite sure that YOU know about all this. But I thought it couldn’t hurt to make it available to your readers. Probably not everybody is familiar with this stuff.
Robb Wolf is a friend of Mark and Art de Vany. He had Dr. Harris as a guest on his podcast (The Paleo Solution) recently.

Btw – I recommended your blogs and your clinic over at Robb’s Blog and Forum. Because it is not easy to find a good PT and your spirit and knowledge helped me a great deal.

Thanks Andrea – appreciate the support and happy to help.