Exercise and Acute Cardiovascular Events

[pierinifitness]

A 2020 meta-analysis conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA) and published in the journal Circulation highlighted the danger of vigorous physical activity.  An abstract of this study shared that habitual physical activity reduces coronary heart disease events, but vigorous activity can also acutely and transiently increase the risk of sudden cardiac death and acute myocardial infarction in susceptible persons.

www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.181485

As an older fitness enthusiast known for sneaking in, perhaps, more pedal to the metal workouts that many, I have to read stuff like this with an open mind.  However, I'm not ready to limit my workouts to a competitive game of bocce ball.  If I one day check out early before my time, I give every here permission to shout, "I told him so."

[Michael]

I'm sure someone wrote this somewhere, "The fitness lifestyle isn't about living longer, it's about living better with the time you are given." Pavel talked about redlining or pushing Your limits and how it's not really good. He's not a doctor but it makes sense. People don't realize when You push too much You are probably burning Yourself out and it can't really be good for You. If You need to function the rest of the day or the next day, it sucks to be tired or burnt out.

[pierinifitness]

I got clue of this from an internet clickbait article which often present alarm that upon closer examination of the research abstract isn't of serious concern for healthy adults.  Here's from the abstract regarding healthy adults - it's a little too scientific reading to my liking:

"Healthy Adults

Malinow and colleagues reported only 1 acute cardiovascular event per 2 897 057 person-hours of physical activity among participants at YMCA sports centers.

Vander and associates reported only 1 nonfatal and 1 fatal event per 1 124 200 and 887 526 hours, respectively, of recreational physical activity.

Gibbons and colleagues reported only 1 nonfatal event during 187 399 hours of exercise, which corresponds to maximal risk estimates of 0.3 to 2.7 and 0.6 to 6.0 events per 10 000 person-hours for men and women, respectively.

Thompson and collaborators estimated only 1 death per 396 000 person-hours of jogging or 1 death per year for every 7620 joggers. Because half of the victims had known or readily diagnosed CHD, the estimated hourly and annual rates for previously healthy individuals were 1 death per 792 000 hours and 15 260 subjects, respectively.

Siscovick and colleagues estimated a similar annual rate of exercise-related cardiac arrest among previously healthy persons of 1 per 18 000 men. Both studies have wide confidence limits because the rates were calculated with only 10 (Thompson et al29) and 9 (Siscovick et al5) exercise-related deaths. All victims in both studies were men, and there are few estimates of event rates among women. The reasons for the rarity of exercise-related deaths among adult women are not clear but may relate to the delayed development of CHD in women and a lower rate of participation in vigorous exercise among older women. More recently, a database consisting of >2.9 million members of a large commercial health/fitness facility chain reported 71 deaths (mean age, 52±13 years; 61 men, 10 women) over a 2-year period, yielding 1 death per 82 000 members and a rate of 1 death per 2.57 million workouts.30 Nearly half of the exercise-related deaths were among members who exercised infrequently or less than once a week."

In other words, healthy adults have a greater chance of meeting their early fate with the Grim Reaper from a car accident but the click bait article didn't provide this perspective.

Here's a significant paragraph from one internet article:

"Vigorous exercise can raise your heart attack risk.

A 2020 meta-analysis conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA) and published in the journal Circulation highlighted the danger of vigorous physical activity, like participation in marathons and triathlons. The agency reviewed more than 300 scientific studies and found that the risk of heart attacks or other cardiac events, like sudden cardiac death, as a result of this type of exercise has risen. The risk of these is both "increased during and shortly after bouts of physical exertion," the researchers stated. Of the studies reviewed, the AHA found that there was a 2- to 10-fold increase in the likelihood of experiencing a heart attack within one hour of participating in vigorous exertion. One study even found that the risk could persist for up to two hours after.

"More people are running marathons, participating in triathlons and doing high-intensity interval training. The purpose of this statement is to put the benefits and risks of these vigorous exercise programs in perspective," Barry A. Franklin, PhD, chairman of the AHA committee that helped conduct the study and director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Beaumont Health, said in a statement."

No mention of health adults but rather an overall presentation.

Here's that article:

www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/this-exercise-can-make-your-heart-attack-risk-soar-study-says/ss-AAL2COS#image=1

Conclusion
If you read an internet article that scares the living daylights out of you, go read the research abstract as a minimum and if it's really important to you, read the entire research findings as laborious as it may be.

[Michael]

I'm not even going to try to read that but I get it. I agree to a point with You. I think it's ok to have a vigorous session if You're healthy. But to have sessions where You push the pedal to the metal every time you exercise I don't believe is healthy. I'm not trying to be smart and deter You from what You do. I just feel if we can make each other think about what we're doing we can make better decisions. I know for myself, there were some days when I've put the pedal to the metal while doing tree work and it wasn't good for me afterward. Think about redlining a car, eventually, You're going to kill it. Here is something for You to think about. On Your Garmin, How many points has Your VO2 Max improved? You don't have to answer that, just something for Your to think about. So if You do more pedal to the metal sessions does it warrant the one or two points it may go up? Then when You get tired of certain sessions and Your VO2 Max goes down those one or two points is it worth it?  Again I'm not trying to be smart, just looking out for You and always hoping for Your health first.

[pierinifitness]

Thanks Michael. Actually, my VO2 Max has declined from last year when I was running and working out more intensely.

I may be misleading you. My workouts are not as intense or as stupid as they may appear. I have a good mental safety net. Unlike elite athletes, my mind won't allow my body to do what it (my mind) judges isn't in my best interest or wellness. For this, I'm grateful.

[Michael]

I may be wrong but I think the Garmin only improves Your VO2 Max with running? At least that's the only time I've seen improvement. It was only like 1 point and I feel no difference between my endurance and the way I feel.

I don't think Your workouts are stupid. It's what You like, that's important. As long as You feel healthy and have that built-in safety net that's a good thing.