Runner’s arteries?

Running is good for your heart – at first. But is it possible that decades of serious training can eventually wear down the cardiovascular system? Until recently, there simply hasn’t been enough data to answer that question. But now, four decades after the first running boom of the 1970s, researchers are finally getting a look at large groups of runners who have been training hard for their whole lives, with interesting results.

At last year’s European Society of Cardiology Conference, British researchers presented data on the arterial health of 169 masters runners and cyclists. They had an average age of 54, and had been training 7.7 hours per week for 31 years – a fit and hardcore group. The surprising finding was that subjects running more than about 55 kilometres per week had higher levels of calcification in their coronary arteries, which indicates a build-up of plaques that narrow the arteries and can sometimes rupture and cause heart attacks, compared to the non-exercising control group.

Not all plaques are the same, though. “For me, the plaque morphology and what a plaque looks like is more important than the presence or absence of atherosclerosis,” cardiologist and study author Dr. Ahmed Merghani told the conference. “Because different types of plaques relate [to] different prognoses. So if you’ve got a plaque which is rich in calcium, this is a stable plaque. But if you’ve got a plaque which is soft and full of lipids, then this can later fissure and cause problems.”

A more detailed analysis showed that more than 70 per cent of the plaques in the runners and cyclists were the stable, calcium-rich type, compared to just 30 per cent in the non-exercising group. That’s good news overall, but it highlights the fact that runners aren’t immune to heart disease and blocked arteries. No matter how long and how hard you’ve been training, it’s important to watch for warning signs and be aware of other risk factors like diet and family history.