Okay.. marathon and heart problems. Who knew? Well, we don't know anything yet. The study was really more suggestive and since it was small there is still a long way to go. And, Dr. Kuehl raised an interesting question: is it that running marathons potentially does something to the heart.. or that the type of person attracted to running may also have heart issues? Anyway, lots of work to do in that field.

I think the two most important points which are worth repeating are that you should always get checked out by your doctor before starting a marathon training program and you need to train properly. Dr. Kuehl even said point-blank that to safely prepare for a marathon.. it takes a year of training. A lot of programs will get you there more quickly but he is thinking about the best way to build endurance with the lowest possible risk of soft tissue damage.

He also showed me this really interesting article on running addictions. I like the self test (of which I scored zero points):
http://www.rrca.org/resources/articles/addict.html

Here is more on that protien courtesy of Wikepedia (which I've talked about before):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troponin

And if you're wondering if that type of potential heart damage occurs with other strenous exercise-- I can't offer much to you because as the doctors pointed out, this was a study of marathon runners-- not cross country skiers, etc.

Dr. Wei thought he'd seen other studies involving tropinin release and strenuous activity but though the more important point was that actually a number of things can cause the heart to release the Troponin protien-- from kidney problems to scorpion bites. As the Wikipedia article clarifies.. there are different types of the protien too.

Have a great weekend!!

Email me!! sstricklen@kgw.com