Is Running Killing You? (1/2) By Dr. Steven Bartz

(1/2), (2/2).

Dr. Bartz DC is a noted authority on sports medicine in the USA. He works at the South Beach Pain and Injury Center in San Clemente, California.

I'm about to slaughter the sacred cow of athletics. Running. In particular, long distance running. Oh, I can hear the hate mail rolling in already. Don't get me wrong I love runners, they account for a large portion of my patient base. I used to be a runner, until I got tired of all the consistent injuries that I was dealing with. You see I was probably like most of the runners I see every day in my practice.

I was addicted to running. Any serious road warrior knows what I'm talking about. It gets in your blood. It becomes something you start to make excuses for. "Sorry honey, I'd like to be at your graduation but I have a 10K I have to run."

I've also noticed runners are with out a doubt the hardest clients I have to deal with in regards to taking my advice to "lay off" their workouts. And I have a theory as to why. You see runners; I believe are addicted to their own brain chemistry. You have undoubtedly heard of the runners high. This is caused by the secretion of mood altering chemicals called endorphins. A substance that has the same receptor sites in the brain as morphine. In other words; the body's natural pain killers.

The question though becomes why is the body secreting pain killers when you run? Well, we've always known that running places a tremendous stress on the soft tissue structures in the body, hence the high injury rate seen in many doctors' offices. But recent research seems to indicate that long distance running may actually be deadly.

It may just be me but, it seems every time I hear the results of a marathon lately someone has died. In fact I remember hearing that two police officers died in the 2006 L.A. Marathon, although one was a retired officer at age 60. Neither of these guys from what I heard were exactly couch potatoes. And the autopsy results of the recent Chicago Marathon death was deemed not heat related. I know, the number of deaths related to the number of actual runners is still "statistically" low but according to Dr. Al Sears MD, "doing sustained running at the aerobic level isn't a smart way to exercise, and it doesn't build your lungs or breathing capacity as the name implies. In fact, aerobics actually shrinks your heart and lungs- making you more vulnerable to fatal heart attacks."

Continued .... Next Page (2/2)

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