Are you a marathoner? In that case, you may be actually doing more harm to your body than helping it to become healthier. New research shows that extreme stress may have a negative impact to the heart. If this is the case, then a lot of people are in for a surprise. Let us take a peek into how extreme endurance workouts can actually cause you to harm your heart.
Extreme exercise can have a drug effect
While exercise is not a drug, it can provide traits that a pharmacological substance can provide. It is highly effective in helping people get over some diseases which includes certain disorders pertaining to the heart, hypertension, diabetes and obesity. But like any drug, exercise has its dark side. That is why, like any other drug, it should be consumed within its safe limits or risk getting an overdose.
Extreme exercise can cause trauma
The center of the controversy is in the ability of endurance exercise to cause musculoskeletal trauma, which is directly linked with the abuse coming from having too strenuous of exercises. The trauma that is caused by extreme exercise can actually outweigh the health benefits it can generate. This finding came from years of research and review of records about the clinical manifestations of cardiovascular injury that is often tagged to extreme exercise.
Extreme exercise can cause scarring
Another very unthinkable thing is the fact that experts believe that doing too much exercise can actually cause scarring in certain parts of the heart. This may cause abnormal heart rhythms. This very dangerous sign is a direct result of years of doing extreme exercises like marathons. The review also took consideration of the fact that some elite athletes have developed abnormal heart rhythm patterns.
Extreme exercise can cause artery wall stiffening
The medical records of people engaging in extreme sports like cycling and ultramarathoning have seen a five-fold risk in the incidence of atrial fibrillation. This is an indication that the athlete may be suffering from artery wall stiffening. While exercising can lower risks of other diseases, it has become a concern for experts to look at exercise as something that can also cause some health issues.
Extreme exercise causes too much stress
Simple exercise can help people ease out the high levels of stress hormones often produced as a result of anxiety symptoms. However, it can also do a lot of damage as exercise is a known stressor and when the balance is tipped towards the negatives, it can cause a lot of health problems in the process.
It is best to do moderate exercises and contain activities for a maximum of 60 minutes per day. Doing some activities are good but it should be done in moderation. People that are advanced in age should contain their activities to just 30 minutes per day to avoid complications. Again, exercise is good but when it is too much like any other thing it can turn into something that may only cause you too much anxiety about your health.
For more tips on achieving better health and better ways of coping with anxiety, please feel free to visit Calm Clinic Facebook account.
What about non-traditional endurance endeavors (ie long distance race car driving, etc.)? How do you feel that affects the body? Similarly?