Possible heart damage Hardcore training often damages the heart arteries

Can men harm their health through sports training??

Usually physical training should improve the health. However, when white men train at a high level, the formation of so-called plaques in the main arteries in middle age increases. This can lead to an increased risk of developing dangerous heart disease.

Scientists at the University of Illinois in Chicago and Kaiser Permanente staff found in their current research that severe physical exercise in men can lead to plaque formation in the coronary arteries when they are middle-aged. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Mayo Clinic Proceedings".

Physical training should actually serve to promote good health. However, physicians now found out that too much physical training can seem to have a negative impact on the arteries. (Image: Photographee.eu/fotolia.com)

Scientists are studying 3,175 subjects

When white men perform hard physical training, they have an 86 percent increased risk of plaque formation in the middle-aged coronary arteries compared to only lightly trained individuals, the researchers report. For their study, the researchers studied the physical activity of 3,175 participants with either dark or fair skin color. The so-called CARDIA study investigated the presence of calcification of the coronary arteries.

Lime in the coronary arteries increases the risk of heart disease

Measurements of lime in the coronary arteries (CAC) are a clinical measure of the accumulation of calcium and plaque in the arteries of the heart. The presence and amount of lime in the coronary arteries is an important warning sign to physicians that a patient may be at risk for the development of heart disease. Thus, this measurement is also a signal for a necessary early provision.

Participants were divided into three groups

The study group consisted of CARDIA participants who had undergone at least three out of eight follow-up examinations of their physical activity during a period of 25 years (between 1985 and 2011). At the beginning of the study, participants were aged 18 to 30 years. Researchers categorized these participants into three different groups based on their physical activity patterns. The first group trained less than recommended by the national guidelines. The training time of these subjects was less than 150 minutes per week. The second group followed the national guidelines (150 minutes per week) and the third group trained three times more than recommended by the national guidelines (more than 450 minutes per week).

Computed tomography measured the levels of lime in the coronary arteries

"We expected that higher levels of physical activity over time would be associated with lower levels of lime in the coronary arteries," explains Dr. Deepika Laddu from the University of Illinois in a press release. Instead, Laddu and her colleagues found that participants in the third group were more likely to have lime deposits in the coronary arteries when they were middle-aged compared to subjects in the first group. Lime in the coronary arteries was measured during the 25th year of the study with the help of computed tomography. In this year of study, participants were between 43 and 55 years old.

Similar trend in white women was not statistically significant

The results were sorted by skin color and gender. It was found that white, hard-training men had the highest risk. These men had 86 percent more lime in the coronary arteries. Astonishingly, there was no increased likelihood among dark-skinned participants training at this high level. A noted similar trend in white women was not statistically significant, the experts explain.

New study focuses on the evaluation of long-term training patterns

Similar population-based cohort studies on exercise time have provoked some controversy, author Dr. Jamal Rana. So we did the current study to clarify at least a part of the ambiguity, adds dr. Rana added. Unique to the new study is the evaluation of long-term training patterns from young adulthood to middle age.

Further research is needed

Since the study results on the basis of long-term exercises showed a significantly different degree of risk between white and black participants, these are reasons for further studies on possible other biological mechanisms of the risk of lime in the coronary arteries, explains Dr. med. Laddu. Heavy exercise over time can lead to a greater load on the arteries, which causes a higher risk of lime in the coronary arteries. However, such deposits could be less harmful and less likely to lead to heart attacks, the experts speculate. Further investigations are planned to review the effects on the risk of myocardial infarction and deaths from these deposits in the future. The results are not meant to stop people from exercising now, adds dr. Laddu added. (As)