Endurance Exercise Can Damage Your Heart

Here’s how endurance exercise could actually damage your heart.

The Haywire Heart Book:

Timestamps:
0:00 Endurance exercise and the heart 
0:20 What endurance exercise does to the heart 
1:40 the problems with endurance exercise
2:52 What you could do
 
Today we’re going to talk about endurance exercise and your heart. If you do endurance exercise, you need to get the book “The Haywire Heart” by Chris Case and John Mandrola. 

About one-third of marathoners experience dilated ventricles. It seems that many athletes develop dilated ventricles or enlarged ventricles on one side. There are even indications of heart muscle damage and cardiac fibrosis. Another problem that can occur is called ventricular tachycardia. 

The authors talk about how doing sustained endurance exercise for over 1 hour every day, five days a week, could cause issues. This could cause structural and functional changes within the heart.  

The heart is becoming stronger and more efficient, and the heart rate actually comes down. The heart rate can even come down from a normal heart rate of around 72 to 50 or even down to 30. The heart doesn’t have to work that hard, so everything is very slow. 

What can happen:
• Low heart rate 
• You can get cardiomegaly/hypertrophy (the heart can get bigger)
• Extra beats (PAC or PVC)

What you could do:
• Cut back on the exercise 
• Try interval training 

Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 58, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.

Disclaimer:
Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients so he can focus on educating people as a full time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, and prescription or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Thanks for watching! I hope this helps you better understand how endurance exercise could potentially damage your heart.

[joyboy]

I feel like a lot of people are gonna use this as an excuse to not exercise. Chances are most people aren't doing enough cardio for this to happen. This is on the very extreme end of cardio doers.

[CosmicComputer]

I used to run up to 8 miles a day thinking it was the best way to lose weight, I did lose a tremendous amount of weight, but on one run I ran a full sprint and sent my heart into an atrial fibrillation that required an overnight hospital stay and lots of gnarly drugs to corrrect it and years later I still deal with adverse effects of it. Over exercise is serious, and can be just as bad as overeating. The extremem summer running apparently depleted my potassium to an extremem amount which also contributed to my heart issue. Be safe everyone, take everything in moderation!

[brownfamily]

I’m an 53 year old cyclist who trains around 12 hours per week; mixture of intervals and endurance - endurance is zone 1 using polarised 3 Zone model. I have a resting heart rate of between 36-40 depending on how fit I am (genetics plays a part in resting heart rates as well). I do get the odd PAC (extra beat) every now and then, like maybe once a day, but it doesn’t bother me. I’ve have consultations and tests with a cardiologist re PAC’s and the cardiologist told me it’s not really a big issue and not to worry about it. Personally I’d rather be as fit as I am than a slob with blocked arteries.

[JohnGalt]

I'm in my 40's started cycling 2.5 years ago, 30 minutes a day, then 45 one hour and now I do 2.5 hours a day, lost 55 pounds, my resting heart rate was probably 85 BPM, crazy to think about it, it's now about 48 BPM, takes me at least 20 minutes of hard pedaling to get to 85, I'm in the best shape of my life, and I have the best clarity of my mind as well, and now I gotta go for a ride, later Dr Berg.

[dawnt]

There are so few people that actually fit in the endurance athlete category. This doesn’t apply to most of us. I run, walk and lift. I’m not an endurance athlete. Exercise has changed my life for the better. If anything, I plan to increase what I’m doing.

[szendrich]

I do have a few athletes in my circle who died young, age around 45 to 52, so I would tend to agree with this. I've been an endurance athlete for most of my life and am now in my mid-50s and have cut down a bit on endurance exercise. I wish I'd known about this before. I might have been less extreme in my sports regimen. All I know is that, yes, it can be dangerous because I've seen healthy and energetic people die without apparent cause. Most were male, by the way. I think exercise is good for you as long as it's moderate. Anything done to an extreme has to have adverse consequences. For me, it wasn't the heart, it's the bones and joints. With age, all the extreme activity done during youth comes back to haunt you with a vengeance.

[missmimi]

So basically the more stress you put your heart through the more fatigued it gets, just like an emotional chock or even sadness and anxiety. Stay positive and be good to your health people 😊 God bless you Dr.Eric 🙏

[ericaarseth]

More is not always better! Any good thing can be overdone to the extreme! For me it's a brisk walk for about an hour maybe 3X a week!

[haniabinabu]

I love u doctor berg.. u r the one who saved me from anemia.. ur suggestion of having acv after meal worked like magic for me... I changed several doctors they gave me iron supplements ... but they didn't work for me..I use to eat meets eggs veggies.. but still I was low in iron.. the main problem was the absorption...btw I'm from India.. always pray for u nd ur family.. I love u..

[srikanthtupurani]

Weight lifting and running are excellent exercises for heart if done in moderation. Some people do too much workout. I read so many painful stories of athletes suffering from cardiac problems. Anything in excess is bad. There is a need to spread this message. Thanks to berg for informing people to be careful.

[saltrock]

I weight train and I do just enough endurance training to run away from gators, wasp and swamp gnats. More training needed for the gnats. Thanks Doc!

[michaelwoehrl]

I think you’re missing the boat here Dr Berg. Chronic endurance exercise in type A, obsessive compulsive overachiever adrenal compromised people can result in heart issues. Few people push this hard. The rest of the population benefits greatly from regular cardiovascular training. In addition, recommending HIIT training to people with adrenal stress is a bad idea. Teaching people not to overtrain and how to recover serves them better in the long run.

[arjanpetersen]

For the average joe this doesn’t matter at all.

[Tom-Travels]

The Greek guy who fell over dead after running 26 miles to give the city the news of the
Battle of Marathon, proves your point most pertinently.

[xyrokhan]

Heart is meant to work for certain numbers of cycles (millions) during the normal life, hard workout will consume more cycles and reduce the heart life. Very simple,

[jimmysixx]

HITT and weighlifting are the best exercise. Your body and heart are designed to handle short term stress very well, but not the long term.

[abominationtheLord]

Great Information! I was too lazy to ever do endurance training; therefore, I dodged that bullet of having a damaged heart!
When I started regulating what I was eating and drinking, that is when I started losing weight, feeling, good, lots of energy, and sleep well.
It is so sad to think how we grew up being brainwashed by the TV full of ads that really do influence your eating. I see this so clearly now.
Thank GOD for the internet to open the world to truths on food along with so many things in life.
What is sad, as well, is that most people can't see how GOD's foods are the foods we need to eat and feel great until the day we are taken up or perish bodily!
Love 4Truth!

[waterbeefly]

This is true. I was training in swimming for 15 years and at some point had heart problem which doctors couldn’t tell what is wrong. Then I noticed I had some “pause” in between the beats like it was longer than normal. Now I stopped training in endurance and do static exercise for strength and flexibility. Feeling much better in the heart.

[jungookookie]

My mom developed bradycardia, she was an athletic athlete, she was used to endurance training, then bcs some reasons she stopped training, some time later she was diagnosed with bradycardia and she used pace makers since 1995, 2 times changed since

[tammiecurrie]

I worked out with someone who was a marathon runner, she is in her late fifties and has had to have to hip replacements, and can no longer run, but she is still killing it in the gym doing crossfit routines!