Life-Long Endurance Exercise and Myocardial Fibrosis - A Potential Danger for Endurance Athletes
Habitual aerobic exercise has long been the cornerstone of what was considered a "healthy" lifestyle. Yet, lately, scientists are not only questioning the time-efficacy of these training regimens (there are studies showing that one can achieve similar metabolic adaptations with short high intensity interval training), there is also cumulative evidence that indicates that life-long engagement in endurance exercises may even be detrimental to your health. In a recent study by Wilson et al. (Wilson. 2011) "twelve lifelong veteran male endurance athletes (mean ± SD [range] age: 56 ± 6 yr [50-67]), 20 age-matched veteran controls (60 ± 5 y; [52 - 69]) and 17 younger male endurance athletes (31 ± 5 years [26-40]) without significant co-morbidities underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging to assess cardiac morphology and function." The results of the CMR were disquieting - to say the least: In 6 (50%) of the veter...