Is this an alarm that we should swim more to strengthen our hearts? Though similar tragedies happened to swimmers in the past, too, I believe. Seems all are in their late 50's?
News from
www.newsday.com/.../ny-nyrun0312133574nov03,0,6679842.story
Marathon runner dies after collapsing at finish line
BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN9:32 PM EST, November 2, 2008
A 58-year-old runner who had just finished the New York Marathon Sunday collapsed at the finish line after going into cardiac arrest and later died at a local hospital, police said.
Carlos Jose Gomes, of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was pronounced dead at Lenox Hill Hospital at about 5:20 p.m., police said. He had fallen ill after he crossed the finish line of the 26.2 mile race near the intersection of 81st Street and Central Park West.
Two other people suffered cardiac arrest Sunday while running in the race, police said.
A 59-year-old man collapsed in the middle of the Queensboro Bridge, police said. A fellow runner stopped and administered CPR until two emergency medical technicians arrived.
The runner was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was listed as critical but stable, according to one of the EMTs.
Jean-Louis Maubaret, 59, a French national, was running alongside his wife across the Queensboro Bridge between the 15th and 16th mile of the race when he collapsed, unconscious and not breathing, according to EMT Salvatore Sangeniti.
Sangeniti, 47, of the New York Fire Department EMS Division 4, was crossing the bridge from the Manhattan side when he and his partner, Amanda Wong, received a radio call about the runner. They reached the middle of the bridge to find another runner performing CPR.
Sangeniti, of Centereach, said he placed a defibrillator on Maubaret's chest. After one shock, he said, the runner regained consciousness and resumed breathing.
The runner who performed CPR returned to the race once he saw that Maubaret had regained consciousness, Sangeniti said.
Another marathoner suffered cardiac arrest on East 107th Street yesterday afternoon. The man, whose name was not immediately known, had collapsed and was not breathing, according to an FDNY spokesman. EMTs performed CPR as he was rushed by ambulance to Mount Sinai Medical Center.
"It does not surprise me at all to see people dying during marathons, you are putting your body under significant stress."
Believe me, if you're running at a slow pace, enjoying the views (NYC and Marine Corps Marathon), talking some, taking a ton of ibuprofen, you ain't stressing all that much, which was my case back in 1997,98 and 99. The training, that was stressful, all those long runs, without modern Ipods, with just those old Sony Walkmans with tapes...Jim Thornton summarizes well most of what happens. It seems this Brazilian guy who died in NYC was well trained, had all his tests done before training and running the marathon. Marathons are more dangerous for the fast athletes or for those who didn't prepare well enough. But usually all that hurts is your feet bones and joints after spending hours jogging along. The one factor that running has that is more dangerous than swimming is the fact that while running your heart has to pump blood upstream to your head and while swimming it just flows easily along, thus avoiding a problem (which might have killed Jim Fixx, of running fame) which is lack of oxygen to the brain.Unless swimming butterfly with poor technique (my case) it is pretty difficult to get your HR way up high while swimming.
I don't believe you...sorry. Running at any pace for more than 10 miles sounds like a bad idea to me.
My non-medical opinion:
- You are doing yourself more good than harm by exercising (duh)
- The people that die during marathons (seems to be almost one a year during the Chicago marathon) probably either prolonged their lives by running OR had a genetic condition of which they were unaware
- Your chances for living through a heart attack are dramatically increased if your heart is as healthy as it can be through exercise and diet choices
There was a man who had a heart attack during a meet I was at last year and his doctors told him (he had one previously) that he was alive because he swam.
Former Member
- The people that die during marathons (seems to be almost one a year during the Chicago marathon) probably either prolonged their lives by running OR had a genetic condition of which they were unaware
Or they were underprepared. A lot of people want to be able to say they did a Marathon without the bother of actually training properly for it. Many people do Marathons despite not having been runners for very long at all.
Former Member
Plaque rupture leads to thrombosis (clot formation). A portion of the heart muscle, deprived of blood flow and oxygen, begins to die. If you are unlucky, the heart fibrillates, at which point circulation (pulse/blood pressure) is lost. If circulation is not restored within the next several minutes, you suffer irreversible brain injury. Ironically, even small heart attacks (where the extent of heart muscle damage is minor) can be associated with ventricular fibrillation/sudden death. And unfortunately, sudden death may be the first manifestation of coronary artery disease.
just curious, but what does this have to do with swimming?:hijack:
Former Member
Sorry to hear about your dad Alison...wish him the best of luck with all his recoveries...my dad too has prostate cancer...he's had it since I was 10 (12 years)...luckily treatment options are pretty good for placing it in remission these days. I'll keep him in my prayers!
Former Member
Jim: the ibuprofen comment was "tongue in cheek". Internet does not carry humor very well. Tell you what really works: a shot of cortisone (depo-medrol) right on top of the offending tendon. I had my supra spinal (one of those on the rotator cuff of the shoulder) tendon "fixed". My radiologist friend pressed his thumb till he found a painful spot and shot a cc of the drug. I only use the tendon for recovery in freestyle swimming. But the pain is such that a backhand is impossible. Wonder why the backhand ends up hurting the tendon that it isn't using at all? But, NSAIDs are harmful to those susceptible to their side effects. I have no problem with most NSAIDs and every now and then will take something for mild muscular discomfort.
Gull: as written by the original Cooper, in "Running without fear", he mentions the fact that Fixx did not cool down after his run, by walking and getting his heart rate down, but stopped suddenly and in a standing or leaning position near a hedge or fence. He probably had a problem with his venous return causing a deficit in his cardiac preload which, according to Dr. Cooper, might have lead to his heat attack, because of his already clogged coronaries.
This is one of Cooper's theories. But it sure scared me into never stopping suddenly when running, but slowly getting my heart rate down to at least 120 and then maybe slowing down. His recommendation is for a runner who feels faint, or light headed to lay down, to better his venous return and also to help oxygenate the brain. Gull, I am not arguing against or with you. I am writing as a former runner and a swimmer. The little I knew I have long forgotten.
Former Member
There is a statistics problem here.
Actually not. From The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2005; 45:1348-1353: "Despite these beneficial exercise effects, vigorous physical activity also transiently increases the risk of both acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death with the greatest exercise risk among the most habitually sedentary individuals."
