Running Without Fear: How to Reduce the Risk of Heart Attack and Sudden Death During Aerobic Exercise

by Kenneth H. Cooper

Book Overview

Running Without Fear: How to Reduce the Risk of Heart Attack and Sudden Death During Aerobic Exercise This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871314568
• ISBN13: 9780871314567
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: M. Evans and Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Running Doesn't Make You Immortal

One of the most popular myths that the first running boom spawned was that running marathons conferred an invulnerability to the diseases of modern life, particularly heart disease. Run week after week of high mileage, so the myth went, and diet became irrelevant. Excess fat (and its collateral damage) was consumed in the furnace of aerobic exercise. The myth seemed reasonable. After all, who ever saw an overweight elite marathon runner? It took Jim Fixx to demonstrate how wrong this was. On 20 July 1984, Jim Fixx, author of the 1977 bestseller, the Complete Book of Running, died of a heart attack while running on the rural roads of Vermont. Jim was only 52-years old. Dr. Kenneth Cooper explains why. Granted access to Jim's medical records and autopsy, able to interview his friends and family, Dr. Cooper draws a compelling picture of how Mr. Fixx died. Jim Fixx had bad genes (his father died of a heart attack at age 43, Jim had a congenitally enlarged heart) and lifestyle issues (Jim was a heavy smoker prior to beginning running at age 36,he had a stressful occupation, he had undergone a second divorce, and his weight before he took up running had balooned to 220lbs). Within the 8 weeks prior to his fatal heart attack, Jim had had 3 other heart attacks. Dr. Kenneth Cooper discusses 11 risk factors that can contribute to heart attacks:family history, stressful life and personality, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diet rich in fats and cholesterol,sedentary living,cigarette smoking, obesity, abnormal resting electrocardiogram, oral contraceptives. Dr. Cooper also outlines steps for healthy exercise. One of the keys is to never stop exercising suddenly. The body must be allowed to return gradually to its pre-exercise state.Dr. Cooper notes that history's first marathon runner, Pheidippides,dropped dead only after he stopped running the 26 miles from the plains of Marathon, to proclaim "we conquer." The coroner would report that running did not cause Jim's death..severe and silent coronary hardening/clogging of the arteries did. Sadly, Jim's death probably would have been prevented if not for the position that he collapsed in. When Jim's body was discovered, he was on his knees leaning against an embankment. Running causes 60% of the body's blood to concentrate below the waist. Quite possibly, if Jim's body had been able to settle into a supine position, blood flow might have been able to be restored to the heart. Dr. Cooper does an outstanding job of outlining how Jim died and how it could have been prevented.