When big-hearted is bad Although it goes against everything you've ever heard, there is no credible evidence that exercise prolongs life. I discussed this in an earlier edition of Daily Dose (see "Tackling a weighty subject", September 20). Today, let's look specifically at exercise and your heart. Enlargement of the heart, technically known as cardiomegaly, is considered a healthy sign in athletes. But in the rest of us, it is considered a serious sign of heart disease. Is their enlarged heart a sign of health or impending disaster? Many athletes also have irregular electrocardiograms that would be considered serious signs of heart disease in the non-athletic. But since they are "in shape," it will be considered benign. After all, these people are young and the epitome of physical prowess, and so they must be indestructible. Right? Not so fast. In a study involved 10 cases of sudden death among marathon runners, 9 of the 10 died of heart attacks secondary to severe coronary heart disease. The researchers' conclusion: Severe coronary atherosclerosis is the most common cause of death in marathon runners. The researchers pursued these startling findings further with the collection of 24 cases of joggers - not marathoners, mind you, but just joggers. Thirteen died while jogging and six soon after jogging. All but one had severe coronary artery disease. Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center reported on 18 runners who died during or immediately after jogging. These were all experienced, fit, and apparently healthy runners. Most of them had run for a minimum of a year and some for as long as five years. Although four of them died during competition, most of them died during their regular exercise routines! As the researchers stated, "Neither superior athletic performance nor habitual physical exercise guarantees protection against an exercise death." Ray H. Roseman, M.D., did a study, brilliant in its simplicity, that proves the point. He studied the history of 2,635 federal employees as to their athleticism, or the lack thereof, and its relationship to coronary artery disease. He concluded that inactivity was not a health risk. If you like muscle building, running, and rappelling, that's fine, but don't expect it to give you a longer and healthier life. As you know, I wholeheartedly support eating animal products - since they are the staff of life. But even so, I am far from convinced by the latest buzz in the medical research community that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), the fatty acid found exclusively in food from animal sources (meat and dairy products), may be an effective weight-reducing agent when taken as a supplement. In two separate studies, researchers reported that CLA aids weight maintenance for those patients who have lost weight, helping them to avoid putting it back on later. One of these studies also observed that those patients taking CLA who did regain weight were more likely to regain it as muscle rather than fat. Researchers at Purdue University also threw their hat in the ring, with a study examining CLA's effects on diabetes. They observed that patients "seemed to show" improvements in their insulin levels. "Seemed to show" is not good enough. So that supposition will have to "await further study," as we skeptics like to say. I will continue to follow the research and keep you posted here and in Real Health. In the meantime, if you want to try CLA as part of your weight-reduction program, simply take it as directed on the label. | 
