Is cardio bad for me?

Q. I read an article called Two Fitness Disasters That Are Threatening Your Health. The MD who wrote it says that cardiovascular exercise will not protect your heart and that aerobics makes your lungs shrink. Long-distance workouts, especially marathons, are supposed to be bad your heart and mimic the effects of heart disease. Is this true?

A. I think Dr. Sears (the author of the article) makes a good point when he says that long-duration cardiovascular exercise is not the best way to get lean. And is marathon running going to cause health problems for some people? Probably. Too much exercise, just like too much of anything -- including a seemingly harmless substance like water -- isn't healthy.

But when he says that cardiovascular exercise, "will not protect your heart, and aerobics makes your lungs shrink," or that it will "accelerate several negative consequences of aging and cause other health problems," then I think he's really going off on a limb.

Dr. Sears quotes the work of Dr. Arthur Siegel, director of internal medicine at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University, to support some of his claims.

I can't say that I've looked into the subject of cardiac health and marathons in any depth, so I wrote to Dr. Siegel to get his opinion on the subject.

Here's how he replied... (click here to read)

Sincerely,

Christian Finn, M.Sc.
Editor, The Facts About Fitness

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