Off-topic: Is too much exercise dangerous? Yes

[Guest guest]

Off-topic, but might be relevant to some:

Source: New York Times

Not long ago, researchers studied the heart health of a

group of very fit older athletes -- men who had been part of

a national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing,

and runners who had completed at least a hundred marathons.

The results were unsettling -- half of these lifelong

athletes showed evidence of heart muscle scarring.

The affected men were invariably the ones who had gone

through the longest, hardest training. And now a new study,

this time in laboratory rats, provides solid evidence of a

direct link between certain kinds of prolonged exercise and

heart damage -- scarring and structural changes, similar to

those seen in the human endurance athletes.

The research effectively shows that years of strenuous

cardiovascular exercise can damage your heart.

" Unfortunately, it remains impossible, at the moment, to

predict just what that threshold is for any given person,

and which athletes might be most vulnerable to heart

problems as a result of excessive exercise " .

20 years ago, I exercised very hard at least once a week. I

slowed down once I got CLL. My heart is fine now according

to the cardiologist (where I went for a job physical).

It makes sense; as they say, all things in moderation.

[Guest guest]

Moderate exercise is beneficial...even shortly after HSCT

Lymphoma patients who received the exercise intervention

reported significantly improved physical functioning,

overall quality of life, less fatigue, increased happiness,

less depression and an improvement in lean body mass. In

fact, cardiovascular fitness in the exercise group improved

by over 20 per cent. " That's considered a fairly large

improvement over a 12-week period, " says Courneya, adding

that the group receiving chemotherapy benefited as much as

the group that was off treatments.

" The study wasn't really designed to look at that but it's a

very provocative finding and suggests that perhaps this type

of exercise training program during treatment might allow

patients to respond better to the treatments and get better

disease control. " , Courneya said.

" That's important because we know that fitness improvements

are related to improvements in how cancer patients feel both

functionally as well as emotionally, " said Courneya.

http://www.rso.ualberta.ca/news.cfm?story=35369

You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAmibp9qS6A & feature=player_embedded