Good News For Middle-Aged Exercisers: Sudden Cardiac Arrest Is Quite Rare
Category: Personal Health
Author: Georgina Tyburski
Posted: Friday - July 3, 2015
From The Washington Post
If you're middle-aged or older and you work out, it's not too long before the question crosses your mind: I wonder if this could kill me?
It certainly has happened before. Jim Fixx, who helped start the fitness revolution with his book "The Complete Book of Running," famously collapsed and died on a run at age 52. Young, highly conditioned basketball players Reggie Lewis and Hank Gathers died on the court of sudden cardiac problems. And everyone seems to know a story about someone who collapsed during a friendly soccer match or touch football game.
The high-profile deaths and personal anecdotes obscure the fact that numerous studies of marathoners and other athletes reveal just a small number of cardiac-related fatalities annually, and that many of the victims showed signs of undetected heart conditions.
