Coronary disease remains the leading cause of sudden death in mature athletes (here, during the Paris marathon, in 2021). MILLEREAU PHILIPPE/KMSP via AFP
DECRYPTION – Great athletes have more atherosclerotic plaques, but have fewer cardiovascular accidents.
Physical exercise is good for the heart. No one doubts it. We all know that practicing thirty minutes of (moderate) physical activity a day protects against cardiovascular disease. But, conversely, couldn’t too much sport be harmful to our arteries? This is the question that comes to mind when reading a study, published in early January, in the medical journal Circulation. The researchers have indeed observed a progression of atheroma plaques (lipid deposits on the inner surface of the arteries) more important in men practicing very intense physical exercise.
To reach this conclusion, they compared, at six-year intervals, the “calcium score” of 300 amateur sportsmen aged 54 on average, as well as the intensity of their sports activity. The calcium score is a numerical evaluation of the extent of calcified atheroma deposits observed in the walls of the heart arteries, the coronaries. It is calculated…
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