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Thursday, May 16, 2019

Does a high coronary calcium score in long time endurance athletes mean greater mortality

Another article (2)  has  been published regarding the proposed relationship between high level endurance exercise and coronary calcification.

 We get this comment from the chief science officer and CEO of the Cooper Institute , Dr. Laura DeFina :

" The key question addressed in the present study was whether the presence of a high CAC associated with high levels of exercise training as typically practiced by masters marathon runners is associated with greater mortality.For this question,the answer is clearly no"

During times when I am influenced by Lily Tomlin's observation (1) I tend to think - perhaps unfairly-of studies such as these as coarse-grain,multi-comparison, big "n" small "RRs" fishing trips.

It is big n  study with 21,758 men followed for about ten years. The significance of n size is that with large numbers,small differences may be statistically significant but not clinically important. The point of saying multi-comparison is that sometimes researchers will do many regressions that may or may not be mentioned in the article searching for a p value of statistical significance. ( I ,of course, am not accusing authors of this article with that practice.)This article cannot be considered fishing as earlier work has suggested that high or very high levels of endurance exercise are associated with more coronary calcification but no increase and possibly a decrease in cardiac disease mortality.This article seems consistent with that notion.

We also get this quote from Dr. Carl Lavie : " Despite the fact that this type of high volume physical activity and exercise may promote calcific coronary atherosclerosis, it appears to still be associated with safety and possible lower mortality risks" Dr. Lavie has written several articles with Dr. James O'Keefe arguing that some relatively low level of exercise described as "excessive" would increase one's risk of death but has subsequently softened views what is excessive.

The analogy with the more potent statins and more coronary artery calcifications and lower C-V mortality seems obvious



1) Lilly Tomlin: No matter how cynical you become its never enough.


2)DeFina, LF et al ,"Association of all cause and cardiovascular mortality with high levels of physical activity and concurrent coronary artery calcification. JAMA Cardiol 2019 4 (2)174


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