Run Well Juliet McGrattan (microsoft ebook reader TXT) 📖

get an AED while you commence chest compressions. Put your phone on speaker mode and the emergency call handler will talk you through it.

There may be someone at hand who is experienced in resuscitation, in which case let them take the lead. Chest compressions (at a rate of 100 to 120 per minute) are more important than rescue breaths, but if you feel able and comfortable to give rescue breaths then briefly stop chest compressions every 30 compressions to give two breaths.

Remember CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) is tiring and you may already be exhausted from your running, so swap and take turns with others to maintain the quality of the chest compressions.

Just do your best – it’s better than no CPR at all. If the AED arrives before the paramedics, then use it by following the instructions on the package and the verbal instructions when you turn it on. AEDs will only shock if necessary, so don’t be afraid to use one. They save lives.

Continue until the ambulance arrives. If the casualty starts breathing again in the meantime, then put them in the recovery position.

Did you know?

A shock from a defibrillator within one minute of collapse gives a 90 per cent chance of survival. For every minute after that, the chance reduces by 7 to 10 per cent. Speed is of the essence.

Q I run a lot of marathons and ultras. Will this ­damage my heart in the long term?

A Running is definitely good for your heart, but there is probably a point at which too much running can cause harm. What that exact tipping point is, however, is unknown and most certainly different for each individual. The effect endurance exercise will have on our body depends on many variables, including our gender, race, age, training methods and our body’s DNA.

We know that athletes’ hearts can look different to non-athletes’. Vigorous and repetitive training induces changes called cardiac remodelling. The chambers of the heart can become enlarged due to the sustained high volumes of blood passing through them. There are similar changes evident in life-threatening cardiac disorders, but there’s no evidence that the changes are harmful in athletes. Interestingly, there may be less cardiac remodelling in women, but there’s not enough evidence to confirm that yet. As more and more women are participating in endurance sports there is certainly more research to come.

One of the other changes that is seen in the hearts of endurance athletes is myocardial fibrosis. This is patchy scarring in the heart muscle, but its significance is unclear. A study of 12 life-long, veteran, male endurance athletes was carried out in 2011. When their hearts were compared to non-athletes of the same age and to younger endurance athletes too, 50 per cent of the veteran athletes were found to have some degree of myocardial fibrosis. There was none in the non-athletes or younger men. This suggests a link between life-long endurance exercise and myocardial fibrosis, but the endurance athletes were all fit and well with no cardiac symptoms, so perhaps the changes are harmless. It has been suggested that myocardial fibrosis is a cause of atrial fibrillation (AF). This is the most common cause of a persistently irregular pulse and it requires medical treatment, because it is associated with an increased risk of stroke. In AF, the electrical activity which triggers the cardiac muscle of the atria to contract becomes uncoordinated. Rather than having one distinct squeeze, the atria quivers and fibrillates, which makes it inefficient at pumping blood to the ventricle.

A review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined nearly 50 years of medical literature and confirmed that endurance athletes, particularly older ones, have an increased risk of AF. There were many suggested causes for this. Studies to date have focused on long-term endurance athletes, but there may be a completely different story for the average recreational athlete who does intermittent endurance events.

Top tips for a healthy runner’s heart

• Don’t smoke.

• Exercise regularly. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week. Running counts as vigorous activity, so only 75 minutes per week is required.

• Maintain a normal weight.

• Eat a healthy, varied diet full of fresh vegetables and oily fish, and avoid excess salt.

• Get your blood pressure checked at least every five years (unless you have hypertension or other medical conditions that require more frequent checks).

• Prioritise recovery on your training plan.

• Reduce your stress levels.

• Reduce sedentary time – move frequently and don’t rely on running as your only exercise.

• Don’t race with a viral illness.

• Listen to your body.

FURTHER HELP AND ADVICE

NICE guidelines: www.nice.org.uk

British Heart Foundation: www.bhf.org.uk

Scleroderma and Raynaud’s UK: www.sruk.co.uk

Giving blood: www.blood.co.uk

NHS What’s your heart age?: www.nhs.uk

First aid advice and courses – St John’s Ambulance: www.sja.org.uk

Resuscitation Council UK: www.resus.org.uk

BDA: The Association of UK Dieticians: www.bda.uk.com

Cardiac Risk in the Young: www.c-r-y.org.uk

Chapter 3

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The Respiratory System

All runners know how it feels to be out of breath. Whether you’re a beginner taking your first running steps or an experienced runner tackling a tough hill repeats session, you know how difficult it is to keep going when your lungs feel as if they’re about to explode. Running is a great way to strengthen our lungs and increase our lung capacity, so in this chapter we’ll explore some of the lung issues that runners come up against. We’ll also take a look at problems affecting the nose and sinuses as these are part of the respiratory system too.

The main function of the respiratory system is to bring oxygen into the body and take carbon dioxide and other waste gases out. There are approximately 1500 miles of airways in our lungs (this is the equivalent of flying from London to Moscow). The journey begins in the nose or mouth where air enters and flows into the trachea, commonly known as the windpipe. This then splits into the right and left main bronchi, which further divide and branch into smaller bronchi, then even smaller bronchioles, where gas