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Sanjay Sharma, Abbas Zaidi, Exercise-induced arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: fact or fallacy?, European Heart Journal, Volume 33, Issue 8, April 2012, Pages 938–940, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehr436
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This editorial refers to ‘Exercise-induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodelling in endurance athletes’†, by A. La Gerche et al., on page 998
The cardiovascular benefits of regular exercise are established; individuals exercising regularly have an average life expectancy of 7 years longer than their sedentary counterparts.1 Indeed exercise is regarded as one of the most potent and cost-effective treatments dispensed by health professionals in the management of an adverse risk profile for generalized atherosclerosis. Such benefits are achievable with relatively modest doses of exercise amounting to 6–10 METS (metabolic equivalents) per day2 and are devoid of the side effects associated with usual drug therapy. Analogously to pharmacological treatments, it is recognized that exercise exhibits an inverted J-shaped dose–benefit response with respect to musculoskeletal injuries; however, the concept that intensive exercise may exert a detrimental effect in individuals with normal hearts is rarely entertained and has never been investigated in large cohorts. The majority of highly trained athletes exercise intensively for several hours per day, resulting in workloads of 200–300 METS per week which is 5–10 times greater than the exercise recommendations for preventing coronary atherosclerosis.
