The current issue of Runner's World has an interesting article about Alberto Salazar and his health problems. Recently, at the relatively young age of 48, Salazar had a heart attack. For some, this brought up memories of Jim Fixx and the whole "maybe running isn't good for you" idea again.
But the article explains what was really happening. First, Salazar was doing a lot of things right healthwise. He was staying active, doing a half hour or so of easy running each day. Second, he was very lean at roughly 5 percent body fat. Third, he also lifted weights. So how did he end up having a heart attack?
For some time, he had been on medicine for both high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The cholesterol medicine brought his total cholesterol down to 175, but he did have a hsitory of heart disease in his family. Apparently, this level of 175 was too high because when they operated on him they found his right coronary artery 80 percent blocked.
Luckily, Salazar lived and is still able to function normally. He is using this experience to tell other runners about the dangers of heart disease. And in my opinion, this also shows that an "average" level of cholesterol of 175 is still too high and unhealthy.
