Is heavy physical activity a major trigger of death by sudden cardiac arrest? Not in Oregon
The idea that heavy physical activity is a main trigger of heart attacks is widespread. Often endurance running and cardio-type activities are singled out. Some people refer to this as “death by running”. Good cardiology textbooks, such as the Mayo Clinic Cardiology , tend to give us a more complex and complete picture. So do medical research articles that report on studies of heart attacks based on comprehensive surveys. Reddy and colleagues (2009) studied sudden cardiac arrest events followed by death from 2002 to 2005 in Multnomah County in Oregon. This study was part of the ongoing Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study. Multnomah County has an area of 435 square miles, and had a population of over 677 thousand at the time of the study. The full reference to the article and a link to a full-text version are at the end of this post. The researchers grouped deaths by sudden cardiac arrests (SCAs) according to the main type of activity being performed before the event. Below is how...