The news of \u201cBiggest Loser\u201d star Bob Harper\u2019s serious heart attack has people wondering how this could happen to a fitness role model, but new research suggests that pushing your body too hard can be dangerous, a top expert says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew research is finding that too much exercise can damage your heart, setting you up for a heart attack or potentially fatal irregular heartbeat,”\u00a0 renowned cardiologist Dr. Chauncey Crandall tells Newsmax Health<\/em>.<\/p>\n Harper acknowledged Tuesday that he suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and is now recuperating.<\/p>\n He was working out at a New York City gym when was stricken, but his life was saved thanks to a doctor who happened to be there, and used CPR with paddles to keep Harper alive, news reports say.<\/p>\n Harper was unconscious for two days, and spent more than a week hospitalized he was allowed to leave. He must still wear a heart monitor, and hasn\u2019t yet been cleared to return home to Los Angeles, news reports say.<\/p>\n In an interview, Harper blamed the heart attack on genetics, but a source told US Weekly<\/em><\/a> he worries that the celebrity fitness trainer \u201cpushes himself too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople like Harper exert themselves too much and new research shows that this can damage the heart,\u201d says Crandall, chief of the cardiac transplant program at the world-renowned Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve treated lots of patients who suffer heart attacks or potentially fatal arrhythmias after extreme exertion,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n A report published last February in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology<\/em> explored growing evidence that high levels of intense exercise may promote permanent structural changes in the heart that can, in some people, predispose them to experience bouts of abnormal heart rhythm.<\/p>\n \u201cExtreme exercise is not natural. It creates inflammation within the muscle of the heart that can cause fibrosis, or thickening and scarring that can damage the heart muscle,\u201d says Crandall, author of the Heart Health Report<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also been found that this fibrosis can also form within the heart\u2019s electrical system and make people prone to arrhythmias, sudden death, or the need for a pacemaker later in life,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Even people like Harper who appear extremely healthy may have the beginning of mild heart disease, which can cause a sudden heart attack under certain conditions, Crandall says.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because a person looks like the picture of health doesn\u2019t mean they are,\u201d says Crandall.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can have high blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammatory conditions like diabetes, and not be aware of it because they don\u2019t go to the doctor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThey also may have a mild amount of underlying heart disease, and this can also set the stage for a heart attack,\u201d notes Crandall.<\/p>\n The majority of heart attacks are caused by a piece of plaque, or fatty deposit, that ruptures, causing a blood clot that stops the flow of blood to the cardiac muscle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be thought that only large blockages were the ones to blame, but we now know that smaller ones are more likely to become inflamed, rupture, and cause heart attacks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYour body wasn\u2019t made to be an endurance runner. Your body was made to walk, run occasionally, and run real fast if faced with a threat, like a charging tiger. But now people are doing competitive running and extreme sports, and anything extreme is not good for the body,\u201d Crandall says.<\/p>\n But as for people who are looking at Harper\u2019s story with the thought that it proves they can now eat hamburgers and other fatty foods with abandon \u2013 well, that\u2019s the wrong message too, says Crandall.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to exercise moderately, eat healthy, and reduce your stress. These are the steps to take \u2013 not pushing your body to the limit,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The news of \u201cBiggest Loser\u201d star Bob Harper\u2019s serious heart attack has people wondering how this could happen to a fitness role model, but new research suggests that pushing your body too hard can be dangerous, a top expert says. \u201cNew research is finding that too much exercise can damage your heart, setting you up Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}