Dr Larry Creswell
Gordo Byrn, at Endurance Corner, led me to the Science of Sport blog. This is a terrific website, full of useful and scientifically factual information about a variety of topics of interest to athletes.
There is some useful information and editorial comment about sudden death in athletes in their archive that will interest our readers here. And there’s so much more….
I’ll include a permanent link to this website at the right.
I came across an article yesterday in the Dallas examiner.com that tabulated the risk of dying to various causes. The source of the data is not clear, and I can only assume that they refer to Americans, but I believe that these numbers relfect the lifetime risk of dying:
1 in 5, Heart disease
1 in 7, Cancer
1 in 24, Stroke
1 in 84, Motor vehicle accident
1 in 119, Suicide
1 in 218, Falling
1 in 314, Firearm assault
1 in 526, Pedestrian accident
1 in 1,008, Drowning
1 in 1,020, Motorcycle accident
1 in 1,113, Fire or smoke
1 in 4,919, Bicycling accident
1 in 5,051, Air/space accident
1 in 5,134, Accidental firearm discharge
1 in 9,968, Accidental electrocution
1 in 10,048, Alcohol poisoning
1 in 13,729, Hot weather
1 in 56,789, Hornet, wasp, or bee sting
1 in 62,468, Legal execution
1 in 79,746, Lightning
1 in 117,127, Earthquake
1 in 144,156, Flood
1 in 340,733, Fireworks discharge
By comparison, the risk of dying in a marathon is approximately 1 in 75,000, or something equivalent to the likelihood of dying from lightning or legal execution.
I continue to receive questions about the deaths of 3 runners during the half marathon in Detroit this past weekend. I understand from the popular press that additional tests are needed before the autopsy reports can be finalized. More on that when additional information is available.
These deaths have stimulated a lot of discussion, though. There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday, entitled “Are Marathons Safe?” Some food for thought. Marathons, like any endurance sporting event, place a heavy demand on the cardiovascular system, so it shouldn’t be surprising that an occasional participant dies a sudden cardiac death. But it’s important to keep things in perspective….the risk is real but very, very small for any individual participant.
These sudden deaths in sporting events should motivate us to be more vigilant about screening for cardiovascular disease in athletes and paying attention to potential warning signs that deserve investigation.
I got an email from a reader in the U.K. the other day. He had seen that I planned to write soon about carotid artery dissection and wanted me to know that he had organized a group on Facebook related to this medical problem.
Over the weekend, I had a chance to read through the many posts from members of the Facebook group and I learned a lot. I’ll continue my work on writing a piece for the blog….and post it soon.
In the meantime, I wanted to let readers know about this Facebook resource. The group is called, simply, Carotid Artery Dissection.
Several people have asked me about the 3 deaths that occurred during the Detroit Marathon on Sunday. At this point, I don’t know anything more than what’s been reported in the popular press. This article from clickondetroit.com summarizes the events that led to the deaths of 3 runners, ages 26, 36, and 65, in the half marathon event.
Autopsies are being performed today and more information should be available shortly. I’ll bet that cardiovascular causes are responsible and I’ll report back when I know more.