A huge study: Can intense sports be dangerous to the heart, to the point of death?

Researchers from the Heart Institute of Minneapolis, the world’s most famous heart health researcher, have found triathlon competition can adversely affect heart health and cause cardiac arrest.

A study published last month in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine reviews cases of cardiac arrest and death that occurred in 31 years of triathlon competitions in the United States (1985-2016), the largest and most important study of the risk involved in this intense sport. Swimming, cycling and running, and is considered one of the most intense and exhausting physical fitness tests in the United States, with about half a million people competing annually in triathlon competitions and 2,000 in Israel.