Could jogging kill you?

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 13

Could jogging kill you?

Slobs of the Western World have been greatly cheered by the death of James Fixx at the age of 52.

Saloon-bar ironists have been tucking into their Eints, medium to low tar ingsize, and individual pork pies, with a song as well as sclerosis in their hearts.

In Britain, Fixx is more famous in death than in life. The newspaper headlines explain why: ’’High Priest of Jogging Dies on Jog”; ’’King of Jogging Dies... Jogging.” Running, after all, is supposed to be good for you; ’’Today we are in the midst of a worldwide running revolution,” Fixx wrote in his foreword to his worldwide best-seller ’’The Complete Book of Running.” He went on ”... a revolution that is beyond question changing—and savinglives.”

Fixx became very rich by flaunting the habit of running. He even wrote a book about his new fame, ’’Jackpot!” His two running books became known as the jogger’s Old and New Testament, and his annual ’’Runner’s Day-by-Day Log and Calendar” as the combined hymn sheet and prayer-book. We know, after all, that even if we run only a mile or two each day, our health is better than it would be if we allowed ourselves to wallow in sedentary sloth, 17 was Fixx’s Thought for November in the 1983 log. ”I’m terribly worried about you,” a friend said, in week 1 AF (After Fixx). ”I’m sure it’s not good for you to go on those long runs.” During 2 AF a young colleague approached me, worried. ”My father says I shouldn’t take up jogging...” And on the Sunday, the Day of Exertion for every citizen runner, I was 12 miles into a half-marathon training run, and was greeted by a new catcall from a local householder who had evidently read the news:”Don’t die on my doorstep!”

America's guru of jogging, James Fixx, died recently

GEOFFREY CANNON,

“Observer,” relates reaction to his running habit in the wake of post-Fixx anxiety.

while out running.

I’m still not sure if he was joking. Fate is no athlete, it seems, for Fixx did not tactfully die in his bed. He keeled over alone and unseen on a run in Vermont. His body, clad only in shoes and shorts, was found by a passing motorcyclist just outside his motel. An autopsy found that two of his coronary ateries were almost totally clogged with fatty deposits, and a third was half clogged. Did running kill Jim Fixx? And, now that he’s dead, may running kill me—or you? Fixx was running with the odds stacked against him, for a start. Calvin Fixx, his father, was a colleague of Whittaker Chambers on “Time” magazine. ”We kept up the pace by smoking five or six packs of cigarettes and drinking 13 or 14 cups of coffee a day,” Chambers reminisced of his

days with Fixx senior, whose time ran out, aged 43, after a first heart attack, aged 36. The life expectancy of Fixx junior was already shortened by the time he joined “Life” magazine. His father’s heritage aside, James was 213% pounds (over 15 stone) in his mid 30s, and smoking two packets of cigarettes a day. In his 40s he was down 50 pounds and, by his own account, up to 10 miles a day. Does this mean that people whose arteries are already partially blocked should not take exercise? No, it does not. On the contrary; cardiologists are sure that exercise is vital, however high your risk of a heart attack, for prevention and for therapy. So what went wrong for James Fixx? No amount of exercise by itself can be absolute protection against a heart at-

tack. And in certain very specific circumstances, vigorous exercise is actually associated with a higher rate of death from heart disease, as a major study has shown. In the seven countries study of heart disease, Professor Ancel Keys found that in Finland lumberjacks, burning 4,500 to 8,000 calories a day, had a very high rate of death. These men were working at the equivalent of running 50-100 miles a week or more—Jim Fixx’s range. The reason for this paradoxical finding is that Finns eat food highly saturated with animal fat. Any lumberjack eating the Finnish national average of fat would, even at the lower range of 4,500 calories a day, be eating half as much fat again, by weight, as the reasonably active male citizen consuming 3,000 calories a day. This extra fat is liable to

overwhelm the value of exercise; for it is generally accepted that animal and other saturated fats are the main single underlying cause of heart disease. How does this apply to James Fixx? Well, in his ’’Second Book of Running” he celebrates the end of a perfect 10-mile run, smelling a welcome from a campside barbeque. ”We cooled off, drank a bottle or two of beer, and ate two hamburgers and a big piece of cake.” Fat though hamburgers are, there’s nothing wrong in one—or two—once in a while; likewise, cake. But James Fixx had a way of flaunting his eating as well as his running. He knew about healthy food, yet he gave a revealing interview in July 1979 He described his breakfast on British Rail to Julie Welch. ”We ate every bite. We had fried eggs—full of cholesterol, awful for you; sausages— full of fat, awful for you; bacon, same thing; and cream in our coffee.” (He didn’t say how many cups.) ”If you run you can participate fully in the ways of our civilisation and get away with it.” Jim Morrison, the rock’n’roll singer with The Doors, liked to boast that he could overdose and get away with it. Morrison was wrong; the future was with Mick Jagger, who worked out with Rudolf Nureyev and cut out the drink and drugs from the early 19705. If Jim Fixx’s death marks the end of enthusiasm for citizen running as a panacea or elixir, then he will not have died in vain. For runners have big appetites: if you run, remember James Fixx and the Finnish lumberjacks, and be sure that none of that extra energy comes from saturated fat. Wholemeal bread, vegetables, and fruit may not help you win a race aged 35, but they’ll improve your chances of lining up at the start of a race aged 50 or 75.