Exercising and eating right are great ways to stay in shape, but working out too much and eating too little can be dangerous.
“It is incredibly damaging to an athlete’s body if they tend to overload themselves, especially if you combine the two,” said Taylor Schram-Bishop, sophomore psychology major.
Lack of proper nutrients will make the body function incorrectly and can cause cardiovascular complications, such as organ and heart failure.
Athletes pushing beyond their threshold without the right nutrition will not give their bodies time to recover and often leads to terrible injuries and severe illnesses.
“Too much exercise can put an extreme workload on your heart and it will start malfunctioning, especially if you are not acquiring enough oxygen,” Schram-Bishop said.
Every working muscle can cause an enlargement of the lining of the heart’s atriums and ventricles. This makes it difficult for the heart to adequately pump blood into the body.
An obsession to staying healthy is classified as a behavioral addiction and meets the requirements of an obsessive compulsive disorder. These addictions can be brought on by stress, genetics, emotions and environmental situations. Often, it can become as severe as following patterns of anorexia and bulimia.
“Exercise addicts use exercise as a way to meet their needs, despite illness or injury, they will do it for hours on end,” said Kelsey Perrault, junior kinesiology major. “If they are doing too much too soon, they are prone to injury.”
Perrault stated that it starts as something simple as to wanting to make some healthy changes. At one point they become unsatisfied with the work they do. Because of this, athletes think they are not achieving enough when in actuality they are.
Exercise and eating healthy are beneficial for the body when done in moderation.
