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PSYCHOLOGY: The Jim Fixx syndrome —Humair Hashmi

Thus ended the life and the last run of one of the greatest contemporary American heroes of endurance exercise, Jim Fixx. Later, medical investigations revealed that he died due to underlying arteriosclerosis, the cholesterol clogging his blood vessels

Psycho-tropical drugs are medicines that affect the psychology of a person. Opiates are one such category of drugs. They slow down the brain’s response to external stimuli. Opiates also reduce pain. Some of these are easily available in the market and include opium, heroin and morphine.

There are several derivates of these drugs available under different brand names. Endorphins are a group of chemicals that are classified as neuro-modulators, a substance that modulates the activities of the postsynaptic neuron. Endorphins act like opiates, opium and morphine, and reduce pain, and are perceived to add pleasure. They are therefore sometimes regarded as the ‘keys to paradise’.

Endorphins — more correctly endogenous morphines, shortened to endorphins — are also produced naturally by the body. When a person has been engaged in a prolonged physical exercise, such as swimming, cycling or running, endorphins are released in the body-chemistry. Jogger’s euphoria is a psychological state of feeling active and cheerful. This state of mind comes about as a result of the release of endorphins in the body. The psychological experience of this is having a cheerful state of mind, an elevated mood, and a high level of self-esteem. The behavioural reaction of this euphoria is manifest in a relative increase in goal-directed activity and an excessive involvement in pleasurable activities and the cognitive experience of euphoria is the flights of ideas. Jogger’s euphoria is therefore a very pleasurable state of being.

The diagnostic manuals of mental diseases that are universally accepted and are internationally used, such as the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) include a major and serious mental disease called the manic episode. This disease is characterised by such symptoms as a feeling of euphoria, that is, an unusually high, cheerful, and elevated mood. The patient’s elevated mood may be recognised by observers as excessive but not by the patient himself. The patient shows an unusually high confidence level; with an abnormally high self-esteem bordering on grandiose delusions. For example, he may pose to have a mastery over complicated issues and other tasks of which he knows very little or nothing at all. There is a rapid flow of ideas resulting in unusually rapid speech characterised by joking, punning or out-right irrelevancies. Behaviourally, the person appears expansive and may indulge in such behaviours as a buying spree, reckless driving or indiscreet sexual behaviour.

As can be gauged from the above two descriptions of the jogger’s euphoria and a manic episode, there are some obvious similarities between the two states of mind and patterns of behaviour. However, while the manic episode is the manifestation of a sick system, the jogger’s high is the reaction of a perfectly healthy body releasing natural chemicals that produce extremely pleasurable states with no negative side effects.

Let us now revert to the title of this article — the Jim Fixx syndrome. Some joggers, in order to heighten the pleasurable effect of the jogger’s euphoria, subject their bodies to excessive exercise. In this pursuit of pleasure, they may sometimes land themselves into serious trouble that has been described as the Jim Fixx Syndrome.

Jim Fixx was a jogger who emerged on the American national and international scene in the late seventies, with a bestseller book entitled The Complete Book of Running. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for a considerable time; it dropped off this list almost two years later, but only after setting all sorts of sales records.

By then, the name ‘Jim Fixx’ had become a household word. He was well on his way to becoming a legend in his own time, with more than a million readers and probably as many jogging enthusiasts who hung on to every word he said and wrote. So the Jim Fixx phenomenon emerged as the exercise boom was in the USA and the man spurred it on to even greater heights. However, as some heroes have a day of reckoning, so was Jim Fixx’s final hour a devastating one.

On July 20, 1984, on a rural roadside in Vermont, USA, when he was only fifty-two years of age, he collapsed while jogging and died all of a sudden. Apparently, he had fallen victim to the heart disease that he had preached so many others to prevent. It happened this way: he went for his daily jog and then for some reason, he stopped next to a steep, grassy hill, just across the street from the driveway leading down to the motel he was staying in. He was only about forty or fifty yards from the front door to his room when he stopped perhaps to check his pulse rate or perhaps he wanted one last look at the scenery that followed the course of the road. Whatever the reason, there is strong evidence that he did stop, and that was when a brief blast of pain, or perhaps an overpowering feeling of weight hit him. His knees buckled, and he slumped to the ground. He was found on his knees, with his upper body nearly upright, slumped against the soft grass, dead in his jogging kit.

Thus ended the life and the last run of one of the greatest contemporary American heroes of endurance exercise, Jim Fixx. Later, medical investigations revealed that he died due to underlying arteriosclerosis, the cholesterol clogging his blood vessels. These investigations also showed that Jim’s heart and his cardiovascular system had already weakened by prior silent heart attacks of which he had no inkling, and by an extensive arteriosclerosis. Investigations also proved that these were due to congenital factors. It was speculated by some experts that he lived as long as he did in spite of those congenital factors pitched against him due to his aerobic exercise regimen. Had he not taken to exercise, they argued, he would have had serious health problems much earlier.

It was further speculated that had he not taken up aerobic exercise, he would probably not have made it as long as he did in life. But this sudden death also revealed that there is a grave danger in aggressively seeking the jogger’s euphoria, when the jogger has a weak heart or other congenital factors. What needs to be emphasised in this context is that aggressively seeking jogger’s euphoria may pose a great danger to a person. Thus whether a person suffers from a manic episode, or is in for the dangers of Jim Fixx syndrome, it is for the relevant experts to decide. The best advice to the laymen in this context therefore is to seek expert advice if they notice a manic episode or a Jim Fixx syndrome in someone around them.

Humair Hashmi is a consulting psychologist who teaches at Imperial College Lahore

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