Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Hi Jeff,

You said in another thread viewtopic.php?f=22&t=43482 that you stopped running marathons when you learned about the evidence.

The Mayo Clinic paper you quoted is important insofar as it highlights that more-is-not-always-better. However, since the researchers start off with a long list of cardiac (and other) benefits that accrue to runners; since they say that benefits increase with dose up to 1 hour of exercise per day (which is about the amount of time spent by 90%+ of marathon runners); and since they aren't aware of an algorithm for determining how much is too much, practically the article won't change much behavior among runners. It seems that the few fanatics out there who are working out enormous amounts of time every day probably won't take notice since they are fanatics, and everyone else is within the known safe limits.

Isn't it safe to assume that marathon runners who train for about an hour a day and run marathons once or twice per year are within safe limits?

Jeff55 wrote:Hi Jeff,

You said in another thread viewtopic.php?f=22&t=43482 that you stopped running marathons when you learned about the evidence.

The Mayo Clinic paper you quoted is important insofar as it highlights that more-is-not-always-better. However, since the researchers start off with a long list of cardiac (and other) benefits that accrue to runners; since they say that benefits increase with dose up to 1 hour of exercise per day (which is about the amount of time spent by 90%+ of marathon runners); and since they aren't aware of an algorithm for determining how much is too much, practically the article won't change much behavior among runners. It seems that the few fanatics out there who are working out enormous amounts of time every day probably won't take notice since they are fanatics, and everyone else is within the known safe limits.

Isn't it safe to assume that marathon runners who train for about an hour a day and run marathons once or twice per year are within safe limits?

I am not going to assume anything about anyone

To me, running marathons isn't just about what happens once or twice a year, even if that is all someone was to run. It's also about the impact of the prior training and build up to the marathon and the post recovery period that lasted much longer that a day or two.

There are several papers in the thread that all combine to support my position and cautions over extreme exercise. I also clearly define what is an acceptable level of exercise in frequency, intensity and time.

That is the case I make. You are welcome to apply all or some of it to your life as you see fit.

In Health
Jeff

Hi Jeff!

Thank you for your feedback! I'm curious if this cohort study of 122 007 patients changes any of your conclusions? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2707428 It seems to say the extreme exercise is associated with lower mortality? Many of the studies you posted were before this study came out. I follow your guidelines so I'm curious to hear your thoughts here. Thank you!

I noticed that you quoted a few more recent studies in your thread on this topic. Do you think that these recent studies disprove this cohort study I referenced above? Thanks!