*Disclaimer:
I am a physical therapist, not a physician or dietician; therefore please do
not change your diet or exercise habits without approval from a qualified
professional.*
The reasons why people run are
countless. It ranges from trying to burn off last night’s dinner, to more
profound reasons as mentioned in my first post ‘Why Suffer?’. One of the best
reasons is for health. No matter what anyone tells you, running is in no way,
shape, or form bad for you (in any normal circumstances). The most common
rebuttal I hear is that running causes you to develop osteoarthritis in your
knees and hips. Go ahead and do a quick Google search, you’ find mostly articles
like these:
Running Might
Protect Against Knee Osteoarthritis
Marathon
Training Doesn’t Hurt Knees, Even In Beginners
Why Don’t More
Runners Get Knee Arthritis?
Running Linked
to Lower Arthritis Rates
The Persistent Myth
of Running and Arthritis
You get the point. Another argument I hear a lot is that
excessive running can cause cardiac disease. At first I think, “why would
someone even publicize something like that?” Let’s just deter people from
taking action towards a healthier lifestyle and tell them “don’t go for a run,
it might give you heart disease”. Nonsense. I have read articles from sources
as big as Runner’s World that tell their readers that they’re wrong if they
think sedentary and overweight individuals have a higher risk of clogged
arteries than marathoners despite a poorly designed study and inconsistency
across the literature. Long story short, running is good for your heart, not bad. Aerobic activity (like running) can
help to decrease blood lipids that are responsible for the plaque in your
arteries that causes heart disease.
With the huge growth in running's popularity, it seems likely that we will hear more stories about runners dying on the run.
-Runner's World Magazine.
With the huge growth in running's popularity, it seems likely that we will hear more stories about runners dying on the run.
-Runner's World Magazine.
Some
believe that Phedippides suffered from exercise-induced cardiomyopathy, but
this cannot be proven. With logic, we can deduce that this was likely not the
case. The legends proclaim that Phedippides died of sudden cardiac death
immediately after running 26.2 miles from the battle field of Marathon to the
people of Athens to announce their victory over the Persians. Before this point
Phedippides had run 153 miles to ask for aide from Sparta, only to be denied. Phedippides
had to quickly return to the Athenians to warn them that they would be on their
own; another arduous journey by foot. Soon after Phedippides’ return, the
Athenians rallied and fought off the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Phedippides,
as the great athlete he was, ran one last time to deliver the news to Athens.
Phedippides had run approximately
280 miles in what historians believe to be about 10 days. That equates to more
than a marathon per day. Now, do you think that it is implausible that Phedippides
could have died from dehydration, heat-exhaustion, or wounds? Yup, it was sudden
cardiac death… right? No, not likely.
Enough
about dead Greeks, what if I told you, runners live longer lives. Common sense
right? I didn’t have to tell you, well surprisingly some people went ahead and
did a study on it anyway. The thing is, they found out that you only need to
run 5-10 minutes a day to add 3 years (on average) to your life! Most of you
reading this probably run way more than 5-10 minutes a day, so good for you,
maybe if we keep running we’ll be able to achieve immortality. Running is the
fountain of youth, if there ever was one.
Running
makes us happy. No really, not just because we like to do it, there are massive
psychological benefits. A “runner’s high” is a real thing, and it’s actually
just as effective as depression and anxiety medication, just without the
debilitating side effects. The only side effects to running are the other health
benefits mentioned in this post, and maybe some muscle soreness which is
basically you getting stronger and faster.
Bone
grows when it is stressed. This is greatly beneficial for anyone who doesn’t
want to break bones. The amount of bone density that you acquire before your
mid-twenties will determine approximately at what age your bone mineral density
will decrease to critical levels. Let me explain, after about 40 years old,
your bone density starts to decrease. If you have built up your bone density
(with running per say) then you will have more to work with over time. Don’t
worry for those of you that started running post-twenties. Bone density loss
can be attenuated with running; therefore you are delaying that point in time
where your density reaches critical levels. Why is this important? Because
simple fractures commonly and easily lead to death in older adults. So keep on
pounding those feet of yours (not too hard though). On that note, I might as well mention that
runners beat out cyclists in this category, with cyclists being ~7 times more
likely to develop critical levels of bone density. Woo hoo! Go runners!
I may
expand on this topic in the future, but I don’t want to make this post too long
or boring. I don’t want people to “believe” that running is good for them, I
want them to “know” it. When entertaining claims that running is bad from one
approach or another, please use discretion and call them out on their sources. Use
the above knowledge and information to counter any appropriate argument, and
remember to be respectful. If your motivation to run does not already relate to
its health benefits, may you now be endowed with some information to allow it
to become a catalyst for your running.
Exercise is the key to
not only physical health, but to peace of mind.
-Nelson Mandela
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