makes me wonder, are we meant to run?

Hey runners, Julia here for DNews

Some people say that running is good for you. I firmly stand on the side of another DNews

video in which we claim running marathons might be bad for you so. I just stay on my

couch and marathon shows, just to be on the safe side. Running is a high impact sport,

you’d think it would do a number on your joints and bones. But there’s plenty of

people who love going for a long run and research shows that we may be built for it.

Though there are some people in this world who take it to an extreme. The Trans Europe

Foot Race (TEFR) pushes running to it’s limits. Over the course of 64 days runners

will rack up over 4,500 kilometers. With such a test of endurance, it’s no wonder scientists

were interested in how this kind of long distance running effects the body. Over the course

of the race, some of the runners had full body MRI scans every few days. As you might

expect and as other research shows, such high impact activity did a number on people’s

joints. Within the first 2,000 kilometers almost all cartilage in their knee, ankle

and hind-foot joints showed significant degradation. But here is the weird thing, even as the runners

continued to run the other 2,000 or so kilometers they had left… their cartilage started to

regrow! Even their achilles tendon grew in diameter. The researchers conclude that “The

human foot is made for running.”

So is that true? Are we made for running? Well according to a 2004 Nature study, yes

we are. The researchers found certain physiological adaptations make us efficient endurance runners,

so efficient that we can outrun almost every animal on this planet.

This is what’s called the “Endurance Running Hypothesis”. It’s the idea that around

2 million years ago, our homo erectus ancestors chased their meals across the African savannah.

They didn’t have good enough tools to kill from a distance, so they did the next best

thing. They hunted antelope or game by chasing them across a long distance until the animal

collapsed from exhaustion.

So what’s the evidence for this hypothesis? Well one is the way we sweat. We evolved to

chase our food in a really hot climate. Most animals release excess body heat by panting.

While this might help your dog cool down on a hot summer day, painting actually gets in

the way of breathing. So panting and running never go well together. For example, dogs

can only run for about 15 minutes before they have to slow down. By releasing our heat through

sweating, panting doesn’t slow us down.

The 2004 Nature study pointed to the way our ligaments and tendons are built. The researchers

point to a specific ligament, the Nuchal ligament that helps stabilize our heads. Other running

animals like horses, dogs, and rabbits have a version of this ligament, but our early

ancestors, like Lucy who lived 4 million years didn’t have it. It only arose around 2 million

years ago when we left the safety of the trees for the open savannah.

Even our butts help us run according to some of the same researchers. Most other running

and galloping animals have tails. It helps them balance. While humans are famous for

our lack of a behind appendage. Our big bottoms make up for it. No other ape has such large

hindquarters and upper part of the gluteus maximus. And according to research the butt

doesn’t do much when we’re just walking. It’s real power comes from when we break

into a run. So one of the researchers believes that the butt is "basically a substitute for

a tail”, it helps us balance when we run, Other evidence like short toes, large joints

and slow twitch muscle fibers adds more to the theory that we were built to run.

Even that ‘runner’s high’ might a gift from evolution. In a study published in the

Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers found that some animals get a high from running

and others don’t. A runner’s high is basically a neurobiological reward. Like other reward

mechanisms in the brain, it’s caused from a release of Endocannabinoids, the chemicals

that make us feel good. So the researchers measured the levels of these chemicals in

the brains of humans, dogs, and ferrets after exercise. And like I said earlier, it seems

dogs and humans are some of the only animals who partake in endurance exercise, ferrets

do not. The researchers found that those endocannabinoids were released in dogs and humans but not the

lazier ferrets. So not only are we built for running, we also enjoy it. We get high from

it.

Maybe I’ll go to hit the gym now. Who I am kidding, the ferret is totally my patronus.

I’m just gonna go marathon some superhero shows.

So are you a ferret or a dog? Do you enjoy running? Or does it feel like torture? Let

us know down in the comments below