Viva Brighton April 2015 Issue #26

health
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Marathon running
A 26-mile cure-all tablet?
What are the main
health benefits of
running a marathon?
There are multiple
health benefits, physical
and mental. In the short
term, running obviously
can reduce weight, produce
mental wellbeing,
and make you physically
fitter, which helps
reduce your risk of getting infections, and reduces
your risk of suffering when you have got chronic
diseases. In the long term, running reduces the risk
of cancer, heart disease, and stroke. It’s one of the
healthiest things you can do.
What about the risks? Running short distances is
very safe. But marathon running can have medical
complications. Anybody who’s not fit and healthy
should speak to their GP before they start training.
Any form of extended endurance exercise, unless
you do it gradually, can be dangerous. You have to
be gradually building up. I wouldn’t recommend
doing a marathon if you haven’t been training.
What is ‘the wall’? The medical research about
‘the wall’ is very flaky. Basically, no-one’s sure
exactly what it is. There used to be a theory that
you ran out of glycogen, which the body breaks
down into glucose, so your body starts burning up
fat. But actually, when you test that evidence it’s
not great. I think there’s a massive psychological
element - that you’re just so blooming exhausted.
Why do some people have tin foil put over
them after the race? We get two problems which
seem paradoxical together – people can get too
hot, or too cold. The tin foil is if someone’s got
too cold, to keep the heat in. You’re keeping your
temperature up by
running, and if it’s very
cold and windy, and you
stop, now you’re facing
the wind and rain in just
shorts and a t-shirt.
What proportion of
people don’t finish the
Brighton Marathon
due to injury or
tiredness? I’d say the
majority who don’t complete it, it’s not because
they’re medically not well, just because they’re
exhausted. The main reason for medically pulling
out is because of heatstroke or injuries, which is a
serious condition - if someone feels confused they
have to stop for treatment. Probably about 1% of
people stop for medical reasons.
How have medical views on the health effects
of marathons changed over the years? I think
people have realised the benefits. It’s not just the
running – when you’re training for a marathon,
you eat healthier, you stop smoking… the
research says half of smokers who do a marathon
give up smoking afterwards, or whilst they’re
training; that’s better than any intervention. Diet
improves, binge drinking gets reduced, mental
health and wellbeing gets improved. So instead
of prescribing antidepressants a lot of GPs are
prescribing exercise. It’s not just about running a
marathon at all; exercise in general is a phenomenally
impressive thing to improve health. If you
could put exercise into a tablet, it would be the
most valuable drug in the world.
Steve Ramsey was talking to Rob Galloway
The Brighton Marathon is on Sun 12th April. See
brightonmarathon.co.uk
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