During the Trans Europe Foot Race, runners cover more than 4,487 kilometers (2,788 miles) from southern Italy to North Cape, Norway. For the 2009 race, 44 of those runners submitted to daily health examinations, including MRI scans with a mobile scanner, ice-water pain tests, and blood and urine analyses. The project, detailed last week (July 19) in BioMed Medicine, was divided into four modules:
The data will be used to assess the course of breakdown and regeneration in such injuries, as well as provide insights into the susceptibility to injury between individuals. By looking into the brain, the researchers also hope to investigate the hormonal influence resulting from endurance exercise.
"This pioneering study will assess the impact of extreme endurance on human physiology," wrote Andrew Murray and Ricardo Costa in an editorial for BioMed Medicine. "The results will be of interest not only to endurance runners, but to anyone interested ...
