Researchers link ultra-endurance running to accelerated red blood cell aging
After a long trail race, some of your red blood cells may not bend the way they should. That matters because red blood cells have a tight job description. They ferry oxygen, nutrients, and waste through vessels that can be narrower than the cells themselves. To do it, they have to stay flexible. A new study in the American Society of Hematology journal Blood Red Cells & Iron reports that extreme endurance running can leave those cells stiffer and more chemically battered, with the strongest effects occurring after the longest event in the study. “Participating in events like these can cause general inflammation in the body and damage red blood cells,” said the study’s lead author, Travis Nemkov, PhD, associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado Anschutz. “Based on these data, we don’t have guidance as to whether people should or should not participate in these types of events; what we can say is, when they do, that persistent stress is damaging the most abundant cell in …
