Ultramarathon Running Could Rapidly Age and Breakdown Red Blood Cells

Running can be a great way to keep the body moving and to stay in shape. But extreme endurance running, or ultramarathon running, can also have adverse effects on the body, including damage to red blood cells that can impair their function.

A new study in Blood Red Cells & Iron joins a growing body of research that finds these ultra forms of exercise could be doing more harm than good to the body.

“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 the body,” said Travis Nemkov, the study’s lead author and associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado Anschutz, in a press release.