A thought I had while running

Can you point me toward some information that shows that female hormones are added to food/water in the US?

I will try and find you something concrete... I am not sure that they are added... They are in bottled water from the low quality plastics and i think they seap into tap water and are not removed... i will atempt to find this out.

what book did you read, michael colgan's book?

It is the Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford

Estrogen mimicking compounds are not added to anything, but are a byproduct or environmental degradation product of other compounds. Many pesticides, PCBs, and pharmacueticals that have these qualities, even THC is estrogen mimicking. A big source to the environment is the birth control pill. Millions of women are using it and the bulk of it is ends up in the water treatment plants which do not remove these compound. Peer reviewed studies have shown that male fish downstream of these plants have spontaneously changed their gender.

Pretty freaky.

I think rampant obesity is the most likely (dietary) cause of US distance problems. Plus, east African women haven't been running (on a large scale) for nearly as long as the men. It's an artifact of the culture, not the women's talent.

Isn't cow's milk full of artificial hormones?

The fish changing sex was originally blamed on nonoxynols.

A lot of companies took them out of their products even though the study was flawed. I don't think anyone knows what happened to the fish.

What about the Kenyans and others who live in this country and still run well? They have to drink and eat the same as people born here.

Even if what you say is true, that some estrogen-like compounds could be found in our diet, that would NOT explain why Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc are better runners than us. You are barking up the wrong tree. Need we go over the reasons one more time?? Really?

 They are genetically superior distance runners: this is not an excuse, this is not racism, this is a fact. If your family tree is full of natural, distance runners, with thin, lanky bodies, who have been running/walking long distances as part of their existence for centuries, guess what? It is more likely that you will be born with some of these natural running ability genes. If your recent family tree is full of fat-asses who have never even walked to the corner store, it is not impossible, but is VERY unlikely that you will be born with great distance runner genes. Guess what??God-given? talent and genes count?..A LOT!!

 Environment: if you are born into a society where hard work is often a must, where running is a form of getting around/transportation from the time you are born?.guess what? You will probably develop the ability to run rather easily. Add to that the fact that your environment also might contain altitude, mountains, soft trails, and this is where you are doing all of that running?.again, that might help you?..a lot. Add to that the fact that you might be really poor, and one of the very few ways to strike it rich would be for you to develop your natural running abilities?guess what? You might pursue it. And since your families survival/well being might even depend on your running success, you might be willing work REALLY hard at it. And don?t forget, hard work is not foreign to you. You didn?t grow up getting driven the 1/4 miles to school in Mom?s BMW SUV and then being picked up also. And you did not play Nintendo for 8 hours after school. Add to that the fact that the people you will have been running with your whole life are all GREAT runners, and it might also help you.

 Coaching: while I think the first 2 reasons are the MOST important, let?s give some credit to the African?s knowledge of the sport. They have a lot of guys who have been there, done that (such as World Records, Gold medals, etc). They pass those experiences on to their athletes. That does not hurt either. (though even without that, the first 2 reasons would make their runners great period).

So, what do you think, do you think your ?estrogen? theory is more responsible for the African runners dominance over the US and England, or do you think the 3 above points might have a LITTLE more to do with it? Whaddya think?superior distance running genes, environment (on MANY levels), and coaching vs. a non-proven diet theory?which argument wins?

Kurdt while I think you put alittle more thought into

the subject matter than most and you also read quite abit

on the subject; however, I disagree somewhat! The genetics

does play a factor; however, tanzanians and surrounding

countries lifestyles and hardship are similar to the kenyans. There are many countries where the people have been running for centuries and still do not produce Kenya's quality of runners!

The genetic theory may hold ALITTLE truth but the fact of the matter is they take their GOD GIVEN ABILITY and

train, train, train, and train. Then just when everyone

else would quit the kenyans train some more! This is only

my opinion; however, I had the pleasure of having some Kenyans as teammates, including a former World Record Holder being an alumni of my school.

VIPAM

If we had frozen time 20 odd years ago I'm sure someone could have come up with research which showed that the British were genetically designed to be distance runners. I remain unconvinced that Kenyans are genetically superior to other nations, though on the whole they are best in the world at the moment. I believe this is down to cultural and social differences first and foremost. Who knows what may happen in the future?

The fact often overlooked is that the Kenyans (and other African nations) have carried on improving while the rest of the world have, in general, slowed down. For example, Britain's David Moorcroft's ran a World Record of 13:00.41 in 1982. 20 years laters the WR is roughly 20 seconds faster (12:39.36, Haile Gebrselassie ) while the fastest British athlete this year is approximately 20 seconds slower than Moorcroft (John Mayock 13:19.43 - although even that is an improvement on recent seasons). If 'non-African' athletes were running the times they used to, they would still be very competitive at the highest level. I'm not sure there is the will to do that, but it's not impossible.

Now that Mickey D's is switching to their new french fry oil, American distance running will rule!

Andrew, you've figured it out! Our whole distance downturn is a direct result of a Communist plot to pollute our precious bodily fluids!

Whats wrong with being a communist. Its just sharing everything for the good of the group. That doesn't seem bad to me, idealy it won't work since people are greedy.

It is possible to have an unexpressed thought.