"Who Has the Speed Gene, and Who Doesn't?"

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13 years ago 11/12/2010 5:12pm EST

re: vdawg

For long distances I wonder how much can be explained by epigenetic changes in body weight--

"In average, African Americans were heavier than the West Africans (by an average of 1.6 BMI units for women and 3 BMI units for men). Plasma hsCRP, haptoglobin, and IL-6 (but not TNF-α level) were higher in African Americans than in West Africans. In both populations, BMI was associated with markers of inflammation and with HOMAIR, and these associations remained significant after adjusting for sex and age."

Most elite marathoners have a BMI of 18.5-20.

A BMI of 17.5 is informally used to diagnose anorexia nervosa.

You just can't starve yourself that light and train hard.

13 years ago 11/14/2010 2:55am EST

re: junk master

13 years ago 11/14/2010 11:30am EST

re: vdawg

vdawg wrote:
someone chime in.

I was recently reading a book on genetic history called Before the Dawn (Nicholas Wade. Among other interesting ideas there was this on Kenyans running. This is the only excerpt I could find but there is a little more explanation in the book. here is also mention that while West Africans dominate sprints and middle distances, Kenyans have not had much success when they drift form long distances.

Run like the wind

The Kenyan Kalenjin who comprise less 2% of Kenya’s population represent 20% of all winners in major distance running events… How did this happen? For centuries the Kalenjin have been cattle rustlers, though they regard their actions as repossession of property that was theirs by divine right. The repossession [rustling] procedure often required journeys of over 100 miles so that the livestock could be far away before their ex-custodians realized their loss. The better a young man was at raiding – in large part a function of his speed and endurance – the more cattle he accumulated. And since cattle were what prospective husband needed to pay for a bride, the more cattle he had, the more brides he could buy, and the more children (with his genes) he could father. P197

13 years ago 11/14/2010 2:58pm EST

re: Anthropology Reader

Anthropology Reader wrote:
Run like the wind
The Kenyan Kalenjin who comprise less 2% of Kenya’s population represent 20% of all winners in major distance running events… How did this happen? For centuries the Kalenjin have been cattle rustlers, though they regard their actions as repossession of property that was theirs by divine right. The repossession [rustling] procedure often required journeys of over 100 miles so that the livestock could be far away before their ex-custodians realized their loss. The better a young man was at raiding – in large part a function of his speed and endurance – the more cattle he accumulated. And since cattle were what prospective husband needed to pay for a bride, the more cattle he had, the more brides he could buy, and the more children (with his genes) he could father. P197

The numbers are 10% and 90% (of Kenyan distance runners).

The cattle rustling theory is the kind of conjecture that drunk college students make, and is not a reality.

While most Kenyans have ancestors that are West African through the Bantu expansions, the Kalenjins trace their ancestry to what is now Ethiopia and the Sudan. Coincidence there? Not.

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