So I calculated how many miles the average mouse runs per day in a running wheel. It seems they run between 3 and 5 miles a day and they run for about 10-12 hours a day at a maximum speed of about 0.6 miles per hour.
If you assume that the average mouse has a stride length of 4 inches and the average human male closer to 6 feet that is a factor of ~18. So that would be similar to running 6 minute per mile for 10 hours every night.
Their secret is that they run barefoot.
i heard it was the cheese.
That and their natural Octo-Lacto lifestyle.
corcoran.jc wrote:
i heard it was the cheese.
The Tarahumara eat mice, so I'd say they are more impressive.
I forget what journal I read it in, but they were looking at aging in mice who ran on a wheel and who did not. Given a the freedom to run whenever they wanted, mice averaged about 4-5 kilometers in a 24 hour period. That was pretty impressive to me, as 4 kilometers/day from about puberty to late in life is no laughing matter, for a human or a mouse.
What they found is that running does not extend the maximum lifespan compared to the non-runners...but the mice who ran where very healthy until their last days alive (neuromuscular system was like a young mouse all through life), while the non-runners suffered illness.
So by running, you extend healthspan.
CH wrote:
So by running, you extend healthspan.
if you're a mouse
No...not only if you are a mouse. Check out the article by Charkravarty, E., et al titled: "Reduced Disability and Mortality Among Aging Runners" in the journal Arch Intern Med
Not only did running prevent death due to heart disease, stroke and cancer, but also due to infectious diseases.
It has also been shown to maintain the ends of chromosomes (telomere length) in both rodents and in humans (work done or partially done by the labs of Ulrich Laufs and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn)
If you aren't stupid about your running, you can do it and enjoy it for a very long time
Telomeres don't have anything to do with longevity or cancer. Mice have been made which lack telomeres and they are normal.
VOLES! I know a guy who has done some oxidant/antioxidant studies in voles allowed to run freely on wheels. Those damn things will run almost continuously for 8 hours a night. I can't open the articles on pubmed from home, but I remember him telling me 8-10k per night. The voles he used are about 13-15 grams, about half the size of the average research strain of mouse (25-30 grams).
Aghast wrote:
Telomeres don't have anything to do with longevity or cancer. Mice have been made which lack telomeres and they are normal.
Aghast...please tell me you are joking. First off...mice have never been made without telomeres...they have been made to lack the enzyme telomerase, but never telomeres. Second, the first-fifth or so generations of these mice had no ill effects, but once the telomeres became so short after subsequent generations, the mice had accelerated aging and inviable phenotypes. This is due to it taking time to whittle away at the ends of chromosomes. What the research shows is that telomerase isn't upregulated in cells of exercising individuals (which could actually be a cancer promoting activity), but the proteins that protect the ends of the chromosomes are upregulated, giving the telomeres extra protection. This prevents a crisis action on the cells once the ends become too short, which then inhibits the senescence phenotype. Senescence is the essence of aging, as these cells can no longer divide and perform their normal jobs and also help promote a nice tumor environment.
What would be interesting to study would be the effects of long distance running and the viability of reproduction for both men and women as they age into their late 30's/early to late 40's. Are germ cells more healthy due to years of running and protected through a hormesis effect of upregulating protective proteins and free radical scavenging enzymes, or are germ cells damaged due to the oxidative damage?
Voles are awesome. I had a couple when I was a kid cuz they were cuter and more entertaining than mice or hamsters. They run all day and all night.n.b. some voles get quite large, i.e. the water vole which is like a small muskrat (800+grams)
The Stache wrote:
VOLES! I know a guy who has done some oxidant/antioxidant studies in voles allowed to run freely on wheels. Those damn things will run almost continuously for 8 hours a night. I can't open the articles on pubmed from home, but I remember him telling me 8-10k per night. The voles he used are about 13-15 grams, about half the size of the average research strain of mouse (25-30 grams).