Water won't Help Marathon Runners Keep Cool
TUESDAY, 24 APRIL 2007
Runners in the recent London Marathon may be tempted to down several liters of water to keep their cool and achieve their best time, but large fluid intake does not achieve either, according to a sports scientist from the University of Exeter.
With the marathon's temperatures reaching 19 degrees Celsius, the average runner will potentially lose almost a liter of sweat every hour and reach a body temperature of over 39 degrees. The sporting community has long assumed that drinking large amounts of water helps keep the body's temperature down, which improves performance. A recent study led by Dr Chris Byrne of the University of Exeter shows that the level of fluid intake has absolutely no effect on body temperature or performance.
According to Dr. Byrne, the conventional view among both scientists and the fitness media is that fully replacing sweat losses by fluid intake during exercise will reduce an athlete's body temperature and improve performance. Based on his research, which measured internal body temperature continuously during an actual race for the first time, revealed no evidence that fluid intake makes runners cooler or improve performance.
To read more about this news story, please visit www.sciencedaily.com.
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