New Study Reports Effects of Endurance Running

CHICAGO—Using a mobile MRI unit, researchers followed runners for two months along a 4,500-kilometer course to study how their bodies responded to the high-stress conditions of an ultra-long-distance race, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

A series of MR images of the brain showing loss of gray matter volume. Image and caption courtesy of the RSNA.

"Due to the exceptional setting of this study, we could acquire huge amounts of unique data regarding how endurance running affects the body's muscle and body fat," said Uwe Schütz, M.D., a specialist in orthopedics and trauma surgery in the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at the University Hospital of Ulm in Germany. "Much of what we have learned so far can also be applied to the average runner."

To read the rest of the article, please visit:

New Study Reports Effects of Endurance Running