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Drinking lots of water may not be of much use to marathoners
Washington, Apr 23 : Runners may just stop gulping down litres of water while undertaking their laps.
Sports scientists have found that large fluid intake has absolutely no effect on body temperature or performance.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr Chris Byrne, at the University of Exeter.
As part of the study, scientists monitored a group of male runners taking part in the Singapore Army Half-Marathon, a 21km race that took place in temperatures between 26 and 29 degrees Celsius and 75-90 percent relative humidity.
Researchers provided telemetric temperature sensors to the runners which they ingested a night before the race.
These sensors contain temperature-sensitive quartz crystal oscillators that vibrate at a frequency relative to its surrounding temperature and communicate the temperature by radio wave to a recording device worn by the runner.
Scientists found that over half of the runners had body temperatures exceeding 40 degrees and all lost an average of 1.5 litres of sweat per hour. Runners replaced between 6 and 73 percent of their sweat losses during the race.
There was no relationship between the amount of fluid each runner consumed, his body temperature and overall performance in the race. The highest body temperature observed (41.7°C) was recorded from a runner replacing the greatest amount of his sweat losses (73 percent) and therefore being the least dehydrated of the study sample.
‘I would encourage those people taking part in today’s Marathon to be well hydrated before the race, but not to feel they need to drink water throughout the event. Listen to your body and drink if you feel thirsty, but drinking several litres of water will not help you run any faster,” Byrne said.
The findings of the study were published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, which is published by the American College of Sports Medicine. (ANI)
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