Acute effects of ultra-endurance running on the upper respiratory tract symptoms among the recreational women runners

Abstract

Regular exercise in moderate intensities and for moderate durations has been very effective in promoting functional health and disease prevention capacity. However, in the recent past several motivated individuals are trying to involve in high intensity and very long duration aerobic dominant activities like marathon running, ultra-endurance cycling etc to enhance their health fitness and functional health. Though the general perception is that exercise is a positive tool in bringing positive changes in the health, the exercise seems a stressful activity which also promotes oxidative and inflammatory damages. Especially the high intensity and very long duration and sustained activities like marathon running may induce uncontrolled or excessive oxidative and inflammatory processes that might compromise the whole-body immunity and specially in acute conditions, the immediate effect may be on the respiratory tract physiology. Recreational runners who are taking up running as their favourite physical activity to promote health may not prepare adequately to tackle these negative pathological processes and may prone for frequent respiratory infections. It is more specifically important for the women recreational runners, as their immune suppression may be much aggressive due to these acute high intensity exercises like marathon training. It is important for the women recreational runners as most of them are aged, need to regularly monitor their upper respiratory tract health through credible quantification techniques and also should adopt excellent strategies of training and recovery like scientific physical training before the event and also the excellent nutritional strategies.