Actual paper is here. While the study focused on runners and didn’t look into causation, the theory of damage done to digestive systems through prolonged exercise would be applicable to any endurance athlete.
I haven’t done any ultras and it has been a while since my last marathon or long distance tri, but at my colonoscopy a year ago they found far more polyps than would be considered normal. Had a second colonoscopy a year later and they found even more. So while they are figuring out what may be behind any link, I suggest everyone keep on top of their colonoscopy schedules. Note the change in guidelines to start when you turn 45.
I recommend (actually, my primary recommends) getting a REAL one, and not try the ColoGuard route; he said that CG has almost as many false positives as false negatives, so you’re gonna have to go in anyway
wouldn’t running have more adverse impact on digestive system than swimming and riding when the digestive system is generally not under a lot of mechanical stress?
Discussed here on the TriDoc podcast. Still very early days on this research and study. I’m 57 and had my second colonoscopy this year, my first at 50. EVERYONE should get it done.
Both my primary and the doc that performed my colonoscopy said the same thing @RandMart mentions regarding CG. Too many false positives as false negatives, etc. Standard colonoscopies are actually pretty easy…I didn’t even have to drink the 5gal bucket of laxative sugar syrup my parents used to have to a few years ago. Also, I get “extreme/intense training” but wouldn’t consistent training, be it endurance or not, weigh more positive in preventing or delaying the nasty diseases…paging Dr. Attia…? I think I’ll stay on top of my colonoscopy schedule and take my chances with endurance training.
Dev - they seem to be linking as a possibility here the diversion of blood away from the GI Tract - which I would sense is higher in running possibly than for swimming and cycling - less gross muscle recruitment in the latter two. I also see that the study was done in the Washington DC area, so wondering what type of heat conditions that most of the longer runs that these runners may have been doing as hotter running conditions would create even more of a shunting of blood away from the central organs to the periphery to help keep the body cool!
As for me - I’ve had 3 Colonoscopy’s on a 5 year schedule - each time they have found one or two benign polyps which I was told is well within the realm of normal!
The fact that this study did not include a control group is a mistake. I understand why, clinical trials are hard, but it makes their comparison with the prevalence in “normal people” unreliable.
Also, I will never do preventative colonoscopy, but fecal testing might be appropriate. Cancer screening in general is highly problematic. I understand not everyone will agree on this.
I think the flaw in the reasoning is that IF (and I say IF as there appears to be no control group) that runners have a higher incidence, I would firstly ask:
What is the definition of a runner
How many hours per week running
How many years of running
How many lifetime hours of running
What was average BMI of the runners (for lack of an appropriate proxy for body composition, because clearly heavier runners will have more mechanical stress in running)
Then from there, once we know for sure what is defined as a runner, and we actually know they get more colon cancer than couch potatoes, then establish any connection with incidence if the activity is other endurance sport.
Separately, I thought I read somewhere that elite milers (of which @Fleck would fall into a category of, at least at the regional level) have super high life longevity because their VO2Max is inane and if you start in youth with a super high V02Max you have more resources your entire life to do “basic things like walking around, eating and digesting” resulting in those things having less stress percentage wise on your body all the time through an entire life so eventually when the other guys VO2Max drops to 10 and the runner/miler is still at 30, its not even a competition on who gets to live longer. The ten V02Max guy is floored just taking a shower and needs to go rest and recover from that event.
So I would say to all ignore this fear mongering from a flawed study and keep working your VO2Max and take general care of what goes through your digestive tracts.
What’s missing, although maybe captured by BMI, is diet and alcohol use as some of the top contributing factors. Even an Ultra runner can have not so great diet and or be a drinker. Beer is very prevalent at the Ultra events I have spectated.
Here in Canada the home fecal test after 50 seems to be the standard. I asked my doc about getting a colonoscopy, he said no. Gotta love Canada’s ‘free’ healthcare…
Yeah, I mean it is easy to catch and cure but if you miss it for too long, your dead. I know of at least 2 people who simply skipped getting checked who dies very young from it.
there are a lot of things that this study lacks and I wouldn’t change my life based on the findings. But I look at it as a first step into the scientific process of discovery. Sure there was no specific control group for this effort, but we do know that as a group, the people they examined are well outside of statistical norms. The interesting research will be trying to understand and isolate the correlation and then determine the causation. So go ahead and increase your VO2Max, but also make sure you get a camera shoved up your ass every few years.
Studies on screening have traditionally overestimated the benefit and underestimated the cost. This is why for example breast cancer and prostate cancer screening has been reduced dramatically and lung cancer screening is still a hotly debated topic.
The easy to catch and cure is really not so well-established. I am definitely not giving anyone medical advice and I would always recommend everyone to discuss with their physicians. I work in medicine and have read a lot of literature, which lead me to the conclusion I have made for my own personal situation.
Agreed, that this is the first step towards discovery. The findings while interesting are not anything we should be basing decisions on for our lives. Perhaps there is an actual connection between running and colon cancer, perhaps there is not (it’s why I brought up the counter view on the findings from elite milers and associated VO2Max on their longevity relative to normal humans).
Probably the big takeaway, is do good things for your digestive tract. Eat from the outside aisles of the grocery store, cut out alcohol, limit caffeine, limit consumption of packaged foods, get 8 hrs of sleep, reduce life stress, don’t smoke
But everything in the above paragraph we all know, it’s easy to do for 1 hrs per day, but keeping up the discipline 8760 hours per year for multiple decades, that’s a different animal altogether!!!
Mammography is still standard where I live. Prostate cancer is typically very slow growing and for many, they’ll die of something else first. That’s why they are less interested in screening over a certain age.
Colon cancer isn’t like that though. If you only find it because you have symptoms, you’re probably too late.