The marathon contestants saw that the levels of myelin are temporarily decreased after the race in the brain areas participating in the control of the engine and the sensory and emotional therapy.Credit: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty
The fatty substance that isolates electrical signals that are transmitted by neurons may be a source of energy for the brain – especially when the reserves are low. This exciting possibility has sparked a long -distance contestant brains, before and after that it runs a marathon.
Surveying operations indicate that the levels of the buffer material – called the myelin – decreased in the brain areas participating in motor control and sensory and emotional treatment after these arduous endeavors, only to apostasy to nature Within two months of races.
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Although the idea of myelin as an energy source is not completely new, no one has thought about studying whether this is the case for the contestants, says Carlos Matti, a marathon and neuroscientist at the Basque University in Liwa, Spain, which led the research, which was published today in Nature metabolism1. “These results open the way to consider that myelin fat contributes to the metabolism of brain energy, at least in some cases.”
“The temporary loss of the two miles after the race is not something that the contestants should be interested in. Its team is currently conducting studies to study whether the decrease in myelin has a temporary effect on the cognitive function, and it has yet appeared empty, indicating that the effect is either very small or not present. “There are no grave changes in the function of the brain,” he says. In fact, the hot is suspected that the use and regeneration of myelin is useful because it “practices a metabolism in the brain.”
Mustafa Bohrara, who studies brain and aging in the National Institutes of American Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He says that the decrease of myelin lasts for a short period only, so it is not about, he says, and the brain process learns how to fix the myelin quickly, and “can be very useful.”
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The idea of the study came to MATETE, which managed 18 marathon, during training. Think how people complete such difficult races. Looking at the abundance of myelin in the brain – it includes up to 40 % of the central nervous system by weight – and its oily composition, the Mato asked whether the brain might use the material “strategically”, allowing it to tension when other energy sources are low.
His team used MRI (MRI) to wipe the brains of ten contestants – eight men and women – within 48 hours before and after competing in many marathon in Spain in 2022 and 2023. The authors found that the levels of myelin were much lower in 12 ceremonies after the race, compared to before. “It was not much, but it was a clear decrease in certain areas of the brain,” says Matte.
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The affected areas participate in motor coordination, sensory perception and emotions, areas that are expected to be active during the marathon race. “We feel a lot of things while running and we have to talk to ourselves a little to continue,” he says.
The researchers photographed the brains of some contestants again in the weeks and months that followed the races. Note that some “re -installation” had occurred after two weeks and that the levels of myelin had completely recovered after two months.