Pollution affects women's marathon times

[Andrew A.]

UPI could benefit from tighter editing: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/03/11/Pollution-affects-womens-marathon-times/UPI-81191268366021/

[grasshopper]

I wonder what data and methodology they used to determine that it affected women more than men in all those marathons.

[Ryan]

Grasshopper, I was wondering the same thing.

[Andrew A.]

I agree, I would be interested in seeing this study published online.  The hypothesis does make sense from a theoretical standpoint, but how they found the proof would be interesting.

[Ed]

Not much info in that article.
 
From some of the quotes in the article - it seems to me that it isn't women that the pollution has the deletarious affect on - it is individuals with the smaller trachea.
 
Being a little guy myself (only 5'6"    )  that might put me into the catagory of those that are effected.
 
In the general population women are on average smaller than men - so this general size difference would skew data into a result that would seem to be gender based.

[Ryan]

Ed, that's an interesting interpretation. Does it have to do more with size of airways or other body size factors or with gender? Honestly, size would make more sense in some ways.

On a tangent, Ed, you seem to be upset about your height. Here's some food for thought that may make you think twice if that concern involves running. The reigning Olympic marathon champion is 5'4". The current marathon world record holder is 5'5". The current 5000m and 10,000m record holder and reigning Olympic and World 5000m and 10,000m champion is 5'3". Generally, it seems like the 5'3" to 5'8" range seems to be a sweet spot for a lot of great distance runners.

[Ed]

Hmmm - maybe I should work harder and realize the anecdotal - non-scientifically or statistically supported height advantage that I might have.  Hell - that kind of evidence is good enough for many articles that argue against running.
 
This is all tongue in cheek of course - and I am just being silly late on a Friday.
 
Ryan - Most of us shrimpy guys have some hang-ups about being short.  BUT - you make a good point I might just be in that sweet spot to be a better runner if I just worked harder. 
 
Heal - stitches - heal!
 

[Andrew A.]

For similar sized people (BMI, height/weight), females tend to have smaller airways than males do.

Maturation of the airways and lungs continues through childhood and into   adolescence during which time, for the most part, males continue to   have larger lungs than females. Further, the conducting airways of adult   males are larger than those of adult females, even when lung or body   sizes are equivalent [8].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2391086/

[Ed]

So - body size and gender likely have nothing to do with this issue - other than the by and large (no pun intended) average difference in males/ females trachea/airway sizes.
 
It might have been more appropraite to state that pollution affects the times of individuals with smaller airways and smaller lungs - which are more often present in female athletes than their male counterparts.

[Andrew A.]

So - body size and gender likely have nothing to do with this issue

No, gender appears to have a strong correlation, as even women who are similar to men in body size or lung size tend to have smaller conducting airways than those male counterparts.

[Andrew A.]

On the other hand, apparently men may be more prone to diaphragm fatigue than women are:
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/109/1/35?rss=1

[Ed]

So - women have limitations in some areas and men have limitations in others areas.  Now all that is left is to measure every possible issue that faces runners and list whom it effects the most.
 
Then we'll know if one gender has an inherent genetic advantage over the other.
 
Train hard and train right - and you'll outrun many other people - no matter your or their their gender.

[Ryan]

So - women have limitations in some areas and men have limitations in others areas.  Now all that is left is to measure every possible issue that faces runners and list whom it effects the most.
 
Then we'll know if one gender has an inherent genetic advantage over the other.

Or we look at the abundance of race times available, the fact that many men every year run faster than the women's world record in any distance I can think of. That's pretty convincing evidence about who has the advantage.
 

Train hard and train right - and you'll outrun many other people - no matter your or their their gender.

That's precisely the case for 99+% of the running world.

[Ed]

Or we look at the abundance of race times available, the fact that many men every year run faster than the women's world record in any distance I can think of. That's pretty convincing evidence about who has the advantage.
 

Are the running times a fact of the running programs and interest in the school systems and interest in running in general?  I think that males have for many decades been more "into" running than women or in general are more serious about getting faster all of the time and beating others.  Some women are more into the "group" aspect of the race than they are in beating each and every last person that they can, pushing their bodies past what they thought they were capable of - hell I rarely do that.
 
I think the only way to really compare this is with the elite runners - males and females that have been running and training to win for many years.  But there are too many variables - even with the same coach - the coach will likely not give them the same training effort, use the same techniques with them etc . .
 
There is some results based evidence of something going on - Has the time gap been the same for several decades or is the time gap closing?

[Andrew A.]

So - women have limitations in some areas and men have limitations in others areas.  Now all that is left is to measure every possible issue that faces runners and list whom it effects the most.
 
Then we'll know if one gender has an inherent genetic advantage over the other.

Or we look at the abundance of race times available, the fact that many men every year run faster than the women's world record in any distance I can think of. That's pretty convincing evidence about who has the advantage.

I was going to say: that one has been pretty clearly determined already.