It also says:
For any runners concerned about this cerebral cannibalism, there’s good news: After two months, all of the runners’ myelin measures had recovered to their baseline levels.
Personally, I don’t think my brain would provide a very substantial meal!
Very interesting. Marathon was just a extreme case that allowed to exclude factors such as malnutrition, difficulties to metabolize nutrients, etc.
Now think about the brain consuming myelin due to malnutrition, elders having problems to absorb nutrients, etc. Wonder about the link to neuropathic pain, that stuff my parents talk about.
In the research, published March 24 in the journal Nature Metabolism, scientists observed declines in a key biomarker of myelin, a fatty tissue that insulates the connections between brain cells, in marathon runners just after a race. The study authors say this suggests the brain consumes myelin as an energy source under these extreme conditions.
isn’t it also the case of high-altitude long-term mountaneering?
I guess any activity that puts the body under sustained stress.
This stress is temporary when are young, but it seems to become the new normal as we age.