TY  - JOUR
AB  - The TransEuropeFootRace (TEFR) was one of the most extreme multistage competitions worldwide. The ultramarathon took the runners over a distance of 4487 km, from Bari, Italy, to the North Cape, Norway, in 64 days. The participating ultra-long-distance runners had to complete almost two marathons per day (~70 km). The race was accompanied by a research team analysing adaptations of different organ systems of the human body that were exposed to a chronic lack of regeneration time. Here, we analyzed runner's urine using mass spectrometric profiling of thousands of low-molecular weight compounds. The results indicated that pre-race molecular factors can predict finishers and separate them from nonfinishers already before the race. These observations were related to the training volume as finishers ran about twice as many kilometers per week before TEFR than nonfinishers, thus apparently achieving a higher performance level and resistance against overuse. While this hypothesis needs to be validated in future long-distance races, the bioprofiling experiments suggest that the competition readiness of the runners is measurable and might be adjustable.
AU  - König, S.*
AU  - Jockenhöfer, C.*
AU  - Billich, C.*
AU  - Beer, M.*
AU  - Machann, J.
AU  - Schmidt-Trucksäss, A.*
AU  - Schütz, U.*
C1  - 60985
C2  - 49779
CY  - Journal Production Dept, Robert Stevenson House, 1-3 Baxters Place, Leith Walk, Edinburgh Eh1 3af, Midlothian, Scotland
TI  - Long distance running – Can bioprofiling predict success in endurance athletes?
JO  - Med. Hypotheses
VL  - 146
PB  - Churchill Livingstone
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0306-9877
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Neandertals were an anatomically distinct hominoid species inhabiting a vast geographical area ranging from Portugal to western Siberia and from northern Europe to the Middle East. The species became extinct 28,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) in Europe 40,000 years ago. There has been considerable debate surrounding the main causes of the extinction of Neandertals. After at least 200,000 years of successful adaption to the climate, flora and fauna of Eurasia, it is not clear why they suddenly failed to survive. For many years, climate change or competition with anatomically modern human (AMH) have been the leading hypotheses. Recently these hypotheses have somewhat fallen out of favour due to the recognition that Neandertals were a highly developed species with complex social structure, culture and technical skills. Were AMHs lucky and survived some catastrophe that eradicated the Neandertals? It seems unlikely that this is the case considering the close timing of the arrival of AMHs and the disappearance of Neandertals. Perhaps the arrival of AMHs also brought additional new non-human microscopic inhabitants to the regions where Neandertals lived and these new inhabitants contributed to the disappearance of the species. We introduce a medical hypothesis that complements other recent explanations for the extinction of Neandertals. After the ancestors of Neandertals left Africa, their immune system adapted gradually to the pathogens in their new Eurasian environment. In contrast, AMHs continued to co-evolve with east African pathogens. More than 200,000 years later, AMHs carried pathogens that would have been alien to pre-historic Europe. First contact between long separated populations can be devastating. Recent European and American history provides evidence for similar events, where introduction of viral, protozoan or bacterial pathogens to immunologically naïve populations lead to mass mortality and local population extinction. We propose that a virus, possibly from the family Herpesviridae, contributed to Neandertal extinction.
AU  - Wolff, H.
AU  - Greenwood, A.D.*
C1  - 5833
C2  - 27804
SP  - 99-105
TI  - Did viral disease of humans wipe out the Neandertals?
JO  - Med. Hypotheses
VL  - 75
IS  - 1
PB  - Eden Press
PY  - 2010
SN  - 0306-9877
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Prenatal X-irradiation is shown as an example of a hazard which interferes even at low doses with skin differentiation. This treatment results in a marked endogenous leucotactic activity of the epidermis in the young adult offspring, closely resembling human psoriasis.
AU  - Schmahl, W.G.
C1  - 41759
C2  - 38840
SP  - 907-911
TI  - Psoriasis: Is it transplacentally induced?.
JO  - Med. Hypotheses
VL  - 6
IS  - 9
PY  - 1980
SN  - 0306-9877
ER  -