Ultra Marathon Race Competition and Immune Function

Abstract

This chapter reviews key exercise immunology findings from five years of research on 350 athletes in the 160-km Western States Endurance Run (WSER), a point-to-point trail run in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of northern California. Until this series of studies on WSER ultra-marathoners, little was known regarding the response of the immune system to severe exertion. This chapter describes how the immune system responds to running 160 km and underlying mechanisms including oxidative stress, muscle damage, inflammation, endotoxemia, and ibuprofen use