Researchers Seek to Demystify the Metabolic Magic of Sled Dogs
Just read an article in the New York Times Science section about military funded researchers at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M university who are studying the metabolism of sled dogs who run the Iditarod race in Alaska. The military spending is clearly in the eternal pursuit of building the super soldier for our military. The dogs are interesting though. Apparently they change their metabolism right before they start running the 1,100 mile long race and go from a metabolism that is similar to ours to one similar to that of a person at rest. They burn less fat and glycogen during this period and thus don't reach that feeling of burn out as easily as we do. These dogs run 100 miles per day and average 230 calories burnt per pound of weight. In contrast a cyclist in the Tour de France will burn 100 calories per pound of weight. The dogs' ability to burn more calories without resorting to the fat and glycogen stores ensures that they don't chew up their reserves and thus avoid the worst aspects of fatigue.
The article first made me marvel at the sled dogs, a perfect machine created by nature. Then it made me disgusted as to how our government might use this research to alter the physiology of our soldiers to make them "run" longer and harder. I suppose a lot of our medical and technological breakthroughs must have come in this way.
Scientists are studying sled dogs that run the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in an attempt to understand why the dogs are "fatigue-proof."
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