Lactic acid may or may not be bad for athletic endeavors. For more on this, read here, or go take a long walk off a short pier. Athletic endeavors are, for the vast, vast, vasty-vast-vast majority of us, just a hobby. Ride your damn bike.
But what if athleticism is bad for you? I mean, of course it's not, but what if it also is? We already know it is... ALS has been shown to be correlated with slimness and the sporting life. If that doesn't scare the bejeesus out of you, I don't know what will!
It's not like anyone's immortal (with the obvious exceptions), but what a horrible way to go. Trapped in a non-functioning body, with a fully intact mind. There's nothing dignified about that.
And then there's the big C. I won't get into the ramifications of terminal cancer, because I'm no more expert than any of you. Pretty sure it's not good, though.
We've all heard the warnings about how to minimize the risk of cancer - don't smoke, don't tan, don't reuse water bottles, etc - but this one is new:
A team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) has found that lactic acid is an important energy source for tumor cells. In further experiments, they discovered a new way to destroy the most hard-to-kill, dangerous tumor cells by preventing them from delivering lactic acid.
That first sentence shook me to the core. I make lots of lactic acid, which apparently is the fuel of choice of the most dangerous cells. Am I putting myself at elevated risk every time I sprint or climb?
Perhaps not. In fact, much like cell phone radiation and blah blah blah, this may just be some good ol' fashioned pseudoscientific fear mongering.
The second sentence gives me hope. Maybe it's pseudoscience as well, but maybe it isn't. Maybe these researchers have found another weapon, maybe even a better weapon, in the fight against cancer. Wouldn't that be something?
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