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Racing sleigh dog could be moot the Lance Armstrongs of the canine tooth world , for their strength and endurance . young inquiry sheds light on how they do it .
sleigh dogs are well known for " mushing " each March in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race , the domain ’s recollective sled race . The canine competition underwrite 1,100 miles ( 1,770 km ) from Anchorage to Nome , Alaska , sometimes in just nine day .
Racing sled dogs are a mix of breeds, including Siberian Husky and Alaskan Malamute.
The dogs often trek through weighed down blizzards and endure temperatures as gloomy as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit ( minus 40 degrees C ) . The parky conditions are necessary for the dogs , which would overheat in balmier climes . That ’s because dogs ca n’t sudate , except through their paws , and they bring forth a tremendous amount of heat strictly from the combustion of calories during the race .
Michael Davis of Oklahoma State University ’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences has studied the sled frankfurter for the preceding 10 years . He hunt down tab - ups on the dog before and after races as well as during controlled experimentation for which he sets up slipstream with groups of sled dogs . The secret to the dog ' feats of day - to - day endurance lie in their ability to " reprogram " their torso ' reception to tension after just one day of competitor , something humans ca n’t do .
Davis plans to confront his late findings this hebdomad at a conference of the American Physiological Society in Hilton Head , S.C. If you were to attend a race , Davis say , you might be surprised that the dogs are not all purebred Siberian Huskies . Rather , they are cur , with a commixture of Husky , Alaskan Malamute , Pointer and other breeds .
Ultra athletes
Davis determine that just like human athletes , conditionedsled dogsshow body damage during their first 24-hour interval of exercise .
For illustration , when any athlete , canine orHomo sapiens , lumber the pavement or gelid ground for miles , snatch of muscular tissue enzymes and protein leak out out from their cellular telephone . scientist say this is a augury of cell impairment .
Our cells do recover in a day or so , but as presently as we go for another running , the same damage happens all over again .
For sled dogs , that ’s not the caseful . " If you then take them out and do exactly the same exercise the following day and the day after that , and the daytime after that , you do n’t extend to get that leakage [ of enzymes and proteins ] , " Davis toldLiveScience .
He added , " In the course of just a day or two , they manage to adapt their organization so that exercise that was wound a muscle cell here and there on the first day is no longer injuring muscle cell . "
Davis obtain the sled dog somehow reprogram their bodies after that first or second Clarence Day of training with an athletic armor of sort to forestall other bodily stresses as well .
Hungry canines
Thefour - legged pelt - ballsalso have appetites rivaling any human athlete . During race time of year , the dogs , which weigh a bare 55 pound ( 25 kg ) , consume 12,000 calories a day , Davis said .
For compare , Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps reportedly rust some 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day during competitions . But Phelps boast at least three prison term the weight of a race wienerwurst , Davis say .
" The challenge is arrest 12,000 calories into a little dog like that and it has to be very calorie - dense , " he said . " While they ’re racing , they ’re eating a dieting that is pushing between 60 and 70 per centum productive . "
( Every gram of blubber take nine kilocalorie , compare with the 4 calories in a gramme of protein or carbohydrate ) .
Whatever it is that allows sled dogs to chow down on so much fat food and stay healthy could be beneficial to humans . And so event of Davis ' findings have entailment for homo who have become obese or developed Type 2 diabetes .
" If you feast a diet that ’s very high fat to a human , a muckle of humans become rotund and they grow type 2 diabetes . And the hotdog do n’t , " Davis said . " There is no such thing as an obese Type 2 diabetic sled firedog despite the fact that they ’re eating a diet that should produce that . "
