Run for Your Life: An Ancestral Health Approach to Running

Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, MD is a family medicine physician and Air Force Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, as well as a Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine. Mark has been a competitive runner for almost four decades, with more than one hundred marathon and ultramarathon finishes, and he continues to compete as a national-level masters runner. Mark also owns the first minimalist running and walking shoe store, Two Rivers Treads.

In this podcast Dr. Tommy Wood, MD talks with Mark about his new book Run For Your Life, which outlines the science and the soul of running and nutrition for maintaining a vigorous life. They discuss the aspects of physiology that suggest humans evolved to run, and the features of modern living that can result in foot pain and arthritis. Mark shares his best training tips for both new and experienced runners, as well as resources for healing painful foot conditions.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Mark Cucuzzella:

[00:00:23] Book: Run for Your Life: How to Run, Walk, and Move Without Pain or Injury and Achieve a Sense of Well-Being and Joy, by Dr. Mark Cucuzzella.

[00:01:54] Books: Fat Chance and The Fat Chance Cookbook, by Dr. Robert Lustig.

[00:02:07] Gary Taubes.

[00:04:33] The process of writing a book.

[00:05:44] Co-writer Broughton Coburn.

[00:07:18] Collaboration between Tommy and Mark on low-carb paper: Cucuzzella, Mark T., et al. "A low-carbohydrate survey: Evidence for sustainable metabolic syndrome reversal." Journal of Insulin Resistance 2.1 (2017): 1-25.

[00:08:09] Running.

[00:08:39] Book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

[00:08:42] Features of human physiology and skeleton that support bipedal running; Study: Bramble, Dennis M., and Daniel E. Lieberman. "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo." Nature 432.7015 (2004): 345.

[00:09:31] Book: Story of the Human Body, by Dan Lieberman.

[00:11:20] Zones of training.

[00:12:10] Minimal shoes.

[00:15:12] The road to health for people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.

[00:15:34] Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD and Jeff Volek, PhD, RD.

[00:16:41] Slow jogging; Dr. Hiroaki Tanaka. Videos: 1, 2, and how to slow jog, with Dr. Tanaka.

[00:18:46] The facia and how it relates to running.

[00:20:37] Lawrence van Lingen.

[00:20:53] Book: Anatomy Trains, by Thomas Myers.

[00:21:23] Book: Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System, by Carla Stecco, MD.

[00:22:17] Videos: Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching: The Fuzz Speech and Strolling Under the Skin.

[00:23:50] Foam rolling.

[00:25:04] The gastrocsoleus complex.

[00:28:23] Plantar fasciitis; Mark’s ebook.

[00:29:47] Hallux valgus (bunion).

[00:31:06] Relieving foot pain: Correct Toes.

[00:32:59] Insole: Barefoot Science.

[00:33:47] Knee osteoarthritis and pain.

[00:34:28] Dr. Casey Kerrigan; Jay Dicharry.

[00:36:11] Modern-day influences on osteoarthritis; Study: Berenbaum, Francis, et al. "Modern-day environmental factors in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis." Nature Reviews Rheumatology(2018): 1.

[00:37:17] Dick Beardsley, Roger Robinson.

[00:39:35] Meb Keflezighi.

[00:41:14] Cardiovascular benefits vs complications of training.

[00:42:44] Podcast: How to Reconcile Performance with Longevity.

[00:44:22] Bernard Lagat.

[00:44:56] Eliud Kipchoge.

[00:48:48] Runforyourlifebook.com and www.DrMarksdesk.com.

[00:50:58] PAH Winter Retreat in Scottsdale, AZ.