Functional Medicine and Nike

Last year I attended a continuing education class, and learned more about medical foods and about functional medicine doctors. Not only did the class enhance my knowledge, it also provided the impetus to seek a functional medicine doctor in my area. I liked the idea of digesting certain foods and supplements to improve my health. So, I made an appointment, and then had to figure out why I was seeing that physician. I told that doctor that I wanted to run faster. Dr. Kristin took a history, provided me with information regarding medicinal foods and set up an appointment for bloodwork. The results came back from Genova Diagnostics and indicated that my riboflavin-B2 and folic acid-B9 were low. She then referred me to a company that created a personalized supplement that I currently take in powder form. Although I was in good medical health prior, I will continue taking this supplement at least until I run my first four races in 2019. At that juncture, I will compare my running times to years past to determine if I have increased my running time speed. Then out of the blue, I ran across a July 22, 2018 article in the New York Times titled “What If a $250 Shoe Actually Made You Run Faster?” I now have at least two options for increased running speed. In this article, a survey was implemented to see if the Nike claim that their Zoom Vaporfly allowed people to run 4% faster. The article, Incorporated, a statistical model based on runner traits such as weather, age, prerace training ; runners previous race times; runners who ran in the same pair of races; personal record when switching shoes; and after runners switch to new shoes in an attempt to verify Nike’s claim. The authors employed Strava to track runners running times, and personal runner communication, per the type and/or model of running shoe used for 500,000 Marathon and half Marathon running times since 2014. To Be Continued