Is Running an Analogue of Anorexia Nervosa?

To the Editor: The article by Yates et al. (Feb. 3 issue)* is unfortunately typical of many of the medical or “health” articles in the lay running literature. They are long on conjecture and short on data. It is not unusual to find runners with unusual health beliefs (such as the authors' Case 1), but consider the sources of these beliefs. There is a need for medical information about running so that physicians can advise the 31 million Americans who run, but there is no need for articles like this. I hope that in the future the.