When the Rarámuri win a race, the running world takes notice. They’ve been mythologized as “superhuman” endurance athletes—legends of long-distance running whose way of life, culture, and even genetics seem perfectly tuned for the sport. And in many ways, the awe is warranted. But when we move beyond the podium shots and ask questions like, What happens to their joints in their 60s? How do Rarámuri women navigate menopause?—the science falls silent.
Not because the answers aren’t out there. But because no one has done the work to ask the right questions in the right way.
What We Know From Parallel Populations
Since direct research on the Rarámuri doesn’t exist, we can look to similar Indigenous endurance cultures and highly active rural populations for clues.
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Hunter-gatherer and subsistence groups like the Hadza (Tanzania) and Tsimane (Bolivia) maintain high movement volume throughout life—walking, carrying, climbing, occasional running. Their joints often stay functional well into older age, with osteoarthritis rates shaped more by the type of loading than the total volume. A varied, low-intensity, all-day movement pattern seems protective.
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East African highland runners (e.g., Kalenjin) develop efficient biomechanics from years of walking/running on natural terrain with minimal footwear. They show how gradual, lifelong progression builds both resilience and economy of movement.
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Andean highlanders sustain heavy workloads at altitude and remain active into later life, with joint health varying by the demands of daily labor.
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Highly active rural/agricultural populations show that physical labor and varied movement help preserve mobility, but repetitive, unbalanced tasks can increase OA in certain joints.
Across these groups, common threads emerge:
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Minimal or no footwear, varied terrain, and a cadence shaped by necessity.
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Strong muscles built through daily functional tasks.
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Diets rich in whole, unprocessed foods that support bone and connective tissue health.
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Menopause navigated without widespread HRT, often supported instead by movement, diet, and community-based knowledge.
These parallels suggest that the Rarámuri’s lifestyle—lifelong, varied movement; functional strength; nutrient-dense diet—likely protects their joints and supports a different menopause experience than is typical in industrialized settings. But that’s still an educated guess, not evidence specific to them.
What We Don’t Know
When it comes to Indigenous Peoples—especially those of the occupied Native lands of what’s now the United States and Canada—the research gaps are even wider.
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Joint health: There’s virtually no longitudinal data connecting traditional movement patterns to joint health outcomes later in life. Most arthritis research on Native communities reflects post-colonization realities: sedentary lifestyles forced by displacement, loss of land, and systemic barriers to healthcare.
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Menopause: Studies on menopause in Indigenous women here are sparse, and almost always framed through Western medicalization rather than cultural understandings or traditional support systems.
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Sports science: Research on endurance performance in Indigenous populations is rare, and when it exists, it’s often not led by Indigenous researchers or done in partnership with the communities studied.
Why the Gaps Exist
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Research bias – Sports science and medical research overwhelmingly focus on white, young-adult, Western participants. Indigenous endurance cultures are often celebrated in storytelling but ignored in long-term study design.
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Funding priorities – Grants favor topics seen as “economically relevant” or in line with national health agendas, not small or rural communities with unique needs.
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Colonial disruption – The very movement patterns we might study have been altered or erased by forced assimilation, loss of traditional lands, and barriers to cultural practice.
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Mistrust of institutions – Given a long history of extractive and harmful research practices, many Indigenous communities restrict outside research unless it is community-led and culturally safe.
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Narrative oversimplification – Media reduces groups like the Rarámuri to soundbites (“born to run”) instead of treating them as whole, complex peoples whose lifelong health is worth deep study.
Why It Matters
The absence of data isn’t neutral—it shapes how we understand, coach, and care for athletes from these communities and beyond. Without it, we rely on extrapolation from other groups, which risks overgeneralization. At the same time, ignoring the patterns in parallel cultures means missing valuable lessons:
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Movement ecology—varied, functional, terrain-based activity—may be more protective for joints than “X miles per week” alone.
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Community and cultural framing of menopause can significantly change the lived experience of symptoms.
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Footwear, terrain, and gradual adaptation are as important as genetics in endurance success.
Until there’s Indigenous-led, community-centered research on these questions, we’ll be piecing the puzzle together from parallels. But that doesn’t mean the conversation shouldn’t happen now. In fact, asking these questions is the first step toward shifting the research priorities.
While these gaps are frustrating, they’re not inevitable. There’s a crucial need for Indigenous-led research—studies that are initiated, designed, and controlled by the communities themselves. These efforts should be rooted in relationships, not extraction, and center health priorities that reflect cultural values.
If this piece finds its way into the hands of someone with the resources, influence, or connections to shift these priorities, my hope is simple: fund the work, but let the communities lead it.
Because these aren’t just “superhuman runners” in a headline. They are whole peoples, with entire lifespans, whose health and knowledge deserve more than myth.