Today’s big topic: Young women risk serious consequences from intense training
Selma Siersted had not had her period for nine months, and on a run her body shut down. Today she still runs, but she is trying to do it differently.
What’s happening?
In the beginning, it felt fun and liberating for 25-year-old Selma Siersted to run. Over the course of 2025, she sharply intensified her training, building up to between 100 and 120 kilometers a week. She trained almost like a professional athlete, but with a full work and study life on the side — and without the setup of coaches, nutrition experts, and doctors that a pro athlete surrounds herself with.
»I started developing stress symptoms, and I was sad. I couldn’t calm down, even though I was completely exhausted. My thoughts were going in a thousand directions. And I stopped improving when I ran«, Selma Siersted says.
Research shows that if the body is pushed hard enough and doesn’t get the energy it needs, it shuts down essential functions. Researchers call it RED-S — relative energy deficiency in sport. The consequences range widely, from reduced fertility to osteoporosis and mental health problems. It shows up among elite athletes, especially women, but also among everyday fitness diehards, the kinds of people we pass on bike lanes or running routes across the country.
Why it matters!
Anna Melin, a professor at the Department of Sport Science at Linnaeus University, has worked intensively to understand RED-S. She previously worked with Team Denmark and at the University of Copenhagen, and she has conducted some of the largest studies of energy deficiency in elite female athletes. She explains that if the body is in a continuous energy deficit, it can shut down various functions, including the production of hormones such as estrogen.
»When the body’s hormone levels get too low, menstruation stops, and that’s one of the symptoms women often notice themselves. Of course, it’s a problem for their fertility here and now. And for some, it can take a long time to get their cycle back«, she says. Too little energy and too few nutrients, along with low hormone levels, also have a negative effect on bone mass. And that can haunt women for the rest of their lives.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– New study: 30 minutes of daily exercise can be seen in your stress level
About 30 minutes of physical activity a day can reduce the risk of severe stress. That is the finding of a new study from the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA). The study is based on data from nearly 75,000 people and shows that 30 minutes of daily physical activity lowers the risk of later developing severe stress by 26 percent compared with those who do not do the same kind of activity.
Professor Lars L. Andersen, who led the study with researchers from the University of Valencia, the University of Chile, and the Public University of Navarra, says in a press release that physical activity can be worked into what you already do over the course of the day.
»For many people, it’s easier to build a bit of physical activity into what they already do in everyday life than to have to carve out time for exercise on top of everything else«, he says.
– Novo CEO: If you’re looking for an easy job, it won’t be with us
Novo Nordisk is no longer seen as Denmark’s most attractive workplace, a survey by the recruitment firm Randstad has shown. And Novo Nordisk’s own survey recently showed, according to Finans, a drop in employee satisfaction even as stress levels rose. In a joint interview with a number of Danish news outlets on Wednesday, the CEO, Mike Doustdar, was asked, among other things, what he makes of Novo Nordisk’s decline in measures of whether the company is an attractive workplace. His message was unambiguous: If you want to be somewhere the work is meaningful and where you can help a lot of people, Novo really ranks near the top. But if you’re looking for an easy job, you should look for another workplace.
– DSB has paid out 60 million kroner in compensation in the first half of the year
Delayed trains have been costly for DSB in the first six months of the year. In the first half of 2026, Denmark’s state rail operator paid out a total of 60.4 million kroner in travel-time guarantees to customers affected by delays, according to figures DSB sent to Ritzau. By comparison, DSB paid out 27 million kroner over the same period last year. That means payouts have more than doubled in a year.
»The Danish railway is a massive construction site these years, and that’s no exaggeration. Banedanmark has been given a lot of resources to carry out routine maintenance, but also to future-proof the railway by electrifying it and implementing a new signaling system«, says information director Tony Bispeskov to Ritzau.
Talk of town: How did we get here, Robbie?
Robbie Williams is this year’s headliner at Smukfest.
These days, one of the year’s biggest festivals, Smukfest, is taking place. Last night, the headliner Robbie Williams performed, but Politiken’s music critic Pernille Jensen was not particularly enthusiastic about his performance.
»How did we get to the point where Robbie Williams was standing in a forest in Jutland singing ’My Way’ while showing private family photos on the big screen?«, she asks in her review of the concert.
According to Pernille Jensen, it was just one of several bizarre moments in Robbie Williams’ »strange, rickety train of a concert«. The best moments came when »he simply played his best songs without interruptions. ’Feel’, ’Millennium’, ’Come Undone’, ’She’s the One’«, Pernille Jensen writes, giving the concert two hearts.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.