Elite Sports and Fitness » Promote a Healthy Inflammatory Response

Improve Athletic Performance: Faster and More Complete Recuperation

June 9, 2010 – 2:07 pm | No Comment

Fast and complete recuperation are two of the most important elements of improving your athletic performance – especially if you run a hard training schedule. Faster recuperation means you don’t fall behind: you can fit more training sessions in, and you’re not out of commission for a week or two after a big event. More complete recuperation means your training sessions will be more productive: you’re body is stronger and more fully healed, ready to push harder. And if you can train harder and more often without suffering the negative consequences of over training, your performance will improve, along with your general well-being.

Read the full story »

General Health

Marathon

Nutrition

Energy

Coach's Corner

Home » Core Nutrition, Recovery

Promote a Healthy Inflammatory Response

Submitted by Bruce on June 9, 2010 – 11:56 amNo Comment

Healthy Inflammatory Response When you train hard, your body will experience some muscle inflammation, which is your body’s way of starting the healing process. Signs of muscle inflammation include redness, pain, heat and loss of function. As part of this process, inflammatory cytokines are released at the site of inflammation, where they help other cells to enter the damaged tissue and begin the clean up. But these inflammatory cytokines also break down your body’s protein into amino acids and they are lost as urea. This means that not only do you lose muscle, but you also feel achy and tired as a result.

While many athletes take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) before or after training, this has been shown to actually increase inflammation when compared with those athletes who don’t take them. Use of NSAIDS by athletes has also been associated with mild kidney impairment and low-level endotoxemia (where bacteria from the colon leak into the bloodstream).

If taking NSAIDS is potentially harmful, what, then, is the best way to promote a healthy inflammatory response? The answer to a healthy inflammatory response is by working with your body’s natural systems. TGF-ß (transforming growth factor beta) is a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory peptide that stimulates the healing process and helps promote a healthy inflammatory response to muscle inflammation. It can be found in natural supplements such as Protein Extreme Energy, along with other effective and natural anti-inflammatory agents such as papain and turmeric. Still not convinced that the natural route to recovery from inflammation is effective?
Read the stories of these athletes who have managed to cut down their recuperation time using completely natural inflammatory response methods.

References:

1. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2008 Nov-Dec;32(6):656-9.
Inflammation: roles in aging and sarcopenia.
Jensen GL. PMID: 18974248

2. February 15, 1999 The Journal of Physiology, 515, 287-291.
Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine balance in strenuous exercise in humans Kenneth Ostrowski*†, Thomas Rohde*, Sven Asp*, Peter Schjerling* and Bente Klarlund Pedersen*† doi:10.1111/j.1469-7793.1999.287ad.x

3. Brain Behav Immun. 2006 Nov;20(6):578-84. Epub 2006 Mar 22.
Ibuprofen use, endotoxemia, inflammation, and plasma cytokines during ultramarathon competition.
Nieman DC, Henson DA, Dumke CL, Oley K, McAnulty SR, Davis JM, Murphy EA, Utter AC, Lind RH, McAnulty LS, Morrow JD. PMID: 16554145