Decreased prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias during and after vigorous and prolonged exercise in healthy male marathon runners

Acute and Chronic Effects of Endurance Running on Inflammatory Markers: A Systematic Review

“…The timing in data collection could be considered an important limiting factor for adequate comparisons, given the heterogeneity observed across the reported acute (i.e., 5–20 min) (Fallon et al, 2001 ; Kim et al, 2007 ; Vaisberg et al, 2013 ; Grabs et al, 2015 ) and delayed responses (24 h to 8 days) (Uchakin et al, 2003 ; Siegel et al, 2007 ; Hewing et al, 2015 ). This is not a simple issue given the different kinetics and biological availability of the molecules considered as IL-6 and CRP (Kasprowicz et al, 2013 ; Reihmane et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Another important confounding factor is the different experience of runners. Thus, 26 studies (4 studies with male and female participants, and 15 studies with only male participants) reported a range of 4–17.5 years of experience with competitions (e.g., marathon, and ultra-marathon experience) (Schobersberger et al, 2000 ; Fallon et al, 2001 ; Nieman et al, 2003 , 2016 ; Suzuki et al, 2003 ; Tomaszewski et al, 2003 ; Kim et al, 2007 , 2015 ; Millet et al, 2011 ; Jee and Jin, 2012 ; Vaisberg et al, 2012 , 2013 ; Waśkiewicz et al, 2012 ; Bernecker et al, 2013 ; Jee et al, 2013 ; Karstoft et al, 2013 ; Kasprowicz et al, 2013 ; Kłapcinska et al, 2013 ; Saugy et al, 2013 ; Shin and Lee, 2013 ; Wilhelm et al, 2014 ; Grabs et al, 2015 ; Hewing et al, 2015 ; Mrakic-Sposta et al, 2015 ; Krzeminski et al, 2016 ; Mohamed et al, 2016 ). However, 25 studies did not report this information (Fehrenbach et al, 2000 ; Mattusch et al, 2000 ; Neidhart et al, 2000 ; Niess et al, 2000 ; Suzuki et al, 2000 ; Bonsignore et al, 2002 ; Uchakin et al, 2003 ; Peters et al, 2004 ; Siegel et al, 2007 ; Ng et al, 2008 ; Papassotiriou et al, 2008 ; Chimenti et al, 2009 , 2010 ; Auersperger et al, 2012 ; Nickel et al, 2012 ; Rehm et al, 2013 ; Santos et al, 2013 ; Bachi et al, 2015 ; Gill et al, 2015b ; Arakawa et al, 2016 ; Nielsen et al, 2016 ; Stuempfle et al, 2016 ; Vernillo et al, 2017 ).…”

“…This is not a trivial issue given that training experience of runners could have a potentially additive effect to the influence of runners' age on inflammation that warrants further research. Besides, only 34 articles especified the training preparation (km/week that ranged between 21.4 and 161 and time that ranged between 3.9 and 10 h/week) of runners before races (Fehrenbach et al, 2000 ; Mattusch et al, 2000 ; Niess et al, 2000 ; Suzuki et al, 2000 , 2003 ; Fallon et al, 2001 ; Bonsignore et al, 2002 ; Nieman et al, 2003 , 2016 ; Tomaszewski et al, 2003 ; Uchakin et al, 2003 ; Peters et al, 2004 ; Chimenti et al, 2009 ; Millet et al, 2011 ; Auersperger et al, 2012 ; Jee and Jin, 2012 ; Nickel et al, 2012 ; Vaisberg et al, 2012 , 2013 ; Waśkiewicz et al, 2012 ; Bernecker et al, 2013 ; Karstoft et al, 2013 ; Kłapcinska et al, 2013 ; Rehm et al, 2013 ; Reihmane et al, 2013 ; Santos et al, 2013 ; Shin and Lee, 2013 ; Wilhelm et al, 2014 ; Bachi et al, 2015 ; Grabs et al, 2015 ; Hewing et al, 2015 ; Mrakic-Sposta et al, 2015 ; Arakawa et al, 2016 ; Krzeminski et al, 2016 ). Furthermore, only two studies cited the control of intensity during training (Mattusch et al, 2000 ; Auersperger et al, 2012 ).…”

“…One relevant issue refers to the link between inflammation and cardiovascular health. Interestingly, the exercise-induced increase of IL-6 after the marathon in 20 lean male runners was associated with a lower prevalence of arrhythmias during and after the marathon race (Grabs et al, 2015 ). When produced by muscle contraction, IL-6 stimulates the synthesis of other anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1ra and IL-10, thus providing an inhibitory effect on pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and TNF-α (Pedersen and Febbraio, 2012 ; Pedersen, 2013 ).…”

“…However, CRP, a strong predictor of cardiovascular events, is an acute phase protein synthesized in the liver by the stimulation of IL-6 (Ridker et al, 2002 ). Chronic endurance training may decrease CRP values, especially when accompanied by a loss in fat mass, therefore promoting further reduction of risk for cardiovascular events (Fallon et al, 2001 ; Tomaszewski et al, 2003 ; Walsh et al, 2011 ; Grabs et al, 2015 ; Kim et al, 2015 ). Of note, CRP may be more susceptible to chronically decrease in individuals presenting higher baseline levels (Barnett et al, 2005 ).…”