Markers of Biological Stress and Mucosal Immunity during a Week Leading to Competition in Adolescent Swimmers

Abstract

In this study we examined changes in the salivary concentrations of immunoglobulin A (sIgA), cortisol (sC), testosterone (sT), and testosterone-to-cortisol ratio (T/C) in 21 competitive swimmers, 11–15 years old, during a week leading to competition as compared to a control (noncompetition) week. No day-to-day changes or significant differences between weeks were observed for sIgA (47.9 ± 4.4 versus 54.9 ± 5.2 μg/mL for control versus competition week, resp.), sC (2.7 ± 0.2 versus 2.5 ± 0.2 ng/mL for control versus competition week, resp.), and T/C ratio (83.4 ± 7.0 versus 77.9 ± 7.7 for control versus competition week, resp.). In contrast, sT was significantly lower during the week of competition (154.5 ± 11.3 pg/mL) as compared to the control week (181.3 ± 11.5 pg/mL) suggesting that the swimmers were in a catabolic state, although this did not have a negative effect on their performance. In conclusion, salivary cortisol did not change between the two weeks, and thus competition stress was relatively low, and mucosal immunity was unaffected in these young athletes prior to competition.

The effect of swimming on oral health status: competitive versus non-competitive athletes

“…S-IgA average values before and after training were significantly higher in competitive athletes than in non-competitive swimmers. The results of this study confirmed the majority of studies in that acute bouts of exercise reduced S-IgA levels in a variety of endurance sports, including swimming 7 , 8 , 16 , 25 , 28 . These results contrasted with some authors who indicated that there are no differences in salivary concentrations of S-IgA between athletes and non-athletes, except when athletes are engaged in heavy training 13 , 25 .…”

“…The results of this study confirmed the majority of studies in that acute bouts of exercise reduced S-IgA levels in a variety of endurance sports, including swimming 7 , 8 , 16 , 25 , 28 . These results contrasted with some authors who indicated that there are no differences in salivary concentrations of S-IgA between athletes and non-athletes, except when athletes are engaged in heavy training 13 , 25 . Several studies demonstrated that S-IgA concentration changes and in particular an absolute concentration of less than 40 mg/L was reported to relate to increased Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI) incidence in athletes 28 .…”

Seasonal Changes in Performance Related Characteristics and Biochemical Marker Variability of Adolescent Table Tennis Players

“…It has been established that elevated cortisol levels at rest can reflect long-term training stress (38,39) while the testosterone to cortisal ratio has been proposed to indicate the balance between anabolic and catabolic activity. Many researchers suggest that a decrease of 30% or more implies overtraining and/or an unfavored level of anabolic to catabolic hormonal balance (8,40).…”

Correlation between Surgeon's Experience, Surgery Complexity and the Alteration of Stress Related Physiological Parameters

“…Each surgeon has been checked for the eventual presence of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). We used sC and sIgA ELISA kit (Salimetrics, Pennsylvania, USA), while saliva samples were treated according to the protocols previously described by Papadopoulos et al [22] .…”