Vitamin E Supplementation Attenuates Leakage of Enzymes Following 6 Successive Days of Running Training

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether vitamin E supplementation in humans would attenuate an increase of serum enzymes as an indirect marker of muscle damage following a sudden large increase in the running distance in a 6-day running training or not. A randomized and placebo-controlled study was carried out on fourteen male runners who were supplied vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol 1200 IU x day(-1); E) or placebo (P) 4 weeks prior to (T1) and during 6 successive days of running training (48.3 +/- 5.7 km x day(-1), means +/- SD). Resting venous blood samples were obtained before maximal treadmill running, at T1, the day immediately before (T2), the next day (T3), and three weeks (T4) after the running training. Serum levels of alpha-tocopherol, lipid peroxidation products (thiobarbituric acid; TBA), creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and LDH isozyme 1-5 were quantitatively analyzed. No significant difference was found in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and maximal heart rates following the exhaustive exercise between the P and E group during the experiments. Vitamin E supplementation significantly increased serum alpha-tocopherol (p<0.001) and decreased TBA levels (p < 0.001) compared with pre-supplementation levels. Although serum CK and LDH activities increased significantly at T3 in either group, significantly lower CK (p < 0.05) and LDH (p < 0.001) levels were observed in the E group compared with the P group. The ratio of LDH1 to LDH2 (LDH1/LDH2) decreased significantly at T3 in either group compared with the T1 levels, since there was no significant difference in the LDH1/LDH2 between the P and E group throughout the experiments. These results indicate that vitamin E supplementation can reduce the leakage of CK and LDH following 6 successive days of endurance running. The protective effect of vitamin E against free radicals probably inhibits free-radical-induced muscle damage caused by a sudden large increase in the running distance.

Effects of Different Cool-down Exercise Methods on Muscle Strength and Endurance of the Lower Extremities

“…Fatigue inducing substances such as lactic acid, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) that have important effects on fatigue after exercise are indicators for analysis of physiological motor skills and fatigue patterns based on energy metabolic processes [19]. These substances are used as standards for enhancing athletes' performance, determining the degree of excessive training and adjusting exercise intensity [20], and utilized as grounds for analyzing lactic acid thresholds and recovery patterns that are regarded as important indicators for the evaluation of cardiopulmonary functions during incremental exercise [21]. Decreased muscle pain and endurance after exercise are associated with increased LDH and CPK levels in the blood, which indicates the degree of muscle damage [22].…”

Effect of vitamin C and E supplementation in modulating the peripheral nerve conduction following cold exposure in humans

“…vitamin C could act by increasing the peripheral blood flow by vasodilatation (Mathew et al 1981). It accelerates thermogenesis (Beaton 1967;Leblanc 1975;Wilson 1974) and attenuates sympathetic hyper-reactivity (Itoh et al 2000). It is reasonable to speculate that the reduction in ulnar nerve blood flow due to hypothermia would be ameliorated by vitamin C. It may also help in restoring the intracellular substances as it can rapidly enter cells particularly leukocytes.…”

“…Vitamin C is a well-known free-radical scavenger (Stone 1972). It is a major water-soluble antioxidant, which acts as the first line defense of against oxidative injury (Itoh et al 2000) and in a recent study it has been found to prevent oxidative damage at high altitude (Ilavazhagan et al 2001). Ascorbic acid and a-tocopherol act as potent and probably the most important hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidants respectively.…”

“…Antioxidant enzymes as well as antioxidant vitamins scavenge these. In cell membranes the most important antioxidant is vitamin E, which acts as a chainbreaking antioxidant intercepting lipid peroxyl radicals and terminating lipid peroxidation (Brigelius-Flohe and Traber 1999;Itoh et al 2000). The major water-soluble free-radical scavenger is vitamin C, which also regenerates vitamin E from tocopherol radical (Niki et al 1995).…”

A fototerapia com diodo emissor de luz (LEDT) aplicada pré-exercício inibe a peroxidação lipídica em atletas após exercício de alta intensidade: um estudo preliminar

“…Studies performed with animals and isolate fibers indicate that increase of the ROSs induced by exogenous sources can harm muscle performance (11) . Nevertheless, some authors suggest that the main effect of the oxidative stress occurs in the long run, in the overreaching induction, an example of metabolic imbalance related to the initial status of overtraining (12,13) . Although antioxidant supplementation has proved to be efficient in reducing oxidative stress induced by physical exercise in humans (14) , there is no cohesive evidence which supports that sports performance improves as a response to lower level of oxidative stress (15) .…”