Evaluation of a Sport Supplement on Performance, Buffering Capacity, Muscle Damage, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation

This thesis investigated the total effects of a sport supplement on performance, buffering capacity, muscle damage, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Sixteen males, ages 24-33, participated. Each subject visited the lab three times over the course of thirty days, completing a graded cycling test on three of the occasions and one high intensity sprint test on two of the visits. The second and third visits including venous blood draws intended for analysis of various biological markers as well as ammonia content. Lactate levels were analyzed and recorded on these visits as well. In double-blind manner, sixteen subjects completed two ten-day supplementation periods prior to testing with a ten-day washout period in between these periods. Repeated measures ANOVA used to assess repeat measurements at the same time point revealed no significant differences from normality within the study indicating that all tests were reliable (p > 0.05). ANOVA revealed no main effect for treatment for serum ammonia levels (F=0.2840, p=0.5980). ANOVA revealed significantly lower levels (treatment vs placebo) by time (baseline, day ten) for 8-OHdG post exercise (main effect F=6.98, p=0.013). Repeated measures ANOVA did not reveal any main effect for treatment nor interaction effect for treatment (treatment vs placebo) by time (baseline, day ten) for lactate dehydrogenase (main effect F=2.99, p=0.09; treatment * time F=0.023, p=0.880). On the other hand, creatine kinase levels demonstrated a significant interaction effect (main effect F=0.267, p=0.608; treatment * time: F=3.05, p=0.04). After paired-sample T-test, investigators noted that main effect (treatment vs placebo) by time (baseline, day ten) peak lactate change from levels with treatment were lower than versus placebo (main effect t=1.67, p=0.05). With treatment, blood lactate levels remained the recognized value of onset blood lactate accumulation at a level of 3.8 mmol versus placebo levels of 4.8 mmol. Repeated measures ANOVA did not reveal any main effect for treatment nor interaction effect for treatment (treatment vs placebo) by time (baseline, day ten) for serum pH levels (main effect F=0.424, p=0.519; treatment * time F=0.0793, p=0.7802). Repeated measures ANOVA did not reveal any main effect for treatment nor interaction effect for treatment (treatment vs placebo) by time (baseline, post exercise) for maximum aerobic capacity (main effect F=0, p=0.9948) nor maximum wattage achieved during trials (main effect F=0.0159, p=0.9005). ANOVA did not reveal any main effect for treatment for post exercise measures (treatment vs placebo) for C-reactive proteins (main effect F=.698, p=.41), IL-2 (main effect F=1.57, p=.219), IL-6 (main effect F=.0969, p=.757), nor TNF-Alpha levels (main effect F=.002, p=.882)