kPNI-Masterthesis

“Eine Grenze ist da, wo die Vorstel­lungs­kraft endet.”
- Chris­toph Stras­ser (mehrma­li­ger Gewin­ner des RAAM) 2012 -

An dieser Stelle möchte ich Ihnen gerne einen kurzen Einblick in meine Master­the­sis der klin. Psycho­neu­ro­im­mu­no­lo­gie mit dem Thema “Exercise and Immuno­sup­pres­si­on” ermöglichen.

Effects of additio­nal supple­men­ta­ti­on on immune parame­ters in a 6 h – long term ergome­ter stress test. Master Thesis in Clini­cal Psycho­neu­ro­im­mu­no­lo­gy 2012

Abstract

Background

Prolon­ged, exhaus­ti­ve exercise is often related to immuno­sup­pres­si­on associa­ted with upper respi­ra­to­ry tract infec­tions influen­cing exercise perfor­mance.
An under­stan­ding in patho­phy­sio­lo­gy and treat­ment strate­gies remains elusi­ve. 
Additio­nal supple­men­ta­ti­on support is common­ly used among athle­tes and coaches are further­mo­re confron­ted with the symptoms of upper respi­ra­to­ry tract infections.
The purpo­se of this study was to assess the effec­ti­ve­ness of additio­nal supple­men­ta­ti­on as comple­men­ta­ry support to keep high perfor­mance athle­tes in peak physi­cal condi­ti­on while maintai­ning their immune health.

Subject

One endurance trained cyclist born in 1982 was recrui­ted to parti­ci­pa­te in this single case study. The subject was a compe­ti­tor in “The Race Across Ameri­ca” (RAAM) and in peak physi­cal condi­ti­on and he has also been experi­en­ced immuno­sup­pres­si­on related to URTI.

Methods

A single case study was used. The experi­men­tal design was construc­ted as a 6 hour long-term ergome­ter stress test on the thres­hold of LTP 1. The first test was carri­ed out without any supple­men­ta­ti­on except for carbo­hy­dra­tes.
The inter­ven­ti­on consis­ted of an additio­nal supple­men­ta­ti­on strategy adapt­ed to, perhaps, the indivi­du­al need of the athlete.

Results

A signi­fi­cant decrease of the prima­ry outco­me measu­re CRP-value could be repor­ted by the end of the second treat­ment phase compared to the baseline phase (50%).
The results of the secon­da­ry outco­me measu­re showed changes in the T cell lines and their subpo­pu­la­ti­ons insofar that the cell subsets (T8 cell counts, CD4+TL cell counts, CD4+CD8 ratio, T cell counts and NK CD8 57+ cell counts) remain­ed rough­ly stable in the bloodstream.

Conclusion

The present study shows a signi­fi­cant change in the common inflamm­a­ti­on marker, CRP, and in domains of T cell subsets indica­ting that additio­nal substra­te use can be an accep­ta­ble tool in the support of athle­tes experi­en­cing exercise-induced immuno­sup­pres­si­on. Nevert­hel­ess, more research is needed to under­stand the intri­ca­te connec­tion between exercise, immuno­sup­pres­si­on and energy regula­ti­on strategies.

Keywords

prolon­ged exercise, immuno­sup­pres­si­on, URTI, supple­men­ta­ti­on, additio­nal supple­men­ta­ti­on support