Exercise-induced immunosuppression in elite rowers and its modification with tradional chinese medicine

 

Introduction

Many measures, which focuses mainly on nutritional supplement, can modify exercise-induced immunosuppression with favorite results. This study tries to observe effect of long-term athletic training on immune function in elite rowers, and to shed some light on the modification of exercise-induced immunosuppression using Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Methods

Eleven elite rowers, including the champions in the Asian Games and the National Games, served as subjects. A herb prescription, made of seven Chinese medicinal herbs such as Codonopsis Pilosula and Radix Angelica, was successively taken for 1 month during winter training. Two venous samples were taken, before and after taking medicine, respectively. The immune parameters includes IgA, IgG and IgM,  C3 and C4, White Blood Cell count (WBC), Lymphocyte’s count (Lymph) and percentage (Lymph%), Granulocyte count (Gran) and percentage (Gran%). RIA was used to test the Immunogloblins and complements, and the Auto-blood Analyzer was used to test WBC and its subset’s counts and percentages. A control group without any training experience was designed to evaluate the rowers’ immune status before taking medicine.

Results

1.Rowers’ immune status before taking medicine: Compared with control group, rowers’ most immune parameters were much lower. IgA’s difference was 0.62 g/l ( 0.98  in rowers vs 1.60 in control, -63.27%, P<0.01); IgG was 3.66g/l ( 6.45 vs 10.11, -56.74%, P<0.01); C3 was 0.48g/l ( 0.82 vs 1.30, -58.54%, P<0.01);. WBC was 2.90*109/L (4.05 vs 6.95, -71.60%, P<0.01); Gran was 2.72*109/L (2.50 vs 5.22, -108.80%, P<0.01); Lymph was 0.07*109/L (1.18 vs 1.25, -5.93%, P>0.05); Mid was 0.11*109/L (0.37 vs 0.48, -29.73%, P<0.01). C4 was similar and IgM increased slightly.

2.Rowers’ immunemodification after taking medicine: IgA increased 5.1% (from 0.98  to 1.03 g/l after taking medicine, P<0.05); IgG 13.95% (from 6.45 to 7.35 g/l, P<0.01); C3 15.46% (from 0.82% to 0.97, P<0.01); WBC 30.60% (from 4.05 to 5.32*109/L, P<0.05); Gran 18% ( from 2.5 to 2.95*109/L, P<0.05); Lymph 58.47% (from 1.18 to 1.87*109/L, P<0.01); Mid 35.13% (from 0.37 to 0.50*109/L, P<0.05). C4 was unchanged and IgM decreased slightly ( P>0.05).

Discussion/Conclusions

The significant exercise-induced immunosuppression can be observed in the rowers, and this reflects that the rowers’ immune function can be obviously suppressed by the long-term athletic training. And the significant  improvements can be observed after taking medicine, and it shows rowers’ exercise-induced immunosuppression can be efficiently improved with Traditional Chinese medicine during training. This should be an interesting research issue afterwards.

Acknowledgement:The project was funded by the Science & Technology Committee of Shaanxi province, P. R. China.

 

References

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