immunological aspects of sport nutrition

Competition between athletes and an increase in sporting knowledge have greatly influenced training methods while increasing the number of them more and more. As a result, the number of athletes who have increased the number and intensity of their workouts while decreasing recovery times is rising. Positive overtraining could be considered a natural and fundamental process when the result is adaptation and improved performance; however, in the absence of adequate recovery, negative overtraining could occur, causing fatigue, maladaptation, and inertia...

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic and its transition into an endemic phase have profoundly impacted physical health, well-being, mental health, education, and various aspects of society, including the economy and social networks. Home confinement, social distancing, and physical inactivity have exacerbated numerous health issues, including obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and poor sleep quality. A systematic review has revealed significant findings: Regular aerobic programs (such as cycling or walking at an intensity of 60-80% of HR max for 20-60 minutes per session, repeated 2-3 times a week) have proven effective in improving both physical and mental health, as well as immune function...

For a person with a disability, participating in sports activities and/or competitions can be a challenge for the immune system. The relationship between exercise and immunity response in disabled athletes is, indeed, extremely complex for several reasons, including (1) the chronic low-grade inflammatory and immunodepression-"secondary immune deficiency"-state imposed by the disability/impairment; (2) the impact of the disability on an array of variables, spanning from physical fitness to well-being, quality of life, sleep, and nutritional aspects, among others, which are known to mediate/modulate the effects of exercise on human health; (3) the variability of the parameters related to the exercise/physical activity (modality, frequency, intensity, duration, training versus competition, etc...

Prolonged bouts of exercise and heavy training regimens are associated with depression of immune system functions that can increase the risk of picking up opportunistic infections such as the common cold and influenza. Some common sport nutrition practices including high-carbohydrate diets and carbohydrate ingestion during exercise, training with low-glycogen stores, intentional dieting for weight loss, ingestion of high-dose antioxidant supplements and protein ingestion post exercise may influence immune system status in athletes...

In the past years, the importance of sports in everyday life has been increasing rapidly. Rhinitis and asthma account for the most common problems encountered by sport physicians. These pathologies are often linked to atopy and will require an investigation by an allergist. Less frequent, cholinergic urticaria and exercice-induced anaphylaxis require special attention as to therapeutics. Infections of the upper respiratory tract constitute a well-known problem in athletes. In numerous studies attempts were made to correlate susceptibility to infections to the immunological modifications occurring during exercise...

In the recent years, the importance of sports in everyday life has rapidly increased. Asthma and respiratory allergy are among the most common problems to be afforded in those individuals practising sports and therefore, the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of allergy in athletes have received in recent times a great interest. The experimental studies performed on allergy and sport have lead to take in consideration a more general aspect, that is the effects of exercise on the immune system. In fact, it has been observed that exercise can induce significant and measurable immunological changes, involving a transient immune suppression (changes in number and activity of neutrophils, lymphocytes, macrophages, and secretion of cytokines)...

The relation between nutrition and sport has been studied extensively during recent decades. Nevertheless, research interest was focused mainly on the role of dietary macro- and micronutrients as ergogenic aids. Today, there is increasing support for the hypothesis that the nutrient status also has relevance for the prevention and rehabilitation of systemic and muscular stress induced by intense physical exercise. The increase in muscular stress is indicated by the rise in creatine kinase and myoglobin; the systemic stress is associated with characteristic immunological and hormonal changes and an acute-phase response...

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