Effect of Calanus Oil Supplementation and 16 Week Exercise Program on Selected Fitness Parameters in Older Women

Abstract

We investigated changes in functional fitness after an exercise program in combination with Calanus oil supplementation, a novel source of bioactive lipids rich in wax esters with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA). Fifty-five healthy sedentary women aged 65–80 (mean age 70.9 ± 3.9 years, BMI 27.24 ± 3.9 kg m−2, VO2peak 19.46 ± 3.7 ml kg−1 min−1) were enrolled in the study. The participants were divided into two groups: exercise training plus Calanus Oil supplementation (n = 28) or exercise plus placebo (sunflower oil) supplementation (n = 27). The exercise intervention program was completed by 53 participants and contained functional circuit training (twice a week, 45 min plus 15 min of stretching and balance training) and Nordic walking (once a week, 60 min) for 16 weeks. Senior fitness test, exercise stress test on bicycle ergometer, hand-grip, and body composition were evaluated before and after the program. Our results show that functional fitness and body composition improved following the interventional exercise program, but for most of the parameters there was no synergic effect of supplementing n-3 PUFA-rich Calanus oil. In comparison to the placebo group, the group with Calanus supplementation experienced significantly higher improvement of functional strength of lower body which was evaluated by the chair stand test. Supplementation with Calanus may have a synergic effect with exercise on functional strength of the lower body in the elderly.

Effects of Exercise Combined with a Healthy Diet or Calanus finmarchicus Oil Supplementation on Body Composition and Metabolic Markers—A Pilot Study

“…Contrary to findings from a recent study investigating the effect of CO and exercise in elderly women (~70 years old with a BMI of ~26.7) that showed no effect of CO on FM but only visceral fat [ 38 ], results from our study showed the highest loss of FM in the EXCO group. Unfortunately, we did not measure visceral fat, but the different outcomes can be partially explained by a slightly higher BMI in our study population.…”

Exercise Training Combined with Calanus Oil Supplementation Improves the Central Cardiodynamic Function in Older Women

“…At the baseline, the groups did not differ in nutritional and anthropometric parameters, as shown in Table 2 and Table 3 and reported recently [ 24 , 25 ]. A significant increase in EPA and lipids containing EPA and DHA was present in the Calanus group when compared with the placebo group ( Supplementary Materials, Tables S1 and S2 ).…”

“…The training included supervised 60 min lessons of circuit training, postural exercises, and weight-bearing exercises in a gym twice a week as well as an aerobic session of Nordic walking once a week. A detailed description of the training was reported before [ 25 ]. In addition to the training, the protocol group 1 (ET-Calanus) was provided with omega-3 wax ester-rich supplementation in the form of Calanus oil (5 capsules/day of Calanus oil, Calanus AS, Norway) and group 2 (ET-Placebo) was supplemented with placebo capsules (5 capsules/day of pure sunflower oil, Ayanda GMBH & CO. KG, Pritzwalk, Germany).…”

“…The dietary habits were not different between the groups at the baseline and did not change during the intervention ( Table 2 ). The physical activity level was assessed by senior fitness tests and an exercise stress test [ 25 ] ( Table 2 ). Adherence to the capsule consumption was monitored by self-reporting and the lipidomic analysis of the plasma [ 28 ].…”

“…Resting blood pressure and resting electrocardiography (ECG; Schiller, Baar, Switzerland) were obtained prior to spiroergometry testing. Each subject performed an exercise test on the bicycle ergometer Ergoselect 200 (Ergoline, Bitz, Germany), as described before [ 25 ]. Throughout the test, the heart rate (HR), blood pressure, and ECG were recorded.…”