Meal-exercise challenge and physical activity reduction impact on immunity and inflammation (MERIIT trial)

Abstract

BackgroundThe effect of a pre-exercise meal as countermeasure to exercise induced immunodepression is poorly known. Also, sedentary behavior is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk but studies on immune changes are lacking. Therefore, we aimed to assess: 1) the impact of a pre-exercise Mediterranean meal (MdM) compared with a fast-food type meal (FFM) on exercise-induced immunological changes and 2) the impact of an induced acute period of sedentary behavior on neuro-immune-endocrine status.Methods/Design: This is a two steps clinical trial including: (a) randomized crossover clinical trial, comparing the effect a high-fat/low-nutrient dense meal, FFM, with an isoenergetic similar high-nutrient dense meal, MdM, in the immune response to an exercise challenge (EC) and (b) a pilot trial assessing the neuro-immune-endocrine change induced by acute decreasing by half the usual physical activity level.ResultsA total of 46 participants (26 females), median aged 25 years were included. Of those 39-completed protocol, including overweight, physical active and inactive and participants with asthma. There were no differences in the EC between interventions. Dietary factors and physical activity were closely monitored during interventions and kept similar. During physical inactivity induction, 31% reached the target of 50% reduction in mean step number and 77% reached a 30% reduction.ConclusionThe use of a pre-exercise meal to modulate immune response and the understanding of the immunological impact of physical inactivity might help to establish future recommendations on how to practice exercise in a safer way and to recognize the potential impact of inactivity.

What is the effect of a Mediterranean compared with a Fast Food meal on the exercise induced adipokine changes? A randomized cross-over clinical trial

“…Ventilation and respiratory gas analysis were measured via dynamic breath-by-breath measurement using the Oxycon Pro Metabolic Cart, Jaeger, Hochberg, Germany. There were no differences after FFM or MdM in each group for all the ventilatory, respiratory parameters and in median duration of the EC, as previously published [21].…”

“…Main outcomes were evaluated immediately before, three hours after each meal and immediately after EC. This trial was previously registered in clinicaltrials.gov NCT02027675[21]. All procedures were approved by the ethics committee of Centro Hospitalar de São João, E.P.E.…”

“…Subjects aged between 18 and 35 years old were eligible and invited to participate through public advertising, accordingly to the previously described recruitment strategy [21]. Exclusion criteria were previously detailed and, briefly were: suffer from any major systemic disease[21]; pregnant or breastfeeding; under dietary restrictions or weight losing diet the last 3 months.…”

“…Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention order in a double-blinded fashion[21], stratified by asthma diagnosis. Outcomes were measured blinded to the participant’s allocation order.…”

“…The FFM, consisted on a burger, BigMac, with medium size portion of French fries and a cola-drink and the MdM, consisted of vegetable soup, pasta, tomato, olive oil, herbs, garlic, bread, sardines, fruit and water. Design, preparation and detailed composition of the meals were previously detailed [21]. Meals nutritional composition are summarized in S1 Table .…”