Polyphenols and Athletic Performance: A Review on Human Data

Abstract

Exercise-induced aerobic bioenergetic reactions in mitochondria and cytosol increase production of reactive oxygen species. Many efforts have been carried out to identify dietary strategies or micronutrients able to prevent or at least attenuate the exercise-induced muscle damage and stress. A lot of studies are about how effective dietary intervention and oral antioxidant supplementation may be in reducing oxidative stress in athletes who exercise intensively. Commonly used nonenzymatic supplements have been proposed as ways to prevent exerciseinduced oxidative stress and hence improve adaptation responses to endurance training. Plant-derived bioactive compounds can repress inflammation by inhibiting oxidative damage and interacting with the immune system. This review focuses on polyphenols and phytochemicals present in the plant kingdom that have been recently suggested to exert some positive effects on exercise-induced muscle damage and oxidative stress. This review will summarize some of the actual knowledge on polyphenolic compounds that have been demonstrated both to exert a significant effect in exercise-induced muscle damage and to play a biological/physiological role in improving physical performance. Overall, the pooled results show that polyphenols are viable supplements to improve performance in athletes.

Efficacy of Popular Diets Applied by Endurance Athletes on Sports Performance: Beneficial or Detrimental? A Narrative Review

“…However, at this point, the bioavailability of polyphenols taken with food comes into question [ 121 ]. While some researchers have suggested that the recommended polyphenol intake can be achieved by consuming polyphenol-rich foods or as a polyphenol supplement [ 122 ], others claimed that some polyphenols, such as quercetin, cannot be taken naturally with food [ 123 ]. Keeping all this in mind, it is necessary to further clarify the possible mechanisms for how the bioavailability of polyphenols in the body and their effects on sports performance change with their consumption naturally.…”

How N-Acetylcysteine Supplementation Affects Redox Regulation, Especially at Mitohormesis and Sarcohormesis Level: Current Perspective

“…The maintenance of sarcohormesis is vital for physiological, metabolic and cellular function and survival under extreme oxidative stress [3]. Therefore, it is essential to improve the skeletal adaptive response using endogenous adaptations by upregulating cytoprotective signal transduction cascades [58], or exogenous supplements with antioxidants such as vitamin C, E, [46] polyphenols including flavanols, and anthocyanidins [59], or a diet rich in antioxidants (e.g., a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, chocolate, nuts, and their products) [60,61].…”

Impact of Polyphenolic-Food on Longevity: An Elixir of Life. An Overview

“…ROS have been discovered to significantly contribute to age-related damage at the subcellular level through the destruction of numerous organic molecules including carbohydrates, proteins, DNA, and lipids [ 14 , 15 ]. Oxidative stress has been detected during aging [ 11 ], under certain pathological situations [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], as an effect of contractile action [ 20 , 21 ]. Moreover, oxidative stress is often aggravated by a diversity of environmental insults comprising metabolic processing of ingested food, contact with environmental poisons, and infection [ 22 ].…”