Potential Impact of Nutrition on Immune System Recovery from Heavy Exertion: A Metabolomics Perspective

Abstract

This review describes effective and ineffective immunonutrition support strategies for the athlete, with a focus on the benefits of carbohydrates and polyphenols as determined from metabolomics-based procedures. Athletes experience regular cycles of physiological stress accompanied by transient inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune perturbations, and there are increasing data indicating that these are sensitive to nutritional influences. The most effective nutritional countermeasures, especially when considered from a metabolomics perspective, include acute and chronic increases in dietary carbohydrate and polyphenols. Carbohydrate supplementation reduces post-exercise stress hormone levels, inflammation, and fatty acid mobilization and oxidation. Ingestion of fruits high in carbohydrates, polyphenols, and metabolites effectively supports performance, with added benefits including enhancement of oxidative and anti-viral capacity through fruit metabolites, and increased plasma levels of gut-derived phenolics. Metabolomics and lipidomics data indicate that intensive and prolonged exercise is associated with extensive lipid mobilization and oxidation, including many components of the linoleic acid conversion pathway and related oxidized derivatives called oxylipins. Many of the oxylipins are elevated with increased adiposity, and although low in resting athletes, rise to high levels during recovery. Future targeted lipidomics-based studies will help discover whether n-3-polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3-PUFA) supplementation enhances inflammation resolution in athletes post-exercise.

Impact of a weight loss and fitness intervention on exercise‐associated plasma oxylipin patterns in obese, insulin‐resistant, sedentary women

“…In moderately active healthy individuals, 20 min of cycling at 80% maximal workload decreased plasma AA and increased AA epoxide catabolic products, but did not change AA epoxide concentrations (Giordano, Newman, Pedersen, Ramos, & Stebbins CL et al, 2011). More recently, Nieman and Mitmesser (2017) described OxL patterns in response to a 75 km time trial in trained normal weight cyclists, and Stanford et al (2018) reported OxL changes with submaximal aerobic exercise in healthy adults. Yet, no studies have addressed exercise OxL patterns by comparing metabolically unhealthy and healthy states, and there is a paucity of information regarding acute changes in eCBs with moderate exercise.…”

The Gastrointestinal Exertional Heat Stroke Paradigm: Pathophysiology, Assessment, Severity, Aetiology and Nutritional Countermeasures

“…Polyphenol supplementation is increasingly popular in athletic populations [282]. This is founded upon moderate evidence of enhanced skeletal muscle recovery from micro-damage [283], blunted exercise-associated immunosuppression [284] and in some cases improved (1-3%) endurance exercise performance [285]. With respect to polyphenol supplementation and exercise-induced GI barrier integrity, the effect of daily quercetin supplementation (2 g•day one hour pre-exercise) on GI permeability following the first and seventh days of a standardised isothermic walking (100 min; 1.8 m•s −1 in 46…”

Ultramarathon Plasma Metabolomics: Phosphatidylcholine Levels Associated with Running Performance

“…Metabolomics identifies the final endpoints of biochemical processes and closely reflects an organism's phenotype, environment and behavior [2]. Exercise metabolomics can provide valuable insights regarding the end biological impact of repeat and prolonged physical activity [3] as well of the biological processes associated with higher levels of endurance performance. The metabolomic profile associated with superior endurance sports performance has yet to be explored, though metabolomics studies have already identified choline-containing compounds and certain phospholipids to be positively associated with level of physical fitness [4,5].…”