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You are here: Home / Guest Posts / Quercetin and Athletic Performance

Quercetin and Athletic Performance

A glass cup of green tea.

Hello everyone.  Today’s article is a guest post from Richard Miller who writes research reports on resveratrol and quercetin.

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In the past few years, there have been a number of studies dealing with the effects of quercetin increasing the performance of mice and mixed performance in planned clinical trials using athletes. David Nieman and his research team at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina had been behind many of these studies over the years. All of the testing was directed at trying to learn how quercetin functioned in the human body as if no other compounds, natural or synthetic would alter or affect quercetin’s influence on human tissue or system. In preparing to design the experiments, Nieman’s team found lab tests from animal studies using quercetin produced data to make it appear quercetin did exert a powerful chemical influence on the mice in the test. It was natural to expect the same powerful chemical influence in human trials, but that is not exactly what they found.

In preparing the first experiment, the research team agreed that quercetin must be anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, immunomodulatory, anti-carcinogenic and cardio-protective. It was also mutually agreed that those eating foods high in quercetin would have lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The first two experiments were almost identical except the first experiment used cyclists, and experiment two used competitive marathon runners. The experiments were designed to create conditions to mimic the physiologic conditions brought on by ageing, trauma, and surgery and blood Chemistry. The best subjects were considered to be athletes as they were trained to perform in prolonged intensive physical exertion requiring endurance. These conditions would cause inflammation, oxidative stress and act to lower immune protection. This increased the risk of upper respiratory tract infection or often referred to as URTI.

The first experiment did not give Nieman the results he wanted. Their question was why quercetin did not have an effect on laboratory measurements of immune dysfunction, inflammation or oxidative stress.  In the first experiment, athletic cyclists were used.  Each day they ingested 1 gm/day of quercetin or a placebo and continued this for three weeks. The second experiment was almost identical in design except they used competitive ultra-marathon runners. Neither the first nor second experiment produced acceptable blood Chemistry.

In an effort to solve their design problem, the team examined animal studies using quercetin and found the possibilities of a synergistic effect from other nutrients on quercetin. This led them to redesign their procedure for the third experiment. In July, 2009, the third experiment was published.

The third experiment used cyclists and each ingested 1 gm/day of quercetin for only two weeks, but with or without the addition of 120mg of epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), 400 mg Isoquercetin and 400 mg of EPA-DHA. EGCG dose was equivalent to a single cup of green tea. Cyclists rode very hard for three hours per day for a three-day period of extreme exertion. Results from this experiment were far different than the earlier experiments: inflammation measurements were lower, oxidative stress was lower, and immune disruption was significantly lower. Quercetin’s level in the blood of those who took the mixture of supplements was almost twice as high as those who ingested the quercetin alone.

The synergy of the other supplements with quercetin was far more successful than quercetin alone. Researchers worked so hard to find a single compound to bring about the positive health changes they wanted to accomplish, they lost sight of the big picture. The big lesson learned in this research is that quercetin should not be taken alone. It should be combined with green tea and fish oil to get the maximum benefit.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a Doctor and do not give medical advice; this is a news report and cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional.

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged With: Guest Posts, natural quercetin, quercetin, quercetin benefits, quercetin foods

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