Abstract
The health benefits of physical activity are recognized, however, high levels of exercise may lead to metabolic pathway imbalances that could evolve into pathological conditions like the increased risk of neurological disease observed in professional athletes. We analyzed the plasma/serum levels of 29 athletes from a professional soccer team playing in the Italian first league and tested the levels of psychophysical stress markers (vitamin D, creatine kinase, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and testosterone/cortisol ratio) during a period of 13 months. The testosterone/cortisol ratio was consistent with an appropriate training program. However, most of the athletes showed high levels of creatine kinase and ROS. Despite the large outdoor activity, vitamin D values were often below the sufficiency level and, during the “vitamin D winter”, comparable with those of the general population. Interestingly, high vitamin D values seemed to be associated to low levels of ROS. Based on the results of our study we proposed a vitamin D supplementation as a general practice for people who perform high levels of physical exercise. Beside the known effect on calcium and phosphate homeostasis, vitamin D supplementation should mitigate the high reactivity of ROS which might be correlated to higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases observed in professional athletes.
Highlights
Physical activity and exercise training are recognized to provide a range of significant benefits associated to both physical and mental health [1,2]
We retrospectively studied the psychophysical markers in elite soccer players during a competitive season in order to verify/recognize whether the large loads of physical activity carried out by professional athletes could raise concerns about their physical health
The T/C ratio has been used as a marker of overtraining [31] based on the assumption that free testosterone is a marker of anabolism while cortisol is indicative of catabolism
Summary
Physical activity and exercise training are recognized to provide a range of significant benefits associated to both physical and mental health [1,2]. Excessive exercise (EE) may lead to an increased risk of heart dysfunctions as well as altered biological, neurochemical, and hormonal regulation mechanisms [3]. This is common in professional athletes whose training involves an overload period which is often not complemented by an adequate recovery. EE has been associated to sport-related skeletal muscle injuries due to repetitive sarcolemma micro-damages and altered calcium homeostasis, bony stress fractures due aberrant loads and accelerated bone turnover, and acute macro-trauma especially in contact sports [7].
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