Lack of Effect of Choline Supplement on Inflammation, Muscle Endurance and Injury Indices, and Shooting Accuracy Following Simulated Army Ranger Operation

Abstract

Background: Sleep deprivation, weighted road march combined with short term high intensity physical activities are important aspects of army ranger operations, which can lead to inflammation, muscular injury, and physical and shooting performance loss. On the other hand, animal and human studies documented that choline supplement relieves inflammation and improves physical and mental performances. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of choline supplementation on serum creatine kinase and IgA, macular endurance, and shooting accuracy of army rangers following one-day simulated operation. Methods: Twenty army rangers voluntarily participated in this double-blind, placebo controlled quasi-experimental study. The subjects were divided to 2 equal groups and randomly assigned as choline (n = 10, age = 21.2 ± 3.2 years, Vo2max = 37.7 ± 4.9 mL/kg/minute) and placebo (n = 10, age = 21.2 ± 2.2 years, Vo2max = 38.7 ± 6.6 mL/kg/minute) groups. Choline supplement (2 gr choline bitartrate/day) or placebo (a tea spoon of acid citric/day) was administrated one week before the day of simulated operation, which included partial sleep deprivation (22 p.m.-1a.m.), 19.3 km weighted (12 kg) road march, and 4.8 km competitive run test without extra weight. Serum CK and IgA, muscle endurance (upper body, lower body, and abdomen), and shooting accuracy were assessed before and on the day following the simulated operation. The data were analyzed using independent samples T test (subtracting pretest from posttest) and paired samples t test. Results: There were no significant changes in serum CK and IgA, abdominal muscles endurance and shooting performance in choline and placebo treatments from pre to the post test, while the posttest upper and lower body endurances were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the pretest in both study groups. Following the operation, no significant differences were found between serum CK and IgA, muscle endurance (upper body, lower body, and abdomen), and shooting performance changes. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that choline supplement does not induce any positive effects on post operation outcomes of inflammation, muscle injury, muscle endurance, and shooting accuracy. Keywords: Choline; Inflammation; Sleep Deprivation