Green tea supplements don’t just protect muscles during heavy physical exertion. The catechins in tea also speed up recovery after exercise. An animal study published by researchers at the Japanese Kao Corporation in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise provides evidence.
Green tea supplements don’t just protect muscles during heavy physical exertion. The catechins in tea also speed up recovery after exercise. An animal study published by researchers at the Japanese Kao Corporation in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise provides evidence.
The Japanese gave mice a green tea extract they had made themselves. It consisted of 41 percent epigallocatechin gallate, 23 percent epigallocatechin, 12 percent epicatechin gallate, 9 percent epicatechin and 7 percent gallocatechin.
The researchers mixed the catechins in the lab animals’ food. The concentration of the extract in the feed was 0.5 percent.
A group of mice ate the feed enriched with tea extract for three weeks. A control group ate normal feed. At the end of the period the researchers got the mice to run downhill on a treadmill, an easy way to develop considerable muscle damage.
One day later, before the mice’s muscles had had a chance to recover, the researchers made the animals run on a treadmill again. They observed that the mice that had been given tea extract [Cat] were capable of running for a significantly longer time than the mice who had been given feed with no additives [Down].
The researchers measured the twitch force the mice’s muscles generated after being given an electric shock. They did this immediately after the downhill session and again after 24 hours. On both occasions the muscles of the mice that had been given the extract performed better.
The researchers measured the concentration of several indicators of muscle damage and inflammation in the muscle tissue of the mice. Supplementation with green tea catechins resulted in noticeably lower concentrations of malondialdehyde, TNF-alpha, interleukin 1-beta and MCP-1 24 hours after the downhill session than those found in the mice that had been given standard feed.
The same was true for the concentration of muscle damage indicators in the blood, for example of creatine kinase [CK] and LDH. These were also lower in the mice that had been given green tea extract.
“Catechin consumption alleviates some oxidative stress and inflammation in mouse muscles after an episode of downhill running and promotes recovery of physical performance”, the researchers summarise their findings. “These findings have important implications and will help to establish human nutritional strategies that hasten recovery of postexercise physical performance.”
Just a small moan to add though: the human equivalent of the dose they used would be 3-5 g green tea extract per day. For some, that might be on the high side.
Catechins suppress muscle inflammation and hasten performance recovery after exercise.
Haramizu S, Ota N, Hase T, Murase T.
Source
Biological Science Laboratories, Kao Corporation, Tochigi, Japan.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
Catechins, abundant in green tea, exhibit many biological actions for potential clinical applications. Our purpose was to explore the potential benefits of catechin ingestion on recovery of physical performance after downhill running.
METHODS:
Institute of Cancer Research mice were used to examine the effects of prior catechin ingestion (0.5% w/w in diet for 3 wk) on 1) wheel-running activity, 2) running endurance, 3) muscle force, and 4) muscle oxidative stress and inflammation after downhill running (16 m·min for 5 min, 18 m·min for 5 min, 20 m·min for 10 min, and 22 m·min for 130 min).
RESULTS:
Voluntary wheel-running activity and the contractile force of the isolated soleus muscle decreased (P < 0.05) after downhill running. Notably, catechin ingestion significantly alleviated the running-induced decrease in voluntary wheel-running activity by 35%; the catechin-treated mice maintained endurance running capacity (214 ± 9 vs 189 ± 10 min, P < 0.05). Furthermore, catechins alleviated (P < 0.05) the decrease in tetanic force evident in the soleus muscle after downhill running. Catechins suppressed the running-induced increases in plasma creatine phosphokinase levels by 52%; this was also true of the carbonylated protein content of the soleus muscle by 17% (P < 0.05), malondialdehyde levels by 32% in the gastrocnemius muscle, and myeloperoxidase activity of the gastrocnemius by 22% (P < 0.05). The levels of tumor necrosis factor-?, interleukin-1?, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in the gastrocnemius muscle were significantly lower (P < 0.05) by 33%, 29%, and 35%, respectively, in treated mice; the expression levels of mRNAs encoding these fell in parallel. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that long-term intake of catechins, perhaps through their antioxidant properties, attenuates downhill running-induced muscle damage by suppressing muscle oxidative stress and inflammation, hastening recovery of physical performance in mice. PMID: 23470311 [PubMed - in process] Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23470311
