What are the New Findings of This Study?• This study confirms a
substantial and significant effect of systemic enzyme therapy (SET) on fatigue, muscle soreness and damage, as well as immunological and metabolic biomarkers, in male sportsmen with medium performance level (mostly runners and general athletes). Muscle soreness and maximal strength were not improved in those subjects with a higher level of strength training at baseline.
• Use of SET showed a
significant reduction in inflammatory biomarkers in sportsmen across all training levels, indicating an application for SET in supporting normal inflammatory processes for muscle recovery.
• Clinicians may recommend the use of SET for
mediating muscle fatigue, reducing soreness and attenuating potential muscle damage in endurance athletes.
Study Information:
Effects of a systemic enzyme therapy in healthy active adults after exhaustive eccentric exercise: a randomized, two-stage, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.
Background Systemic enzyme therapy may improve symptoms of exhaustive eccentric exercise due to anti-inflammatory properties.
Methods In a randomised, placebo-controlled, two-stage clinical trial, systemic enzyme therapy was administered for 72 hours before and 72 hours following a day on which subjects performed an exhaustive eccentric exercise (isokinetic loading of the quadriceps). Efficacy criteria (maximal strength and pain) and time points were selected to account for the multidimensional nature of exercise-induced muscle damage symptoms. Subjects were randomised in a crossover (stage I, n=28) and parallel group design (stage II, n=44).
Results Analysis of stage I data demonstrated a significant superiority (Mann-Whitney=0.6153; p=0.0332; one sided) for systemic enzyme therapy compared with placebo. Stage II was designed as a randomised controlled parallel group comparison. Heterogeneity (I2>0.5) between stages led to separate analyses of stage I (endurance-trained subjects) and stage II (strength-trained subjects). Combined analysis resulted in no evidence for corresponding treatment effects. Analysis of pooled biomarker data, however, demonstrated significant favourable effects for systemic enzyme therapy in both stages.
Conclusion Systemic enzyme therapy before and after exhaustive eccentric exercise resulted in higher maximal concentric strength in the less strength-trained subjects (stage I) and in significant favourable effects on biomarkers (inflammatory, metabolic and immune) in all subjects. The application of these findings needs further evaluation.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.
See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5569274/
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2016-000191
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