Effects of glutamine supplementation on the immune system in athletes subjected to overtraining: a systematic review

  • Marianne Áurea da Cruz Aleluia Escola de Nutrição da Universidade Federal da Bahia.
  • João Paulo Coelho Mendes Instituto de Pesquisas Ensino e Gestão em Saúde e Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciência, Salvador, BA, Brasil
  • Ana Quenia Gomes da Silva Universidade Federal da Bahia
Keywords: Glutamine, Exercise, Imune system

Abstract

The current study aims to evaluate the effects of glutamine supplementation on the immunological changes induced by overtraining in athletes. A systematic review was performed on PubMed, Bireme and Scopus databases, using the keywords "glutamine", "overtraining", "athletes" and the Boolean operator "and". Only articles published between the years of 1990 and 2015 in multiple languages were included. The pre-selected articles were submitted to the Jadad scale to evaluate the methodological quality of the studies and three reviewers were recruited to perform the article search in order to avoid selection bias. After application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 4 studies were considered for this review. All the selected articles had a score ≥ 3 on Jadad scale, which implies good methodological quality. The evaluated studies performed short duration and had participants with different characteristics, including differences in the type of sport practiced, the participant's age and glutamine supplementation dose. In conclusion, there appears to be sufficient data demonstrating the influence of intense physical exercise on plasma glutamine concentration however there are controversies relating to the positive effects of glutamine intake on immunological parameters of athletes subjected to strenuous exercises. Therefore, further studies investigating long-term glutamine supplementation are necessary in order to confirm the real effects of this supplementation in improved immunity in athletes subjected to excessive training.

Author Biographies

Marianne Áurea da Cruz Aleluia, Escola de Nutrição da Universidade Federal da Bahia.

Graduanda em Nutrição pela Escola de Nutrição da Universidade Federal da Bahia. Experiência na área de Nutrição Esportiva. Estagiária em consultório especializado em Nutrição Esportiva. Membro da equipe de Nutrição da Sports Nutrition Centar - Salvador, BA. 

João Paulo Coelho Mendes, Instituto de Pesquisas Ensino e Gestão em Saúde e Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciência, Salvador, BA, Brasil

Graduado em Nutrição pela Universidade Federal da Bahia, Pós-graduado em Nutrição Clí­nica e Esportiva pelo IPGS. Professor da Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciência e Professor da Pós-graduação do IPGS. Membro do grupo NutriAliance, colaborador do Núcleo de Nutrição Esportiva da UNIFACS e da Liga Acadêmica de Nutrição Esportiva da UFBA. Nutricionista clí­nico de atletas de alto rendimento.

Ana Quenia Gomes da Silva, Universidade Federal da Bahia

Professor Adjunto pela UFBA. graduada em Fisioterapia com Especialização em Fisioterapia em Pneumologia e Fisioterapia Cardiovascular. Pós graduação mestrado e doutorado em Ciências Biológias com ênfase em Fisiologia. Pós-doutorado em Fisiologia, Controle Neural da Pressão arterial em condições fisiológicas alteradas. áreas de interesse, Fisiologia do Exercício, Sistema Cardiovascular e Respiratório, Controle Neural no exercí­cio. 

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Published
2016-08-08
How to Cite
Aleluia, M. Áurea da C., Mendes, J. P. C., & Silva, A. Q. G. da. (2016). Effects of glutamine supplementation on the immune system in athletes subjected to overtraining: a systematic review. RBNE - Brazilian Journal of Sports Nutrition, 10(60), 619-626. Retrieved from https://www.rbne.com.br/index.php/rbne/article/view/703
Issue
Vol. 10 No. 60 (2016)
Section
Scientific Articles - Original

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