Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Inflammation is the body’s response to various diseases that also happens after strenuous exercise. Previous studies showed significant effect of fish oil on reducing inflammation in patients but its effect on exercise inflammation and muscular performance is not well understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 4-weeks fish oil supplementation on inflammatory mediators and muscular performance in response to exhaustive exercise.
Methods: For this purpose, 16 healthy men (age: 26.90±2.64 yrs, weight: 78.33±10.42 kg, height: 175.80±4.89 cm, body fat percent: 18.40±5.46%) voluntarily participated and were assigned in fish oil (FO=9) and corn oil (CO=7) groups and consumed 6 gr/day supplements for 4 weeks. Levels of TNF-α, IL-10 and salivary cortisol were investigated using ELISA method. In addition, MVC of the tibilias anterior muscle was also assessed. Blood and saliva samples and MVC assessments were performed before and after exercise both in pre- and post-supplementation periods.
Results: Our results showed significant decrease in baseline values of TNF-α and IL-10 and increase in baseline values of MVC of FO group after supplementation (P<0.05). In addition, significant differences were observed between IL-10 (F=9.17, P=0.017) and MVC (F=4.79, P=0.046) changes of participants after supplementation. However, there wasn’t significant differences in salivary cortisol values after supplementation or exercise (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Our results showed significant effect of FO supplementation on reducing inflammation either before or after exercise that can lead to increase in muscular performance. However, its exact molecular pathways need more investigation