Effects of Vaccinium berries (blueberries, cranberries and bilberries) on oxidative stress, inflammation, exercise performance, and recovery – a systematic review
Exercise-induced muscle damage is common in athletes and recreational exercisers and can lead to muscle soreness, weakness, and impaired muscle function. The precise mechanisms are unclear but oxidative stress and inflammation are thought to play a role. (Poly)phenols are substances abundant in Vaccinium berries that have been suggested to possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that could help improve exercise performance and/or recovery from exercise. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the benefits of Vaccinium berry supplementation on exercise performance and recovery, as well as on exercise-induced oxidative and inflammatory biomarkers in healthy individuals. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, ProQuest Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus. Studies were included if the participants were healthy individuals who were supplemented with any Vaccinium berry or Vaccinium berry-based products in comparison to a control group. Of the 13 articles included in this review, no significant differences in the exercise performance were found and only one study reported benefits for markers of recovery. Interleukins and c-reactive protein were the most frequently reported biomarkers, but there was limited evidence that Vaccinium berry supplementation impacted them post-exercise. Most studies were of high quality and showed a low risk of bias. Vaccinium berry supplementation is not effective in modulating markers of exercise-induced inflammation and oxidative distress in healthy individuals; nevertheless, more studies are required to evaluate their effects on exercise performance and recovery in this population.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Food & FunctionVolume
15Issue
2Pages
444 - 459Publisher
Royal Society of ChemistryVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The authorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry under the Creative Commons Unported 3.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Acceptance date
2023-12-09Publication date
2024-01-02Copyright date
2024ISSN
2042-6496eISSN
2042-650XPublisher version
Language
- en