Animal Model of Performance Enhancement by Nutritional Supplements with Anti-inflammatory Activity

It is well known that intense exercise can induce muscle damage and inflammation depending on exercise mode, intensity, and duration (Schwane et al., 1983; Willoughby et al., 2003). Exercise with a large eccentric component (lengthening of a muscle that is actively developing tension) produces the greatest muscle fiber damage, inflammation, delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and various functional deficits. It is now thought that many of these responses to muscle-damaging exercise may be triggered by a large increase in inflammatory cytokines in the working muscle, plasma and perhaps even the brain (Dantzer, 2004; Schwane et al., 1983; Sheng et al., 2001; Willoughby et al., 2003).