The effect of one-month Red Ginseng supplementation on quality of life and time to exhaustion during a cycling task under normobaric hypoxia in female physical education students

Poster Presentation XML
Paper ID : 1442-12THCONG
Authors
1Activity and Health Physiology, Physical Education Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
2Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
3Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sports Science | Razi University Kermanshah | Iran
Abstract
Hypoxia is considered as a factor that can negatively affect physical performance. Different strategies have been taking into consideration to counteract such debilitating effects; however, there is still no consensus regarding the best strategy to use in this regard. So more research is warranted to get more in-depth insight into this topic.
This study aimed to investigate the effect of one-month Red Ginseng supplementation on quality of life and time to exhaustion during a cycling task under normobaric hypoxia in female physical education students.
Thirteen female physical education students visited the laboratory on three different occasions. In session one, subjects acquainted with the experimental approach and each subject’s peak power output (PPO) was measured through an incremental cycling task. Then within a double-blinded counterbalanced crossover design, subjects received either 1g of the Red Ginseng on a daily basis or placebo for a month. At the end of the month, quality of life was measured and then, subjects were exposed to 60 min of 14% normobaric hypoxia followed by measuring the time to exhaustion in a cycling task at 65% of PPO (session 2). After seven days of a wash-out, the procedure was repeated for another month and the same measurements were conducted subsequently.
The results showed that there is no significant difference between Ginseng and placebo groups for the quality of life (p=0.6), while one month of supplementation with Red Ginseng significantly increased time to exhaustion in sub-maximal cycling task under normobaric hypoxia (p=0.02).
Conclusion: These results imply that Red Ginseng supplementation might be a possible strategy to dilute the deleterious effects of hypoxia on physical performance. Moreover, further research is needed to reveal the underlying mechanism of such an effect.
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