No Ergogenic Effects of Ginseng (Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer) during Graded Maximal Aerobic Exercise
Section snippets
Subjects
Thirty-six healthy men were recruited from several professional programs at the university and from a local YMCA. Before admission to the study, each subject underwent medical screening and was found to be in good health. An initial educational session explained the expectations of the researchers for participants in the study. Each subject consented not to change his usual habitual physical activity level throughout the study and to maintain his normal diet without taking any dietary
Subjects
Of the 36 healthy men who took part in this research, 5 were unavailable for the posttest: 2 (both from the placebo group) were sick, 1 (from the low-dosage ginseng group) had an injury unrelated to the treatment, and 2 (both from the high-dosage ginseng group) failed to meet the research expectations regarding compliance with the study procedures. Thus, final analyses were performed based on complete measurements obtained from 31 subjects.
The high-dosage ginseng group tended, on average, to be
Discussion
The primary finding of this study was that supplementation with a standardized preparation of P ginseng C.A. Meyer at two different dosage levels (200 and 400 mg/day of G115) failed to affect selected physiologic and psychological responses during graded maximal exercise. Chronic ginseng intake was not associated with a change in oxygen use and an improvement of aerobic work capacity. Our study population consisted of healthy men who maintained their habitual physical activity level and
Applications
Dietitians play an integral role in the dissemination of accurate and appropriate information about food and nutrition research. The relevance of our observations to them is that popular clinical and testimonial claims that suggest that P ginseng C.A. Meyer has important ergogenic properties for improving aerobic exercise performance could not be supported experimentally. Nevertheless, given that the available research literature on the possible effects of this enigmatic plant is still
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