Many men and women engage regularly in physical exercise, which leads unavoidably to muscle damage to certain degree. Early studies suggest that taking
branched-chain amino acid supplements may help repair muscle damage. But a new study recently published in Journal of Research in Medical Science now suggest that antioxidants quercitin and vitamin C can prevent muscle damage in the first place.
G. Askari from Food Security Research Center in Isfahan, Iran conducted the study and found quercitin and vitamin C supplementation for a period of eight weeks did not improve exercise performance, but reduced muscle damage in student athletes.
In the study, four groups of male students were randomly assigned one of the following four supplements for eight weeks, 1) 500 mg per day quercitin, 2) 500 mg per day of quercitin plus 200 mg per day of vitamin C, 3) 200 mg per day of vitamin C and 4) 500 mg per day of placebo plus 200 mg per day of placebo.
Time to exhaustion was measured to indicate performance, aspartate transaminase (AST ) and creatine kinase (CK) were measured to indicate muscle damage. Body fat percent (BFP) was also measured before and after the supplementation.
Quercitin supplementation alone significantly reduced the creatine kinase levels and quercitin alone, vitamin C alone and the combination of vitamin C and quercitin all reduced body fat percent significantly.
The researchers concluded "Supplementation with quercetin and vitamin C for 8 weeks did not improve
