Spinach supplement

Introduction

Intake of nutrition is a tendency that has become popular especially among athletes and the general public in the contemporary society. This increase in intake of nutrients has been adopted due to the numerous benefits that are associated with them (Bohlooli, Barmaki, Khoshkhahesh & Nakhostin-Roohi 2014). This paper pays high attention to the importance of spinach to the athletes as derived from a study involving twenty-well trained participants.

From this study, the participants were equally divided into two groups where one group was to take spinach supplements and the other to take placebo daily for two weeks before running 21.1 km. The study intended to determine the effects of chronic daily spinach supplementation has on known markers of muscle damage and oxidative stress after well-trained athletes participate in a half-marathon. These markers included total antioxidant capacity for plasma antioxidant capacity, creatinekinase for muscle damage and uric acid, malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl for oxidative stress (Bohlooli, Barmaki, Khoshkhahesh & Nakhostin-Roohi 2014).

 The results showed that, the total antioxidants capacity elevated in those participants who took spinach supplements, elevated levels of creatinekinase, protein carbonyl and malondialdehyde. In addition, spinach supplements maintained the levels of the above markers at lower levels after the exercise compared to placebo intake (Bohlooli, Barmaki, Khoshkhahesh & Nakhostin-Roohi 2014).

Conclusion

It is, therefore, evident that the regular intake of spinach supplements is beneficial to athletes to greater heights. The study results indicate that the daily chronic oral spinach supplementation has alleviating effects on known markers of muscle damage and oxidative stress of well trained and healthy athletes especially after exercises. It is, therefore, advisable for the general public especially those individuals who participate in sports to ensure routine daily uptake of spinach supplements for the betterment of their bodies.

Work cited

Bohlooli S1, Barmaki S, Khoshkhahesh F, Nakhostin-Roohi. The effect of spinach supplementation on exercise-induced oxidative stress, retrieved on 15^th June 2014.