Effect of American Ginseng on Exercise-induced Muscle Soreness

Lawson Health Research Institute

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Muscle Damage

Treatments: Dietary Supplement: Ginseng

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01827696

001

Details and patient eligibility

About

Healthy participants will ingest American ginseng daily or a placebo for four weeks prior to engaging in a unaccustomed exercise bout designed to induce mild-moderate muscle soreness. Muscle soreness will be assessed via decrements in muscle strength and with a self-rating of perceived soreness before and several times after the exercise.

Full description

Healthy men and women will consume either 2000 mg of American ginseng daily (four 500 mg pills will be taken at four different times during the day always with food/meals) or a placebo (4 cellulose) for four weeks prior to engaging in a 40 minute downhill treadmill jog (12% decline) at a speed of 7 miles per hour. Participants will consume one pill with breakfast, one pill with lunch, one pill with dinner and another pill with a snack either between meals or prior to bedtime. The exercise will be consist of five, eight minute bouts of jogging with two minutes of rest/recovery in between. The degree of muscle soreness will be assessed using a Biodex strength testing machine (isometric and concentric isokinetic torque), and a self-rating of perceived soreness on a scale from zero to ten. All of the above measures will be taken before and several times after the downhill jogging protocol.

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 35 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy men or women, (women must weigh between 55-65 kg., while men must weigh between 75-85kg).
• Participants must not have engaged in any endurance run training in the past 9 months.

Exclusion criteria

• Injured
• Regular runners
• Pregnant (or with any chance they may become pregnant)
• Breast-feeding
• Diabetics or those taking medication for diabetes
• Insomniacs
• Schizophrenics
• Hyper- or hypotension
• Cancer
• Irregular heartbeats
• Heart disease
• Females with endometriosis or uterine fibroids
• Those who have surgery scheduled during the study or within the two weeks following the completion of the study
• Those taking warfarin or medication for depression.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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10 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

American Ginseng ingestion

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: Ginseng

Placeobo

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

non-active ingredient

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: Ginseng