Immunonutrition is relatively much of a newbie into the field of Sport Nutrition. It is being extensively researched into over the recent years. It's effects are currently being acknowledged by many scientists and researchers. Though not directly improves performance, they help in keeping the athlete healthy by boosting immunity and promoting recovery and also helps in maintaining homeostasis.
Immunonutrition refers to the study of effects of nutrients including macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and trace elements on inflammation. They focus on the effects of nutrients on the action of white blood cells, formation of antibodies and the resistance to diseases. This is a holistic approach to providing nutrition to critically ill patients/athletes. Involves procedures and methods that stimulates modulation of immune response using specific nutrients. Includes administration of nutrient labelled antibodies to the clients. There are various factors that affect the immunity levels in an athlete which can be improvised using immunonutrition techniques. These include;
Physical training
Exposure to pathogens
Health status
Lifestyle behaviours
Sleep
Recovery
Nutrition
Psycho-Social issues
Immunonutrition includes certain nutrients and the common ones are Prebiotics/Probiotics, glutamine, arginine, omega-3-fatty acids, taurine, beta gluten, nucleotides etc. In this blog I am stressing on the importance of two of the most utilised immunonutrients in sports field. They are glutamine and arginine. These two are being recently referred and recommended a lot in the field of sports. Lets see why?
Arginine:
This is a conditionally essential amino acid.
It plays a significant role in immune system.
It boosts fat metabolism and thereby is involved in weight management.
It is a precursor of glutamine, proline and synthesis of polyamines.
This amino acid plays a vital role during growing years, hyper metabolic situations (such as burns) and in recovery periods.
It is a biological precursor of nitric oxide that plays an integral role in regulating immune system by decreasing pro-inflammatory substances.
Nitric oxide also protects against initiation and progressions of atherosclerosis.
Food Sources:
Most common and abundant sources of arginine are;
Rice
Oats
Soy
Meat
Eggs
Fish
Beans
Glutamine:
It is involved in a wide variety of metabolic and biochemical reactions.
Pivotal role in nitrogen homeostasis.
Used in the synthesis of purine and pyrimidines.
Serves as a respiratory fuel for rapidly proliferating cells, such as lymphocytes and enterocytes.
It is a precursor of nucleic acids, nucleotides, amino sugars, neurotransmitters and glycoproteins.
It regulates acid-base balance.
Glutamine is converted to ornithine and citrulline that are then converted to arginine in the urea cycle.
It also stimulates glycogen synthesis and enhances neutrophil phagocytosis. This is one of the reasons to be used by athletes, for their recovery benefits.
Food sources include the proteins from plant and animal sources are rich natives of glutamine.