Assessment of endocrine stress status in athletes – new twists to the tale
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Health and Medical Publishing Group
Abstract
Objective. Cortisol concentration at rest seems to be an
insensitive marker for endocrine stress status in athletes.
Therefore, the aim of this review was to identify potentially
more sensitive parameters which could be used to monitor
endocrine stress status during chronic exercise training. In
order to gain more insight from studies not directly related to
exercise science, this review also includes findings from
studies investigating responses to psychological stress in
healthy individuals and in patients suffering from chronic disease.
Data sources. Medline.
Study selection and data extraction. Key words (e.g. exercise
stress, psychological stress, overtraining, chronic
fatigue, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), chronic inflammation).
Only studies published in peer-reviewed journals
included in the International Science Index were used. Care
was specifically taken not to over-represent any particular
research group’s articles.
Data synthesis. A qualitative synthesis was done, based on
all papers included in the review.
Conclusions. Four main conclusions were drawn: (i)
instead of considering changes in mean cortisol concentration
over time for a group of athletes, high- and low-responders
should be identified at baseline and their responses
considered separately; (ii) it may be more useful to express
cortisol concentration as a ratio to either testosterone or
DHEA-sulphate (DHEAs) concentration than assessing
either the catabolic or anti-catabolic variable on its own; (iii)
in response to stress, cortisol binding globulin (CBG) and
sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) do not seem to play major roles in the regulation of circulating concentrations of
bioactive cortisol and testosterone respectively; and (iv) it is
crucial to allow sufficient recovery from the most recent
exercise session to ensure that proper resting blood samples
are obtained for assessment of chronic effects of training
on endocrine status.
Description
CITATION: Smith, C. & Myburgh, K. H. 2005. Assessment of endocrine stress status in athletes – new twists to the tale. South African Journal of Sports Medicine, 17(3):19-29, doi:10.17159/5124.
The original publication is available at https://journals.assaf.org.za/sajsm
The original publication is available at https://journals.assaf.org.za/sajsm
Keywords
Stress (Physiology) -- Endocrine aspects, Athletes, Stress (Psychology)
Citation
Smith, C. & Myburgh, K. H. 2005. Assessment of endocrine stress status in athletes – new twists to the tale. South African Journal of Sports Medicine, 17(3):19-29, doi:10.17159/5124