Abstract
Objectives
The attenuation of the number and severity of infections is of importance to athletes.
Probiotics use has increased over recent years with beneficial effects believed to
include improvements in immune function. Research has focused on their effectiveness
for reducing the number, duration and severity of infections amongst endurance athletes.
At present no research has been undertaken with team sport athletes. This randomised
controlled trial aimed to determine the effectiveness of probiotics on the number,
duration and severity of infections amongst elite union rugby players.
Design
Randomised control trial with two arms; placebo and probiotic.
Methods
Thirty elite rugby union players were allocated in random order to receive a probiotics
supplement or a placebo for four weeks each. Supplements were consumed on a daily
basis. There was a four week washout period between treatments. Participants completed
a daily diary to identify and rate the severity of any infectious symptoms.
Results
During the probiotic treatment 14/30 participants never experienced a single upper
respiratory tract illness (URTI) or gastrointestinal (GI) episode, compared to 6/30
on the placebo supplementation (p = 0.033). The mean ± standard deviation for the number of days of illness tended to be higher for the placebo,
(5.8 ± 6.6 days) than probiotic (3.4 ± 4.6 days), (p = 0.054). There was no significant difference in the severity of the symptoms between
the two treatment groups (p = 0.110).
Conclusions
These positive effects of probiotic supplements provide evidence for the beneficial
effects of daily supplementation with these probiotic strains in highly trained rugby
union players.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 16, 2013
Accepted:
August 23,
2013
Received in revised form:
August 5,
2013
Received:
May 6,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
