Journal of Sports Medicine & Doping Studies

Exercise-Induced Inflammatory Response: To Use or Not use Anti-Inflammatory Medication

Abstract

Albená Nunes-Silva

Intense exercise is a physiological stress capable of inducing damage in the exercised muscle group. As a consequence of this exercise-induced micro lesion, there is an increase in the interaction of leukocytes (neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages) with muscle endothelial cells and their transmigration into skeletal muscle tissue. Mechanisms driving this physiological response are not known, but exercise-induced muscle damage may be associated with a local inflammation involving leukocyte accumulation in damaged muscle tissue. Important recent findings show that this infiltration of leukocytes plays an important role in the skeletal muscle remodeling process by activating angiogenesis and hypertrophic pathways inside the skeletal muscle tissue. There are some speculations suggesting that this inflammatory process should be controlled by anti-inflammation drugs in athletes to accelerate the recovery time. Investigations of the literature in this field up to this point do not offer a sufficient body of evidence confirming the need for an anti-inflammatory drug administration to control the exercise-induced inflammation. On the other hand, anti-inflammatory drug administration as a supplemental diet could inhibit important pathways of tissue adaptative responses and block the benefits of exercise to the skeletal muscle tissue.