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Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning

BACKGROUND: Exercise is known to induce multiple beneficial conditioning processes. Conversely, although exercise may generate several hormonal effects, an intrinsic hormonal conditioning process has not been reported. In the Endocrine and Metabolic Responses on Overtraining Syndrome (EROS) study, w...

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Autores principales: Cadegiani, Flavio A., Kater, Claudio E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6824116/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31675953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12902-019-0443-7
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author Cadegiani, Flavio A.
Kater, Claudio E.
author_facet Cadegiani, Flavio A.
Kater, Claudio E.
author_sort Cadegiani, Flavio A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Exercise is known to induce multiple beneficial conditioning processes. Conversely, although exercise may generate several hormonal effects, an intrinsic hormonal conditioning process has not been reported. In the Endocrine and Metabolic Responses on Overtraining Syndrome (EROS) study, we observed inherent and independent conditioning processes of the hypothalamic-pituitary axes in athletes. Our objective is to describe the theory of the novel hormonal conditioning mechanism using the findings from the EROS study. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we selected 25 healthy athletes (ATL) and 12 non-physically active healthy controls (NPAC), 18–50 years old, males, with BMI 20–30 kg/m(2), with similar baseline characteristics, who underwent gold-standard exercise-independent tests: cosyntropin stimulation test (CST) and insulin tolerance test (ITT), to evaluate cortisol response to CST, and ACTH, cortisol, GH, and prolactin responses to an ITT. RESULTS: Responses to ITT were significantly earlier and higher in ATL than NPAC for cortisol [Mean ± SD: 21.7 ± 3.1 vs 16.9 ± 4.1 μg/dL; p < 0.001], GH [Median (95% CI): 12.73 (1.1–38.1) vs 4.80 (0.33–27.36) μg/L; p = 0.015], and prolactin [24.3 (10.5–67.45) vs 10.50 (6.21–43.44) ng/mL; p = 0.002]. Cortisol response to CST was similar between ATL and NPAC. During ITT, cortisol, GH, and ACTH mean increase in ATL were 52.2, 265.2, and 18.6% higher than NPAC, respectively. Prolactin response was absent in NPAC, while present in ATL. CONCLUSIONS: We found sufficient evidence to propose the existence of a diffuse enhancement of the hypothalamic-pituitary activity in athletes, not restricted to any axis, showing an intrinsic and independent process of “hormonal conditioning” in athletes, similar to those observed in the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. This novel conditioning process may be the missing link for understanding the improved responses observed in athletes to harmful situations, traumas, infections, inflammations, and psychiatric conditions.
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spelling pubmed-68241162019-11-06 Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning Cadegiani, Flavio A. Kater, Claudio E. BMC Endocr Disord Research Article BACKGROUND: Exercise is known to induce multiple beneficial conditioning processes. Conversely, although exercise may generate several hormonal effects, an intrinsic hormonal conditioning process has not been reported. In the Endocrine and Metabolic Responses on Overtraining Syndrome (EROS) study, we observed inherent and independent conditioning processes of the hypothalamic-pituitary axes in athletes. Our objective is to describe the theory of the novel hormonal conditioning mechanism using the findings from the EROS study. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we selected 25 healthy athletes (ATL) and 12 non-physically active healthy controls (NPAC), 18–50 years old, males, with BMI 20–30 kg/m(2), with similar baseline characteristics, who underwent gold-standard exercise-independent tests: cosyntropin stimulation test (CST) and insulin tolerance test (ITT), to evaluate cortisol response to CST, and ACTH, cortisol, GH, and prolactin responses to an ITT. RESULTS: Responses to ITT were significantly earlier and higher in ATL than NPAC for cortisol [Mean ± SD: 21.7 ± 3.1 vs 16.9 ± 4.1 μg/dL; p < 0.001], GH [Median (95% CI): 12.73 (1.1–38.1) vs 4.80 (0.33–27.36) μg/L; p = 0.015], and prolactin [24.3 (10.5–67.45) vs 10.50 (6.21–43.44) ng/mL; p = 0.002]. Cortisol response to CST was similar between ATL and NPAC. During ITT, cortisol, GH, and ACTH mean increase in ATL were 52.2, 265.2, and 18.6% higher than NPAC, respectively. Prolactin response was absent in NPAC, while present in ATL. CONCLUSIONS: We found sufficient evidence to propose the existence of a diffuse enhancement of the hypothalamic-pituitary activity in athletes, not restricted to any axis, showing an intrinsic and independent process of “hormonal conditioning” in athletes, similar to those observed in the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. This novel conditioning process may be the missing link for understanding the improved responses observed in athletes to harmful situations, traumas, infections, inflammations, and psychiatric conditions. BioMed Central 2019-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6824116/ /pubmed/31675953 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12902-019-0443-7 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cadegiani, Flavio A.
Kater, Claudio E.
Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title_full Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title_fullStr Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title_full_unstemmed Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title_short Enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
title_sort enhancement of hypothalamic-pituitary activity in male athletes: evidence of a novel hormonal mechanism of physical conditioning
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6824116/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31675953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12902-019-0443-7
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