Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Keywords
fatigue, glutamine, heat, firefighter, recovery, heat shock proteins
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Safety
Volume
5
Issue
2
Abstract
Wildland firefighting requires repetitive (e.g., consecutive work shifts) physical work in dangerous conditions (e.g., heat and pollution). Workers commonly enter these environments in a nonacclimated state, leading to fatigue and heightened injury risk. Strategies to improve tolerance to these stressors are lacking. Purpose: To determine if glutamine ingestion prior to and after consecutive days of firefighting simulations in the heat attenuates subjective ratings of fatigue, and evaluate if results were supported by glutamine-induced upregulation of biological stress responses. Methods: Participants (5 male, 3 female) ingested glutamine (0.15 g/kg/day) or a placebo before and after two consecutive days (separated by 24 h) of firefighter simulations in a heated chamber (35 degrees C, 35% humidity). Perceived fatigue and biological stress were measured pre-, post-, and 4 h postexercise in each trial. Results: Subjective fatigue was reduced pre-exercise on Day 2 in the glutamine group (p < 0.05). Peripheral mononuclear cell expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and serum antioxidants were elevated at 4 h postexercise on Day 1 in the glutamine trial (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Ingestion of glutamine before and after repeated firefighter simulations in the heat resulted in reduced subjective fatigue on Day 2, which may be a result of the upregulation of biological stress systems (antioxidants, HSPs). This response may support recovery and improve work performance.
Department
Department of Kinesiology
Original Publication Date
6-2019
DOI of published version
10.3390/safety5020038
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library
Copyright
©2019 Moore, M, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Moore, Mary; Moriarty, Terence A.; Connolly, Gavin; Mermier, Christine; Amorim, Fabiano; Miller, Kevin; and Zuhl, Micah, "Oral Glutamine Supplement Reduces Subjective Fatigue Ratings during Repeated Bouts of Firefighting Simulations" (2019). Faculty Publications. 1.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/kin_facpub/1
Comments
First published in Safety, v.5 n.2 (June 2019), by MDPI Open Access Journals.