Meriva® and sports nutrition

In a randomised, placebo-controlled, single-blinded study, 20 healthy and moderately active subjects received 1g Meriva® or a placebo twice daily, 48 hours prior to a downhill running test, the day of the test, and 24 hours after the test, for an overall 4 day treatment.

The end point was the evaluation of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), that is the muscular discomfort and stiffness that develops after unaccustomed or strenuous exercise, with soreness being felt most strongly 24 to 72 hours after the exercise.

Muscle soreness was quantified by magnetic resonance imaging, laboratory tests, and histologic analyses on muscle samples obtained 48 hours after the test. The intensity of discomfort was also evaluated. Partecipants were asked to indicate the location of pain on a drawing representing the lower limbs, and to rank pain intensity on a 0-4 point scale, where 0=no pain, 4=disabling pain when descending or climbing stairs.

The observation from the study suggests that curcumin as Meriva® can be beneficial to attenuate exercise-induced DOMS, and larger studies could provide statistical significance also for parameters like the histological evaluation of muscle that only showed a trend to improvement in this pilot study.

Reference

Drobnic F. et al., J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2014 Jun 18;11:31