Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 15, 2007 issue
Findings May Benefit Military
Story by Sam Calhoun
Researchers at ASU have proven that a natural antioxidant derived from plants is able to reduce illness and maintain mental performance in physically stressed test subjects.
Quercetin, a naturally occurring, powerful antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine, red apples, green tea and broccoli, is the first plant compound proven in a controlled clinical trial—held from January to April 2006 at ASU—to help reduce susceptibility to viral illness.
“These are ground-breaking results, because this is the first clinical, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study that has found a natural plant compound to prevent viral illness,” said Dr. David Neiman, a professor in ASU’s Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science. “It’s a big thing for science and the military.”
Research on quercetin at ASU was funded by a $1.1 million contract awarded to the university in 2005 by DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense’s high-risk research and development organization. DARPA is seeking ways to maintain the immune systems of troops who are undergoing the physical and cognitive stresses of combat.
“They are very happy with the results. DARPA put a lot of money into the study and they would have accepted the results either way,” said Neiman. “But what we found was a dramatic reduction in [sore throats and colds] which is a major problem in the military.”
Neiman explained that DARPA is interested in the newest and most cutting-edge research and is pleased that quercetin has proven to reduce infections.
For the study, Neiman led a team of ASU biologists, exercise scientists, psychologists and nutritionists who studied the substance’s beneficial properties.
In the study, 20 cyclists ingested 1,000 milligrams of quercetin—using specially designed quercetin chews, resembling a Starburst candy and provided for free from Quercetin Pharma in Newton, Mass.—each day for five weeks. Participants in the study ingested pure quercetin, combined with vitamin C and niacin to help the body absorb the substance. The 20 other cyclists received a placebo.
For the first three weeks of the study, the cyclists conducted their normal training of 1 to 1.5 hours per day, but for the last two weeks of the study, the athletes rode 3 hours per day for 3 days to the point of exhaustion.
“We set it up to really stress the athletes,” said Neiman.
During the study, researchers also collected 1 liter of the patients’ blood and conducted four muscle biopsies to track any physiological changes occurring in the test subjects.
Neiman has documented in previous research that extreme exercise, such as running a marathon, weakens a person’s immune system and increases infection rates.
With 45 percent of the cyclists who took a placebo reporting illness following the extreme exercise, only 5 percent of the quercetin group reported any days of sickness and showed no evidence of side effects.
“That’s a highly significant difference,” said Neiman. “When you have a double-blind, placebo-controlled study and you have those kinds of differences, it can’t be due to chance.”
The study also found that the immune-boosting properties of quercetin didn’t appear to take effect until after the three-day intense exercise period.
“It appears that it takes significant stress to bring out quercetin’s infection-fighting properties,” Neiman said.
Researchers in ASU’s Department of Psychology also found that following the three days of exercise, quercetin helped maintain mental alertness and reaction time of the athletes in a fashion similar to that of caffeine.
Neiman presented the results from the research on February 9, at the southeastern regional meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Charlotte.
Next, Neiman and his research team will look at quercetin’s benefits for members of the general public who experience everyday psychological stressors, and whether lower doses during a shorter period of time have beneficial effects.
“The question that needs to be answered now is will quercetin help members of the general community who are just going through mental stress,” he said. “I really want to see of this substance will help the common person.”
The average American eating a normal, healthy diet consumes about 25 to 50 milligrams of quercetin a day. Most Americans get most of their quercetin, said Neiman, from red apples, and vegetarians can get as much as 250 milligrams of quercetin through their diet every day.
Neiman and his team are negotiating with some companies to gain funding to continue the research.
“I want to get closer to the [milligram] levels produced from a healthy diet,” he said adding that he hopes to test subjects with 250 to 500 milligrams of quercetin. “We just don’t know. It may be 1,000 milligrams is what it takes and we’ll find out.”