Blood oxidative stress biomarkers in women: influence of oral contraception, exercise, and N-acetylcysteine.

Purpose: To compare physiological responses to submaximal cycling and sprint cycling performance in women using oral contraceptives (WomenOC) and naturally cycling women (WomenNC) and to determine whether N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation mediates these responses.

Methods: Twenty recreationally trained women completed five exercise trials (i.e.

Temporal changes in blood oxidative stress biomarkers across the menstrual cycle and with oral contraceptive use in active women.

Purpose: To examine the temporal changes in blood oxidative stress biomarkers in recreationally-trained women that were naturally-cycling (WomenNC) or using oral contraceptives (WomenOC) across one month.

Methods: Blood samples were acquired at three timepoints of the menstrual cycle (1: early-follicular, 2: late-follicular and 3: mid-luteal) and oral contraceptive packet (1: InactiveOC, 2: Mid-activeOC and 3: Late-activeOC) for determination of estradiol, progesterone, oxidative stress, C-reactive protein (CRP) and other cardiometabolic biomarkers in plasma and serum.

Results: There was a Group by Time effect on estradiol (p < 0.

Reliability of a point-of-care device to determine oxidative stress in whole blood before and after acute exercise: A practical approach for the applied sports sciences.

Measuring alterations in redox homoeostasis in athletes can provide insights into their responses to training such as adaptations or fatigued states. However, redox monitoring is impractical in athletes given the time burden of venepuncture and subsequent laboratory assays. The ability of point-of-care tests (POC): 1) Free Oxygen Radical Test (FORT) and 2) Free Oxygen Radical Defence (FORD), to reliably measure whole blood oxidative stress between days and after exercise is unknown as well as their relationship with laboratory measures (F2-isoprostanes, total antioxidant capacity; TAC).

Cerebral oxygenation declines but does not impair peak oxygen uptake during incremental cycling in women using oral contraceptives.

Purpose: To compare prefrontal cortex oxygenation in recreationally-active women using oral contraceptives (WomenOC; n = 8) to women with a natural menstrual cycle (WomenNC; n = 8) during incremental exercise to exhaustion.

Methods: Participants performed incremental cycling to exhaustion to determine lactate threshold 1 (LT1) and 2 (LT2) and peak oxygen uptake (VOpeak). Prefrontal cortex oxygenation was monitored via near-infrared spectroscopy through concentration changes in oxy-haemoglobin (Δ[HbO]), deoxy-haemoglobin (Δ[HHb]), total-haemoglobin (Δ[tHb]) and tissue saturation index (TSI).