Biochemical assessments of retinol, alpha-tocopherol, pyridoxal--5-phosphate oxidative stress index and total antioxidant status in adolescent professional basketball players and sedentary controls.

Physical training is known to increase the antioxidant defence system and reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress. However, intense physical aerobic and anaerobic training with competition, such as those imposed on young professional basketball players can induce an increase of oxidative stress, which can be implicated with overtraining. The aim of this study was to test the effect of training and competition load on oxidative stress, antioxidant status, and vitamin levels in basketball players.