ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2019
Nutrition and Athlete Immune Health: New Perspectives on an Old Paradigm.
Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Lymphocyte and dendritic cell response to a period of intensified training in young healthy humans and rodents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Pooled it
- Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of spirulina in exercise and sport: A systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review: Role of dietary supplements on markers of exercise-associated gut damage and permeability.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring a Critical Threshold in Sleep Loss on Subsequent Evening Performance, Following Two Nights Partial Sleep Restriction: A Secondary Analysis is Implementing a Post-lunch Nap Beneficial?Brain and behavior · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Comparison of the Effects of Prebiotics and Synbiotics Supplementation on the Immune Function of Male University Football Players.Nutrients · 2023Trial
- Effects on Spirulina Supplementation on Immune Cells' Parameters of Elite College Athletes.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Influence of Vitamin D Supplementation by Simulated Sunlight or Oral D3 on Respiratory Infection during Military Training.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2021Trial
- Antioxidants and Exercise: A Redox-Informed Framework for Training Adaptation, Performance, and Recovery.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Chlorinated pool air, airway mucosal immunity, and respiratory health in competitive swimmers: a mini review.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Recovery for Professional and Elite Amateur Golfers: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Methods.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Article
- The Athlete Gut Microbiome: A Narrative Review of Multi-Omics Insights and Next-Generation Probiotic Strategies.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Rigorous methodological approaches to address knowledge gaps in exercise, nutrition, immunity, and infection risk research.Physiological reports · 2025Review
- The relationship between social safeness and pleasure and resilience levels among university athletes: A descriptive study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Nutrition Knowledge and Perceived Dietary Requirements of Adolescent Student-Athletes: A Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Nutrition and Golf Performance: A Systematic Scoping Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Article
- Does Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) Syndrome Exist?Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Review
- The Variability of the Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide Profile: Impact of Lifestyle.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Respiratory and gastrointestinal infections limit an athlete's availability to train and compete. To better understand how sick an athlete will become when they have an infection, a paradigm recently adopted from ecological immunology is presented that includes the concepts of immune resistance (the ability to destroy microbes) and immune tolerance (the ability to dampen defence yet control infection at a non-damaging level). This affords a new theoretical perspective on how nutrition may influence athlete immune health; paving the way for focused research efforts on tolerogenic nutritional supplements to reduce the infection burden in athletes. Looking through this new lens clarifies why nutritional supplements targeted at improving immune resistance in athletes show limited benefits: evidence supporting the old paradigm of immune suppression in athletes is lacking. Indeed, there is limited evidence that the dietary practices of athletes suppress immunity, e.g. low-energy availability and train- or sleep-low carbohydrate. It goes without saying, irrespective of the dietary preference (omnivorous, vegetarian), that athletes are recommended to follow a balanced diet to avoid a frank deficiency of a nutrient required for proper immune function. The new theoretical perspective provided sharpens the focus on tolerogenic nutritional supplements shown to reduce the infection burden in athletes, e.g. probiotics, vitamin C and vitamin D. Further research should demonstrate the benefits of candidate tolerogenic supplements to reduce infection in athletes; without blunting training adaptations and without side effects.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.