COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF DRINKING WATER
QUALITY ON THE ATHLETES’ CONDITION DURING EXERCISE
Gavrilova Е.А.,M.D., Ph.D, Professor. Glushkov S.I., M.D., Ph.D, Professor. Korotkov K.G., Ph.D. Professor. Churganov O.A. Ph.D. Professor. Shelkov O.M. Ph.D. Professor. Logvinov V.S., research associate
Federal State Institution «St. Petersburg Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sport», St. Petersburg, Russia
Key words: grapheme water filter, non-doping methods of improving performance.
Abstract
Integrated studies utilizing methods from physiology, psychophysiology, psychology, and biophysics were conducted. Athletes had the parameters of their condition measured before they began consuming graphene-filtered water as well as after a 30-day period of its consumption during training cycle. The obtained results were compared with the data from a control group of athletes who drank bottled water. It is shown that athletes drinking water passed through a graphene filter experienced growth in aerobic capacity, physical performance, energy potential, and their bodies’ adaptive reserves.
Introduction
Water is the main component of the internal environment of an organism.
For people whose work involves intense physical activity, the state of water-salt metabolism is an important physiological requirement for maintaining optimum performance. The Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare notes the poor quality of drinking water in Russia. About 19% of samples from the water supply do not satisfy the sanitary-chemical standards and about 8% do not satisfy the bacteriological standards.
Nationwide, up to 30% of the samples of surface water sources do not meet health standards for sanitary-chemical reasons, and up to 25% – for bacteriological reasons. A serious problem is posed by water distributing systems – between 40% and 70% of them are in need of replacement.
According to a March 18, 2005 Service memo, “as a result of this, accidents
at these systems and the subsequent microbial contamination of drinking water constitute an epidemic risk.” The memo states that out of all the disease outbreaks reported in 2004, 77.3% were of an “AQUATIC” nature and were related to the poor state of the water system.
As such, the quality of drinking water may, along with a number of other factors, play a certain role in determining the effectiveness of human activity. This holds especially true for activities involving extreme exertion – in particular for sports. This study focuses on identifying the impact of specially prepared water on the organisms of athletes.
ORGANIZATION AND METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
Sample
The sample consisted of 40 athletes between the ages of 14 and 25, coming from the Olympic Reserve School (St. Petersburg). Their skill level ranged from first-class sportsmen (regional champions) to candidates for master of sport (nationally ranked players) and masters (national champions) in different kinds of sports – athletics, rowing, triathlon, basketball. Two 20-person groups were randomly selected – experimental and control.
Groups were randomized by age, gender, skill level, and sports type. Subjects were aware of the goal of the experiment, but were not told which kind of water they would drink.
For 30 days athletes in the experimental group drank water passed through an HRCM graphene filter [1]. Athletes in the control group consumed bottled water.
Water source
The filtering process utilizes the high-reactivity carbon mix (HRCM) – a new carbon material created based on a discovery that Russian Academy of Natural Sciences member V. I. Petrik first laid out as “The Phenomenon of the Formation of Nanostructured Carbon Complexes”. HRCM is obtained by cold destruction of graphite through a patented method [1]. HRCM contains carbon nanostructures that have an enormous surface area (about 2000
m^2 per gram). As such, when moistened, HRCM carbon nanostructures form a mass which “entangles” even the tiniest impurities and suspended particles both of an organic and of an inorganic origin.
Methods
The following methods and corresponding hand-held devices for athletes’ express analysis were used in the study:
1. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measurements by “Cardio-meter – MT”
(“Mycard-Lana” Co. St. Petersburg, Russia, www.mikard.ru).
HRV indicators, which reflect features of cardiovascular regulation (a total of 24 indicators) serve primarily to characterize the adaptive reaction of an athlete to the stressful effects of graduated exercise. Statistical, spectral, and integrated indicators characterizing the state of different levels of the cardiac cycle regulation were used. [2]
2. The Profile of Mood States (POMS) test [3] was used to determine the
psychoemotional state and arrive at an integrated assessment of the mood and stress levels of the athletes.
3. To determine the level of the athletes’ physical ability peak oxygen
consumption (POC) based on the PWC170 sample was measured. These data access the optimality and efficiency of the athletes’ cardiovascular systems.
4. Stress system “General Electric Healthcare Cardiosoft” with the cycle
ergometry “Bike General Electric Healthcare” (General Electric USA).
5. Evaluation of energy potential (EP) and stress level (SL) by Gas Discharge
Visualization technique with “GDV-Sport” device (“Biotechprogress” Co, St. Petersburg, Russia, www.ktispb.ru). Measurements were taken from all 10 fingers.
Energy Potential (EP) is a measure of psycho-physiological condition of an athlete; it is calculated as a percentage ranging from 0 to 100%. EP = 100% is correlated with high level of competitive readiness and high energy reserve.
Stress Level (SL) is characteristic of the level of anxiety and stress, measured on a scale from 0 to 10. SL = 10 is correlated with high anxiety level and poor competitive readiness. Interpretation criteria are given in Table 1.
GDV Technology is based on the well-known Kirlian effect: when an object is placed on a glass plate and stimulated with current, a visible glow occurs, the gas discharge. With gaseous discharge visualization (GDV) bioelectrography cameras, the Kirlian effect is quantifiable and reproducible for scientific research purposes. Images captured of all ten
fingers on each human subject provide detailed information on the person’s psycho-somatic and physiological state [4]. The GDV camera systems and their accompanying software are being used in medicine and psychology [5-8]. Through investigating the fluorescent fingertip images, which dynamically change with emotional and health states, one can identify areas of congestion or health in the whole system. The mild electrical stimulation initiated by the GDV creates a neurovascular reaction that registers on the skin. The characteristics of this reaction are influenced by the nervous-humoral status of all organs and systems. Images of
these reactions are digitally captured and analyzed. In addition, for most healthy people GDV readings vary less than 10% over time, indicating a high level of precision in this technique [5]. It is interesting to note that using GDV technology over the course of several years to study Russian paralympic teams, no significant differences between paralympic athletes and healthy population were found [9]. At the same time analysis of data for handicapped individuals in Russia with the same type of problems indicated much worse states of their psycho-physiological condition. This suggests that athletic training may play a vital role in maintaining the body’s energy level along with other key homeostatic parameters. For years GDV technology has been accepted by the Russian Ministry of Sport as one of several techniques used to rapidly evaluate an athletes’ psychophysiological state.
Full text PDF: 2013 Water sport article
