Nagai H, Harada M, Nakagawa M, Tanaka T, Gunadi B, Setiabudi M L, Uktolseja J L, Miyata Y
Inst. for Fundamental Res., Suntory Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
Appl Human Sci. 1996 Nov;15(6):281-6. doi: 10.2114/jpa.15.281.
Folk wisdom suggests that chicken extract is useful for recovery from physical and mental fatigue. To explore this question, the physiological effect of Brand's Essence of Chicken (BEC), a popular chicken extract used as a traditional remedy, was assessed during recovering from mental stress. We quantitated the blood levels of stress-related substances, and examined the task performance and subjects' mood states during mental workloads. Subjects were 20, healthy male students who have never tasted BEC. They took two bottles of BEC or a placebo (70 ml/bottle) daily in the morning for 7 days. On the final experimental day, two mental workload tests were performed: (A) a mental arithmetic test (MAT; 1600 trials of two or three figure-addition or subtraction for 40 min). (B) a short-term memory test (SMT; 20 trials of memorizing 9 digit numbers). Blood was collected before and after each workload task. After the mental workload, the recovery of mean cortisol level of subjects who consumed BEC was significantly faster than that for those consuming the placebo. The task performance of subjects performing the MAT and SMT was also improved with BEC consumption compared with placebo. According to the profile of mood state questionnaire, subjects felt more active and less fatigued during the workload when they took BEC regularly. We conclude that the extract of chicken has the potential to metabolize stress-related substance in blood and to promote recovery from mental fatigue.
民间智慧表明鸡汤有助于从身心疲劳中恢复。为了探究这个问题，我们评估了一种作为传统疗法使用的流行鸡汤——白兰氏鸡精（BEC）在从精神压力中恢复期间的生理效应。我们对与压力相关物质的血液水平进行了定量，并在精神负荷期间检查了任务表现和受试者的情绪状态。受试者为20名从未品尝过BEC的健康男学生。他们每天早上服用两瓶BEC或安慰剂（每瓶70毫升），持续7天。在最后一个实验日，进行了两项精神负荷测试：（A）一项心算测试（MAT；40分钟内进行1600次两位数或三位数的加法或减法运算）。（B）一项短期记忆测试（SMT；20次记忆9位数字的测试）。在每项负荷任务前后采集血液。在精神负荷之后，饮用BEC的受试者的平均皮质醇水平恢复速度明显快于饮用安慰剂的受试者。与安慰剂相比，饮用BEC的受试者在进行MAT和SMT时的任务表现也有所改善。根据情绪状态剖面图问卷，当受试者定期饮用BEC时，他们在负荷期间感觉更有活力且疲劳感减轻。我们得出结论，鸡汤提取物有潜力代谢血液中与压力相关的物质，并促进从精神疲劳中恢复。
