Serum urate and cholesterol levels in endurance trained volunteers during acute and rigorous bed rest conditions.

The objective of this investigation was to determine serum urate and cholesterol concentrations in endurance trained volunteers during exposure to acute (abrupt restriction of muscular activity) and rigorous bed rest conditions of seven days. The studies were performed on 30 long distance runners aged 22-25 who had a peak of VO2 of 65.5 +/- 2.7 ml.kg-1.min-1 on the average prior to their participation in the study. The volunteers were divided into three equal groups: the volunteers in the 1st group were under normal ambulatory conditions (control subjects), the volunteers of the 2nd group subjected to an acute bed rest regime (acute bed rested subjects) and the volunteers of the 3rd group were submitted to a rigorous bed rest regime (rigorous bed rested subjects). All volunteers were on an average of 14.2 km/day before taking part in the study. The 2nd and 3rd groups of volunteers were kept under a rigorous bed rest regime for seven days. During the perbed rest period and during the actual bed rest periods (acute and rigorous bed rest periods) serum cholesterol and uric acid levels were measured. During the 1st day of acute and rigorous bed rest periods serum uric acid and cholesterol concentrations increased significantly (p < or = 0.05), on the 3rd day increased somewhat more and during the 7th day they increased further. These changes were more pronounced during acute than rigorous bed rest conditions. It was concluded that increases in uric acid and cholesterol concentrations in serum appear to reflect more stresses that associated with acute than rigorous bed rest conditions in endurance trained volunteers.