Effect of American Ginseng on Exercise-induced Muscle Soreness

Healthy men and women will consume either 2000 mg of American ginseng daily (four 500 mg pills will be taken at four different times during the day always with food/meals) or a placebo (4 cellulose) for four weeks prior to engaging in a 40 minute downhill treadmill jog (12% decline) at a speed of 7 miles per hour. Participants will consume one pill with breakfast, one pill with lunch, one pill with dinner and another pill with a snack either between meals or prior to bedtime. The exercise will be consist of five, eight minute bouts of jogging with two minutes of rest/recovery in between. The degree of muscle soreness will be assessed using a Biodex strength testing machine (isometric and concentric isokinetic torque), and a self-rating of perceived soreness on a scale from zero to ten. All of the above measures will be taken before and several times after the downhill jogging protocol.

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy men or women, (women must weigh between 55-65 kg., while men must weigh between 75-85kg).
• Participants must not have engaged in any endurance run training in the past 9 months.

Exclusion criteria

• Injured
• Regular runners
• Pregnant (or with any chance they may become pregnant)
• Breast-feeding
• Diabetics or those taking medication for diabetes
• Insomniacs
• Schizophrenics
• Hyper- or hypotension
• Cancer
• Irregular heartbeats
• Heart disease
• Females with endometriosis or uterine fibroids
• Those who have surgery scheduled during the study or within the two weeks following the completion of the study
• Those taking warfarin or medication for depression.