IMMUNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AND UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS IN TEAM SPORTS ATHLETES

Among athletes and coaches, there is a common perception that high training loads and competitions, applied chronically, with inadequate nutritional control and/or recovery periods, may reduce the immune resistance, increasing susceptibility to infection episodes, mainly upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). In this sense, this study is focused on reviewing the interactions between immunological parameters with the overtraining syndrome, specifically in team sports, considering its intermittent nature. Thus, a review of national and international journals related to the topic was held. The correlations between exercise, immune system and susceptibility to URTI have been evaluated mainly in individual and endurance sports compared to the team sports. The modulations of leukocytes throughout the season, against the totalization of training loads and competitions, when analyzed specifically for neutrophils and monocytes, are possibly related to tissue repair processes and incidence of URTI. Modulations related to lymphocytes seem to be more directly related to the incidence of URTI. Moreover, an understanding of all the proposed markers, including immunological markers, in association with the performance indicators and control of training, appears to be a more promising avenue for clinical diagnosis of the athlete's immune status and prevention of overtraining syndrome than the search for a unique marker of overtraining.