title: The effect of a 10-week high-intensity interval training and ginger consumption on inflammatory indices contributing to atherosclerosis in overweight women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most of the cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by doing regular physical exercises and using herbal supplements. The present study is aimed at assessing ginger supplement and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on inflammatory indices contributing to atherosclerosis in overweight women.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study is a randomized, experimental, and controlled one in which thirty healthy overweight women aged 20-30 years were randomly divided into three equal groups, namely, ginger, ginger + HIIT, and placebo + HIIT. The training groups performed high-intensity interval exercises (i.e. 40-m maximal shuttle run) for ten consecutive weeks. The supplement groups daily took 3 g of ginger pills and the third group took placebo.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pairedt-test revealed a significant decrease in the density of type 1 monocytes chemo tactic protein (MCP-1) in HIIT + ginger (P= 0.026) and HIIT + placebo (P= 0.001) groups. Besides, maximum aerobic capacity in the two training groups significantly increasedP= 0.002 andP= 0.000, respectively. In spite of this, analysis of variance showed no significant differences in three groups regarding the three indices such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) (P= 0.093), MCP-1(P= 0.075), and serum interleukin-10 (IL-10) (P= 0.164).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A 10-week intensive interval exercise, by itself or together with ginger supplement, improved MCP-1 and maximum oxygen consumption in overweight women, without any significant effect on soluble ICAM-1 and IL-10. These findings indicate the relative and efficient role of HIIT in overweight women without the necessity to combine with ginger as an antioxidant/anti-inflammatory supplement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Shila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayebifar
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Esmaeil
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Afzalpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Atherosclerosis and Coronary Artery Research Centre, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Toba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kazemi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Hosein Abtahi
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Eivary
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mogharnasi
keywords: Ginger; high-intensity interval exercise; intercellular adhesion molecule-1; interleukin-10; monocyte chemotactic protein-1; overweight