The effect of eight weeks of concurrent training with ginseng supplementation on the concentration of fibroblast growth factor 21 in overweight and obese women

Bahrami, Rejne; Faraji, Hassan; Rahimi, Mohammad Rahman; Ghahremani Moghaddam, Mahdi

doi:10.48308/joeppa.2025.237132.1299

The effect of eight weeks of concurrent training with ginseng supplementation on the concentration of fibroblast growth factor 21 in overweight and obese women

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Education, Kurdistan, Sarovabad, Iran

² Islamic Azad University, Marivan Branch, Marivan, Iran,

³ Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

⁴ 4. Department of Exercise Physiology, School of Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

10.48308/joeppa.2025.237132.1299

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) plays a key role in regulating energy homeostasis, glucose and lipid metabolism, and insulin sensitivity. It has potential applications in clinical medicine for obesity and related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. The effect of ginseng supplementation and concurrent training on fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) levels is not well known. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ginseng supplementation with concurrent training on FGF21 levels in overweight and obese women.
Materials and Methods: The present study was experimental, randomized, double-blind, controlled with a pre-test-post-test design. The statistical sample of this research was 24 women (age: 34.9±6.8, body mass index: 31.9±4.5) middle-aged volunteers with overweight and obesity, who were randomly assigned to two equal groups of placebo and supplement. The training was concurrent for eight weeks with a frequency of three sessions per week. The intensity of aerobic exercises started from 50% of the maximum heart rate and reached 70% of the maximum heart rate in the last week. Its duration started from 10 minutes and finally reached 30 minutes in the last weeks. Subjects in the ginseng group consumed 500 mg of ginseng daily after lunch and dinner in gelatin capsules. The placebo group also consumed wheat flour under the same conditions. Blood sampling was done 48 hours before and after the training period in fasting conditions. Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (2x2 design) was used to investigate intragroup and intergroup differences, and Tukey's post hoc test was used to analyze the data.
Results: According to the results of the normality test, all the data of the two groups had a normal distribution with homogenous variances. The levels of FGF21 in the supplement group were significantly higher in the post-test compared to the pre-test (p=0.001) and the placebo group (p=0.002), but no significant difference was observed in the placebo group compared to the pre-test (p=0.67). Glucose levels in the supplement group had a significant decrease compared to the pre-test (p=0.01) and there was no significant change in the placebo group (p=0.11). The difference in glucose levels in the post-test between the supplement and placebo groups was not significant (p=0.15).
Conclusion: The present study generally showed that performing eight weeks of parallel training has no effect on FGF21 levels, but consuming a period of 500 mg of ginseng daily along with concurrent training is associated with an increase in FGF21 levels and can also reduce blood glucose.

Keywords

Main Subjects