Sport scientists have long been using salivary markers as indicators of immune system status and the stress response to exercise and training, both in the context of research studies examining the impact of acute exercise on immune-endocrine responses and in applied settings to monitor athletes, including professional footballers, over the course of a competitive season (Papacosta & Nassis 2011).
In conjunction with the use of stress and mood state questionnaires, salivary measures can provide useful information for the sport scientist, team doctor and coach to evaluate the impact of training and competition on the athlete’s immune and endocrine systems. Such data can be used to assess how the athlete/player is coping with the demands of training, competition and other sources of life stress. The measurement of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) have proved useful in this regard. Stressed athletes exhibit depressed levels of SIgA and an elevated cortisol/testosterone (C/T) ratio. Recently, this approach has been applied to the monitoring of elite athletes, rugby and football players over the course of the season. While the coach may not use this information to directly inform his team selection, it may prove useful to identify individuals who are not coping well with stress, allowing appropriate training, psychological, nutritional or medicinal interventions to take place to reduce the chance of burnout and illness.
The following biomarkers can be measured in saliva: Cortisol Testosterone Cortisol/Testosterone Ratio Transferrin Melatonin Secretory IgA On Salimetric's Blog we highlight Salivary Testosterone, Testosterone/Cortisol Ratio as described for us by Professor Mike Gleeson, Loughborough University here in the UK: Link to Blog __________________________________________