Low energy availability and poor bone health amongst athletes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The prevalence of low energy availability amongst elite and recreational athletes and identifying associations with a reliable hormonal marker and bone health parameters
IRAS ID
250359
Contact name
Jessica Piasecki
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottingham Trent University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Recently the international Olympic committee devised a new term, “Relative Energy Deficiency- Sport or RED-S” to define the great number of health issues that may arise as a result of long-term low energy availability. If an athlete, male or female, is exposed to long periods of low energy availability in which they, intentionally or unintentionally, do not meet the demands of their training and day to day life, then they are at an increased risk for illness and infection, there will be alterations in levels of certain hormones in the body, an increased likelihood for injury and a decline in the growth and repair of muscles (Ackerman et al., 2018, Barrack et al., 2013, Shimizu et al., 2012, Petkus et al., 2017, Loucks et al., 1992). If the athlete has one, many or all of these problems as a consequence of low energy availability then their performance will also be affected.
The term RED-S can be applied to both male and female athletes. It has been suggested that males may also experience similar monthly fluctuations in hormones to that of females, but this has not been researched thoroughly (Tenforde et al., 2016). It has also been shown that male athletes with low energy availability, particularly runners, are likely to have poor bone health (Tenforde et al., 2018). Two hormones leptin and insulin have been linked with changes in energy availability (Koehler et al., 2016). However, these studies are formed from a small number of participants.
It is our aim to investigate the prevalence of low energy availability amongst both male and female athletes and identify a reliable hormonal marker and any associations with bone health paramters.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0242
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion