Saliva composition and exercise

Abstract

Little attention has been directed toward identifying the changes which occur in salivary composition in response to exercise. To address this, our article first refers to the main aspects of salivary gland physiology. A knowledge of the neural control of salivary secretion is especially important for the understanding of the effects of exertion on salivary secretion. Both salivary output and composition depend on the activity of the autonomic nervous system and any modification of this activity can be observed indirectly by alterations in the salivary excretion.

The effects of physical activity (with reference to factors such as exercise intensity and duration, or type of exercise protocol) on salivary composition are then considered. Exercise might indeed induce changes in several salivary components such as immunoglobulins, hormones, lactate, proteins and electrolytes. Saliva composition might therefore be used as an alternative noninvasive indicator of the response of the different body tissues and systems to physical exertion.

In this respect, the response of salivary amylase and salivary electrolytes to incremental levels of exercise is of particular interest. Beyond a certain intensity of exercise, and coinciding with the accumulation of blood lactate (anaerobic threshold or AT), a ’saliva threshold’ (Tsa) does indeed exist. Tsa is the point during exercise at which the levels of salivary α-amylase and electrolytes (especially Na+) also begin to rise above baseline levels. The occurrence of the 2 thresholds (AT and Tsa) might, in turn, be attributable to the same underlying mechanism, that of increased adrenal sympathetic activity at high exercise intensities.