Table 3.

Concentrations of Hepcidin, Hemopexin, Ferritin, UIBC, and TIBC of athletes supplemented with colostrum bovine and with placebo.

Variables	Before Supplementation			p Value			After Supplementation			p Value
	Pre-Exercise x ± SD	Post-Exercise x ± SD	Recovery x ± SD	Pre CON vs. SUPL	Post CON vs. SUPL	Recovery CON vs. SUPL	Pre-Exercise x ± SD	Post-Exercise x ± SD	Recovery x ± SD	Pre CON vs. SUPL	Post CON vs. SUPL	Recovery CON vs. SUPL
Hepcidin (ng × dL−1)
PLACEBO	15.91 ± 1.29	14.81 ± 1.95	15.25 ± 2.70	0.213	0.890	0.979	19.10 ± 3.54	22.83 ± 2.60 a	22.50 ± 3.00 b	0.460	0.402	0.149
COLOSTRUM	14.91 ± 2.29	14.55 ± 1.82	14.89 ± 2.04				17.27 ± 3.83	21.19 ± 2.75 a	18.98 ± 3.33
Hemopexin (µg × mL−1)
PLACEBO	614.64 ± 156.38	607.97 ± 138.93	672.14 ± 181.18	0.524	0.773	0.750	613.00 ± 108.27	685.78 ± 150.34	600.67 ± 179.83	0.722	0.551	0.894
COLOSTRUM	653.02 ± 144.18	614.61 ± 126.08	676.20 ± 150.73				616.33 ± 140.10	714.00 ± 152.41 a	655.85 ± 114.07 b
Ferritin (ng × mL−1)
PLACEBO	88.55 ± 11.95	91.84 ± 15.84	86.43 ± 10.81	0.732	0.508	0.802	99.71 ± 43.50	90.84 ± 9.13	89.27 ± 6.96	0.638	0.431	0.313
COLOSTRUM	92.51 ± 10.47	90.08 ± 11.97	89.67 ± 10.74				93.84 ± 11.07	89.50 ± 8.50	86.92 ± 8.02
UIBC (µg × dL−1)
PLACEBO	239.71 ± 86.10	259.76 ± 86.33	182.27 ± 49.26 b	0.777	0.934	0.525	255.52 ± 112.27	249.84 ± 71.29	200.45 ± 69.98	0.631	0.909	0.054
COLOSTRUM	224.33 ± 55.50	228.22 ± 93.67	245.15 ± 85.92				218.29 ± 58.55	245.97 ± 52.77	261.89 ± 55.26
TIBC (µg × dL−1)
PLACEBO	325.59 ± 59.78	374.75 ± 66.40 a	297.77 ± 57.89 b	0.614	0.658	0.254	332.98 ± 83.48	367.55 ± 112.86	317.85 ± 83.98	0.995	0.582	0.327
COLOSTRUM	337.68 ± 50.22	360.19 ± 116.69	346.94 ± 83.82				322.51 ± 55.26	332.25 ± 65.02	353.76 ± 51.53

Note. Values are presented as mean ± SD; Significant differences p < 0.05; ^a Pre-exercise vs. Post-exercise; ^b Pre-exercise vs. Recovery. TIBC, total iron-binding capacity; UIBC, unsaturated iron-binding capacity. Bold values denote statistical significance at the p < 0.05 level.