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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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09.05.2009 |
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Citric acid endurance supplement combats chronic fatigue
Give healthy people a couple of grams of citric acid [structure below] a day. Do that for a week and then get them to cycle for a couple of hours without a break. Ask them after 210 minutes to sprint as fast as they can for ten seconds. The supplement enables your subjects to attain a high speed, despite their tiredness.
Researchers at the Japanese company Soiken did a similar experiment. Soiken is an ingredients manufacturer, which has had its sights on the health drinks market since 2004. The Soiken study is part of a project financed by the Japanese government, in which research is being done on functional foods that can help prevent workaholic employees from working themselves literally to death. Other researchers participating in the project have published on the anti-fatigue effects of caffeine and co-enzyme Q10.
For the experiment here the researchers gave eighteen healthy subjects, aged between 21 and 57, a daily dose of 2700 mg of citric acid for eight days. Control groups were given a placebo or one gram of L-carnitine.
The researchers got their subjects to cycle for half an hour at 80 percent "of the heart rate at the anaerobic threshold” and then asked the volunteers to sprint for ten seconds. After 210 minutes of cycling the test subjects had to sprint again. The table below shows the effects of the supplement on the distance [in rpm – Ed.] the subjects covered during the sprints.
The effect was not significant. The duration of the sprints [ten seconds] was probably too short to show any effect, the Japanese believe. "Support for this comes from the fact that it takes eight seconds for maximum exercise to deplete the ATP pool in muscle cells. Performance tests done for a longer period of time may possibly give different results."
Extra citric acid kick starts the citric acid cycle in the body, in which cells convert nutrients into the energy molecule ATP. The organic acid did have an effect on the fatigue that the subjects reported during the sessions. The researchers used a VAS score to measure this.
The effect for this was significant. "The VAS scores after four hours physical load were 60.6 in the citric acid group and 74.6 in the placebo group", the researchers write. "The difference of VAS score, 14.0, is so large that almost all people feel the fatigue reduction in daily life."
Maybe citric acid is an interesting supplement for people with chronic fatigue symptoms, the researchers speculate.
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