Sports drinks with ketones speed up muscle recovery
Sports drinks that contain ketones not only help athletes to perform better, but also speed up muscle recovery after intensive exertion. This has emerged from a human study that sports scientists at the University of Oxford will publish soon in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Study
The researchers got 12 athletes to cycle on different occasions to such an extent that they depleted their glycogen reserves. Afterwards the athletes drank on one occasion DeltaG, a sports drink that contains ketones and on the other occasion an identical tasting sports drink that contained no nutrients. The researchers then gave the athletes glucose.
The ketone drink contained the mono-ester (R)-3-hydroxybutyl-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate [structural formula shown below]. The athletes drank 0.573 ml per kg bodyweight.
Interests
Three authors of the study - first author David Holdsworth, Peter Cox and research leader Kieran Clarke – have filed patents in their name for the use of ketones as a performance enhancer. In addition, Clarke was the founder of T-Delta-S a company that markets products containing ketones - like DeltaG.
Results
The administration of ketones reinforced the effect of the glucose the athletes had taken on their insulin level. Probably as a result of this, the concentration of the glycogen in the athletes' muscles increased faster when they used both ketones and glucose.
Conclusion
"Given that low muscle glycogen stores impair both moderate and high intensity exercise, and that the exhaustion of glycogen reserves during exercise causes a marked reduction in external work, any intervention that enhances glycogen synthesis is of potential benefit to human exercise performance," the researchers wrote.
"Here, we have shown that ketone and glucose together augment and accelerate glucose uptake, probably by elevating insulin, thereby hastening glycogen recovery."
More
Below you can see David Holdsworth, the first author of the study, giving a presentation of the research.
