-
Baking soda is versatile and useful in cooking, cleaning, and personal care, and it also counteracts the side effects of lactic acid.
-
But it can cause gastrointestinal side effects.
-
That’s why Sweden’s Maurten has developed a hydrogel formula to reduce side effects while improving sports performance. Does it work?
Thereare substances that we all have at home, that cost very little and that also have several miraculous effects, or seemingly so.
One of these is undoubtedly baking soda: you can use it to clean fruits and vegetables, to wash dishes, the oven, your teeth, for skin care, to leaven bread, to kill pests in the garden, to remove stains from clothes, and for a thousand other things.
Baking soda is practically a household Swiss Army knife!
A secret that has long been known
You run and you know it: after some activity, your muscles start to ache and burn.
This is the result of a chemical process that occurs in your body: during intense exercise, your muscles produce lactic acid, which in turn releases hydrogen ions.
The result is not only muscle fatigue but also a subsequent drop in performance.
The more acid builds up, the harder your muscles find it to contract effectively.
And, inevitably, your speed drops.
Baking soda has been known since the 1980s for its ability to neutralize lactic acid due to its alkaline nature.
Since it is not a doping substance, many athletes have tried using it before competitions to counteract the drop in performance and thus be able to deliver full power evenly.
However, things are not so simple: sodium bicarbonate, taken “in purity,” has gastrointestinal side effects: bloating, cramping, and even diarrhea.
So are the benefits worth the risk of having to finish a race in the bathroom or on the side of the road bent over by abdominal pain?
Many, understandably, think not.
Maurten’s formula
So the Swedes at Maurten had an idea: if the problem arises when the bicarbonate reaches the stomach, why not avoid contact and send it into the intestines, where it can do its job without causing side effects or at least reducing them greatly?
That’s why they came up with the idea of encapsulating it in a hydrogel that allows it to bypass the stomach and be released directly into the intestines, greatly reducing the annoying side effects.
Proven effects
Supporting the effectiveness of the system are several research studies, as well as the results of the many athletes already using the product, including cyclist Primož Roglič, sprinters Joshua Cheptegei and Keely Hodgkinson, and even Kilian Jornet.
The study, published in theEuropean Journal of Applied Physiology, demonstrated its effectiveness.
In fact, cyclists who participated in a 40-kilometer test improved their performance by 1.4 percent, or about a minute gained.
That may not sound like much, but in a competition, every second counts.
Perhaps the most promising result is that it seems to work even during prolonged exercises, providing a consistent advantage as it improves endurance and maintains high performance throughout the training or race. What about the side effects? The main purpose of the Maurten formula is to reduce unpleasant effects.
Did it succeed?
According to another research, published in Sports Medicine using comparison with a control group given placebos, the hydrogel solution dramatically reduced gastrointestinal problems compared with traditional bicarbonate capsules.
An economically not painless solution
If you think you have found the solution and want to try it, know that its cost is not negligible: 4 doses of Bicarb System cost 79.95 euros.
Also still many unanswered questions.
For example, how superior is Maurten’s formula really compared to cheaper options?
And what would be the optimal dosage for different types of athletes?
Only further research will answer these questions and let us know if bicarbonate can become as popular as caffeine among endurance athletes.
The only advice we can give you with certainty is not to eat the baking soda you have in your house by the spoonful thinking it will boost your performance to the hilt-you may have to spend some time in the bathroom first.
All kidding aside: don’t. (via Outside)