Here’s why and how Nitrate and Sodium Bicarbonate can aid performance.
The world of supplements is full of amazing - and dubious - claims. It can all be pretty confusing. So in this first of our four-part series, Mac and Jinger discuss the proven science behind Nitrate and Sodium Bicarbonate. You’ll learn what they’re good for, how and why to use them, and who can expect the most benefit from them. Oh — and why you might not want to use mouthwash before drinking that beet juice.
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Jinger Gottschall 0:00
Hey, welcome back to another episode of The Knowledge Podcast by Wahoo. I'm Dr. Ginger Gottschall.
Mac Cassin 0:06
And I'm Mac Cassin, And this is part one of our series on legal performance-enhancing supplements, which are also sometimes known as ergogenic AIDS.
Jinger Gottschall 0:15
Correct. Now, before we talk about ergogenic aids, let's talk about the primary factors that influence endurance, athlete development, and performance. And these are things like genetics, physical conditioning, sports, specific training, periodized, programs, recovery strategies, nutrition, and very important also is mental health. These supplements that we're going to be talking about today, which are dietary in nature are secondary factors. So they do have the potential to make a difference. But a lot of times, they are a bit less significant in terms of percent change or let's say power output or time to fatigue, but they can contribute to success. So we want to provide you with information about them in your journey to learn more.
Mac Cassin 1:08
Yeah, so the proper training, proper recovery, that's 95% of it,
Jinger Gottschall 1:12
Right.
Mac Cassin 1:12
These is the little side details, you're not going to go from a cat four to a cat two, just by taking some of these supplements,
Jinger Gottschall 1:18
no zero to hero here, folks.
Mac Cassin 1:20
So we're going to do four episodes in the series, and we're going to talk about one to two different supplements for the first few episodes. And then the final one, we're going to talk about some substances without adequate scientific support or just no scientific support at all. So the first five we're talking about do have adequate scientific support to suggest potential performance gains, excellently said.
Jinger Gottschall 1:43
So this you can find in the research, and actually, there are multiple different studies that have enforced these benefits.
Mac Cassin 1:51
And you might hear some of these supplements and think, Oh, I just saw that there was a paper published somewhere saying that it doesn't quite work. And that's true. It's pretty much all of these. It's really protocol-dependent. It's sport dependent. It depends on what they're measuring in the scientific study. So for the most part for endurance athletes, for the group of people who are listening to this, these are the supplements that have been well supported to help you improve your endurance performance. And so in this first episode, we're talking about nitrate, and sodium bicarbonate. Part two will be beta-alanine and creatine. Part three is caffeine because it gets a toll episode because who doesn't love caffeine? Don't want to miss that one. And like I said, the final episode will be supplemented without significant scientific evidence, such as fish oil, vitamin C, and E tart cherry juice, and a handful of others. So we're going to bring this into a four-part series. We also want to mention before you do start trialing any of these supplements, just connect with your own medical professional regarding your current health condition, your current training, as well as the prescription medications that you're taking, which may be from your doctor and or over the counter. We will be mentioning some contraindications or things that you don't want to do together but always best just to talk to somebody that you feel comfortable with in terms of your doctor. They know about us. Well, your doctor, though, we can talk to you about it, right? Of some things, but not quite this. But it'll be a fun discussion nonetheless. Right? So first one is nitrate. Now you probably would have heard this more in the terms of beet juice, or beetroot juice as being a supplement. So nitrates are compounds that occurred naturally in the human body. And in some foods, such as arugula, spinach, celery, and beetroot, beetroots are, again, probably the most infamous one as of late. So nitrates that you consume from these foods consist of one nitrogen atom and three oxygen atoms. When you consume them, there's actually anaerobic bacteria in your mouth that turn those nitrates into nitrites. So when nitrogen to oxygen, once that nitrite makes its way down to your stomach, it's converted to nitric oxide, so an O or nitrogen, oxygen, and then it moves into your intestines, and that's where it can be absorbed. Exactly. And what happens there is it actually improves your mitochondrial oxygen efficiency. So you can think of the mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell. Oh my goodness, you stole those words right out of my mouth, that's exactly at the powerhouse of the cell. And the effect is a reduction in the oxygen cost of exercise, because of this increase in vasodilation. And you get then more blood flow to the skeletal muscle. So when you say vasodilation, you mean all your veins and vasculature get bigger. So exactly. So they allow then this greater flow, gotcha, super cool. There is also an effect on the function of your type two muscle fibers and these are the fibers that are more power related rather than endurance. And the cost of this production of muscle force and these fibers is actually also
Jinger Gottschall 4:59
has been shown to be reduced.
Mac Cassin 5:01
So you get more bang for your buck,
Jinger Gottschall 5:03
more bang for your buck in a couple of different ways in the mitochondria, as well as these types of fiber. So I'm gonna say that's a win-win. So in terms of how you should supplement or what's been documented to be, the proper supplementation is, there's kind of two versions, one has an acute dose, so just the day of and that's around six to 12 millimoles, administer two to three hours before the activity now, how you get to six to 12. millimoles are going to depend on which actual supplement brand you're buying, or the quality of the beetroots, you juice yourself. And that's one, there's a whole rabbit hole we can't really get into here, the protocol would be at chronic dosing. So that's basically that same amount but administered for six to 15 days prior to an event. So longer term, you're taking the same you would as a one-off activity, that one's probably been shown to be a bit more beneficial. But it's, you know, it's a much longer commitment of two weeks of daily supplementation versus just on the day. Exactly. So there are a couple of options that you could do some trial and error with her. And one of the generic performance impacts is actually an improvement in your exercise tolerance or an increase in your time to exhaustion. And that is probably going to go along with the mechanism for the mitochondria with respect to endurance exercise. But in terms of the recent data, a lot of it has to do with that more type two fiber, which is illustrating a four to 25%, greater exercise time to exhaustion, and a one to 3% improvement in sports-specific time trial performance. And these are events that are shorter than 40 minutes in duration. So keep that in mind with respect to what your event is, and what supplements you're thinking about trying out. And that's a good thing to think about where you have the demands of your event, and then you have the demands of your training. So your event might not require high-intensity efforts under 40 minutes, right? But your training often will require that. So these could be instances where maybe the performance gain you get is using this in training, and not necessarily on your event if your event is significantly longer. Exactly. Now, also going back to that, do you supplement for an acute or chronic time? And what is your event there, there was a significant finding recently, that eight days of nitrate supplementation resulted in improvements to a 4k time trial. And this I want to point out was actually in well-trained endurance cyclists. So that makes a difference also, with respect to how much gain you might be able to get is where you fall on that continuum with respect to your level of fitness and performance. I will say as someone who regularly participated in four-kilometer time trials, this was something that yeah, that I used to, I believe decent effect, you're talking about, you know, small percentage gains at that level, but right certainly didn't hurt, which is a great thing to consider, too, is these supplements also have very few contrary indications with respect to not to doing something that is a detriment to your performance. So that's another benefit is, why not give it a go? So the doses necessary for this effect do seem to have a pretty direct relationship with the physical condition of the athlete. So that means fitter people tend to see fewer, yes, fewer changes. And one of the proposed rationales behind that is as you train more, your body gets more adapted to quicker vasodilation of your working muscles. If you're already really good at that, and you take a vasodilator maybe the muscles that aren't normally working those vasodilate. And then there's more blood coming there. That's all subjective, just what I think could be the reason they're correct. And that also makes sense with respect to that other study about the 4k time trial this is because this was more perhaps of the type two fiber improvement in performance than it is along with that mitochondria. Since that was a smaller change. Then there are just general health benefits to inorganic nitrates and one big one is lowering blood pressure. Obviously, with vasodilation, there is more room in the pipes for blood. So if you have high blood pressure, this could be something good it can help reduce chronic inflammation and improve just general cardiovascular health. So again, in terms of things that are not going to hurt you This is up there that it might actually just make you healthier overall. Exactly.
And I just want to go back to looking at what nitrates are found in arugula, spinach, celery, and beetroot. I'm a big fan of arugula these days. So that's also just another thing you can throw in salads and sandwiches, etc.
Mac Cassin 9:54
Yeah, you're certainly not going to lose a race because you had some extra Rugal. Absolutely. Nope, nope. Now there are some contradictions here too, what else you can be taking, you're doing one that's kind of going back and forth, and how well this is supported. But caffeine supplementation, caffeine is a stimulant is pretty much a part of it. It's a vassal Constrictor, which is the exact opposite of what the advantage here is. So that might have an impact. Caffeine itself is a great ergogenic aid. And it's why it gets its own episode. But the other interesting one is antibacterial mouthwash and chewing gums because as we mentioned, at the start, the first step in the breakdown from nitrates to nitrites happens from little bacteria in your mouth. And so if you hit some mouthwash and then have a nitrate, you're not going to get that first conversion step. So you're not going to get any nitrous oxide all the way down the chain, which you know, I'm not saying don't brush your teeth for a couple of days if you're doing
Jinger Gottschall 10:49
this, please don't use that as your strategy.
Mac Cassin 10:53
Just be aware of the timing of maybe exactly, you know, have that and then go on. I also know that some of the protocols actually specifically recommend at least with beetroot juice to chew it, even though it's just a liquid but to pretend to chew it to just get more time in your mouth, exactly
Jinger Gottschall 11:10
a little gargling to there are very few side effects.
Mac Cassin 11:13
Some people can get gastrointestinal upset, especially if you're an athlete who's prone to that. So definitely try it in training before busting it out on race day. Absolutely. And if you do use a beet root-based product, just be aware that your pee might be slightly red to very dark read after working out. I know I've forgotten sometimes I had before and then kind of freak out when I go into the bathroom but such as something to be aware of
Jinger Gottschall 11:40
Yes, not something that you are used to seeing and could alarm you, and just thinking about what you've ingested before that helpful. That takes us through our first of five supplements, nitrate. And we're now going to transition into the second and final for this particular episode, which is sodium bicarb. And in very simple terms, this is baking soda. Literally, it's na H C O three if you're looking for that chemical compound, and what happens is sodium bicarbonate dissociates to form sodium, the NA and the bicarbonate which is the HCO three parts bicarbonate ions and ions can consume the hydrogen ions and convert to the carbonic acid, the h2 co three, which subsequently converts to water and carbon dioxide for excretion from the lungs. So that is your chain of events in terms of the bicarb.
Mac Cassin 12:45
What that means is that consuming bicarbonate can help neutralize acid essentially preventing a rise in the acidity of your blood and, and tissues. Because of that, you can produce more lactate with less of an increase in blood acidity. Now, lactate is produced with a hydrogen ion, it's not, it's never lactic acid in your body. Lactic acid is lactate and a hydrogen ion combined, that never exists. So that's one of my pet peeves when you always hear announcers talk about lactic acid. No, they also blame it for everything
Jinger Gottschall 13:18
like and by the way, it's not muscle soreness, we'll talk about it in another episode,
Mac Cassin 13:22
lactate is actually used as a fuel, it's actually a good thing for you. It's the hydrogen ions that increase the acidity of your tissues and blood. So the lactate is good, the hydrogen ions are bad, and consuming sodium bicarbonate with that lovely chemistry lesson that ginger just gave us, reduces the acidity. So you can produce more lactate because the associated hydrogen isn't there. So more lactate means more fuel.
Jinger Gottschall 13:48
I think that is such a cool mechanism, there are a couple of drawbacks to this super cool mechanism. And that is the amount of sodium bicarb that you need. In order to create an effect. The dose is point to 2.4 grams per kilogram of body mass. This is consumed anywhere from about 75 to 180 minutes prior to training or competition with plenty of water, and also perhaps a little carbohydrate, dose, or meal that could be about 200k Cal's, that's a lot. So these days, they're coming into these very concentrated forms, which can be extremely helpful. Now you could also do this in Split doses. So smaller sequences that you would take from anywhere from 30 to 180 minutes before the straining or competition. And you can also practice serial loading, which would be smaller doses for anywhere from two to four consecutive days before an event,
Mac Cassin 14:51
right because The goal here is to get that extra carbonic acid ready to go in your blood so it can be there to buffer. It's interesting when we actually Test people in the lab here, there's a value that comes out called respiratory exchange ratio, we won't go into it too much. But basically, it's looking at the amount of oxygen consumed versus the co2 produced. And we can tell when someone is going, producing more energy anaerobically, they're producing a lot of hydrogen ions, because all of a sudden, they'll start producing more co2 than the oxygen they're consuming. And that's because that carbonic acid is being breathed off as the carbon dioxide and h2o. The other problem with consuming this stuff is it that's a lot of sodium, and it tastes as you can taste it, it's very salty, and it's not the most pleasant drink I've ever had.
Jinger Gottschall 15:39
It is not and also just to be aware of the environment that you are exercising in, as well as your current hydration, as well as your electrolyte status during that time just to make sure you're not getting a bit of an overload on that sodium.
Mac Cassin 15:57
And so looking at the performance impacts, the majority of research for cyclists particularly are have been on track cyclists. And those have a Mac power increase ranging from three to 8%, which is not insignificant at all. And then supplementation prior to enduring endurance exercise improves short of exercise at the end of an event by on average 3%. So say a sprint at the end of a hard race. Now again, you might be saying, well, I don't do track sprinting, or I don't end with a sprint in my race as a triathlete or something. Again, that might be the case. But these can be useful training tools. If you have a really intense training session, you can get more out of yourself in that training session that's going to help you on your event day, even if you're not sprinting down a velodrome at 60k an hour.
Jinger Gottschall 16:45
Absolutely. Although they're small, they're large benefits. If you look at the difference between a podium finish, for instance, let's go back to a little bit of the interesting tidbits are things to think about gastrointestinal distress, ingesting a few carbohydrates at the same time watching out for your hydration, and also considering an alternative to this, which is sodium citrate. And we may go into this a little bit in that last episode but could be on the horizon as an alternative.
Mac Cassin 17:21
And so remember, this is all about reducing acidity. Unfortunately, your stomach, which is in the way of this stuff going into your system has a lot of acid in it. And so that's where a lot of it ends up reacting. And so I think we all remember a science fair, doing some vinegar and baking soda. Yeah, making a volcano. That's essentially what is happening in your stomach. So when we say there can be gastrointestinal distress, it can be pretty profound if you overshoot the dosage your first time.
Jinger Gottschall 17:51
Right. So that is it for the first part of our four podcast series on ergogenic aids in the legal category of dietary supplements. And so today we covered nitrate and sodium bicarb and we look forward to seeing you in the future for some more. That's it for another episode, we hope you're able to take away some useful information on legal ergogenic aids that will help make you a better endurance athlete. Thanks for listening to the knowledge podcast by Wahoo