BREAKING: Swishing mouthwash new "performance enhancer" for endurance athletes, 5% 8-mile improvement w/marathoners

Mouth rinsing (MR) with carbohydrate during exercise has been shown to act as an ergogenic aid.

Purpose:

To investigate if nutritive or nonnutritive sweetened MR affect exercise performance, and to assess the influence of sweetness intensity on endurance performance during a time-trial (TT).

Methods:

This randomized, single blinded study had 4 treatment conditions. 16 subjects (9 men, 7 women) completed a 12.8km TT four different times. During each TT, subjects MR and expectorated a different solution at time 0 and every 12.5% of the TT. The 4 MR solutions were: sucrose (S) (sweet taste and provides energy of 4 kcals/g), a lower intensity sucralose (S1:1) (artificial sweetener that provides no energy but tastes sweet), a higher intensity sucralose (S100:1), and water as control (C). Completion times for each TT, heart rate (HR) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were also recorded.

Results:

Completion time for S was faster than C (1:03:47±00:02:17 vs. 1:06:56±00:02:18; p < 0.001 respectively), and showed a trend to be faster vs. S100:1 (1:03:47±00:02:17 vs. 1:05:38±00:02:12; p=0.07, respectively). No other TT differences were found. Average HR showed a trend to be higher for S vs. C (p=0.08). There only differences in average or max RPE was for higher max RPE in C vs. S1:1 (p=0.02).

Conclusion:

A sweet tasting MR did improve endurance performance compared to water in a significant manner (avg. 4.5% improvement; 3+ min.); however, the presence of energy in the sweet MR appeared necessary since the artificial sweeteners did not improve performance more than water alone.

Sorry, it's irrelevant IMO wrote:

Results:

Completion time for S was faster than C (1:03:47±00:02:17 vs. 1:06:56±00:02:18; p `` 0.001 respectively), and showed a trend to be faster vs. S100:1 (1:03:47±00:02:17 vs. 1:05:38±00:02:12; p=0.07, respectively). No other TT differences were found. Average HR showed a trend to be higher for S vs. C (p=0.08). There only differences in average or max RPE was for higher max RPE in C vs. S1:1 (p=0.02).

I don't think 8 miles (12.8km) in a bit over an hour is exactly elite class (even for a woman).

Ingesting carbohydrate-electrolyte solutions during exercise has been reported to benefit self-paced time-trial performance. The mechanism responsible for this ergogenic effect is unclear. For example, during short duration (≤1 hour), intense (%%70% maximal oxygen consumption) exercise, euglycaemia is rarely challenged and adequate muscle glycogen remains at the cessation of exercise. The absence of a clear metabolic explanation has led authors to speculate that ingesting carbohydrate solutions during exercise may have a ‘non-metabolic’ or ‘central effect’ on endurance performance. This hypothesis has been explored by studies investigating the performance responses of subjects when carbohydrate solutions are mouth rinsed during exercise. The solution is expectorated before ingestion, thus removing the provision of carbohydrate to the peripheral circulation. Studies using this method have reported that simply having carbohydrate in the mouth is associated with improvements in endurance performance. However, the performance response appears to be dependent upon the pre-exercise nutritional status of the subject. Furthermore, the ability to identify a central effect of a carbohydrate mouth rinse maybe affected by the protocol used to assess its impact on performance. Studies using functional MRI and transcranial stimulation have provided evidence that carbohydrate in the mouth stimulates reward centres in the brain and increases corticomotor excitability, respectively. However, further research is needed to determine whether the central effects of mouth-rinsing carbohydrates, which have been seen at rest and during fatiguing exercise, are responsible for improved endurance performance.

Paid for by Gatorade? wrote:

There is prior research for cyclists./quote]

Also for sprint performance.

[quote]Effects of caffeine and carbohydrate mouth rinses on repeated sprint performance

Our purpose was to examine the effectiveness of carbohydrate and caffeine mouth rinses in enhancing repeated sprint ability. Previously, studies have shown that a carbohydrate mouth rinse (without ingestion) has beneficial effects on endurance performance that are related to changes in brain activity. Caffeine ingestion has also demonstrated positive effects on sprint performance. However, the effects of carbohydrate or caffeine mouth rinses on intermittent sprints have not been examined previously. Twelve males performed 5 × 6-s sprints interspersed with 24 s of active recovery on a cycle ergometer. Twenty-five milliliters of either a noncaloric placebo, a 6% glucose, or a 1.2% caffeine solution was rinsed in the mouth for 5 s prior to each sprint in a double-blinded and balanced cross-over design. Postexercise maximal heart rate and perceived exertion were recorded, along with power measures. A second experiment compared a combined caffeine-carbohydrate rinse with carbohydrate only. Compared with the placebo mouth rinse, carbohydrate substantially increased peak power in sprint 1 (22.1 ± 19.5 W; Cohen's effect size (ES), 0.81), and both caffeine (26.9 ± 26.9 W; ES, 0.71) and carbohydrate (39.1 ± 25.8 W; ES, 1.08) improved mean power in sprint 1. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a combination of caffeine and carbohydrate improved sprint 1 power production compared with carbohydrate alone (36.0 ± 37.3 W; ES, 0.81). We conclude that carbohydrate and (or) caffeine mouth rinses may rapidly enhance power production, which could have benefits for specific short sprint exercise performance. The ability of a mouth-rinse intervention to rapidly improve maximal exercise performance in the absence of fatigue suggests a central mechanism.