Research paper
Acute Dietary Nitrate Supplementation and Exercise Performance in COPD: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomised Controlled Pilot Study
Study answer
What this study found
Acute nitrate supplementation did not improve endurance cycling time at 70% maximum workload, but it produced measurable physiological effects. Endurance time was 5.65 (3.90-10.40) minutes with nitrate versus 6.40 (4.01-9.67) minutes with placebo (p = 0.50). Isotime VO2 was lower after nitrate, 16.6 (6.0) versus 17.2 (6.0) ml/min/kg (p = 0.043), and resting diastolic blood pressure fell more, -7±8 mmHg versus -1±8 mmHg (p = 0.008). Plasma nitrate increased from 37.0 ± 16.4 μM at baseline to 820.2 ± 187.7 μM post-dose and 917.1 ± 291.6 μM at peak exercise (p < 0.0001); no adverse effects were…
- Study & population
- Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised controlled pilot study in adults with COPD, including GOLD stage II-IV disease, recruited from outpatient settings and not receiving long-term oxygen therapy.
- Intervention
- A single oral dose of 140 mL nitrate-rich BEET-IT Sport Stamina Shot containing 0.8 g nitrate (12.9 mmoles nitrate) was given 3 hours before endurance cycle ergometry.
- Key limitation
- This was a small pilot study with only 21 completers in the active arm, limiting power to detect performance effects.
View source
Open PDFOriginal abstract
Background Dietary nitrate supplementation can enhance exercise performance in healthy people, but it is not clear if it is beneficial in COPD. We investigated the hypotheses that acute nitrate dosing would improve exercise performance and reduce the…