The effect of carbonated carbohydrate mouth rinsing on time to exhaustion running performance

Carbohydrate mouth rinsing (CHO) has been shown to activate the oral receptor that is related to reward and behavioural center of the brain that contributed to enhanced exercise performance. Therefore, this research investigates the effect of carbonated carbohydrate (C- CHO) mouth rinse (MR) on prolonged running performance in time to exhaustion (TTE). Twelve healthy males (n=12) among trained runners (aged: 20.8 ± 1.0 years) were selected for this randomized design, double blind, solution MR crossover study but one subject had dropped out during the trial experiment. Each participant performed a time to exhaustion (TTE) running exercise at speed equivalent at 80% maximal oxygen consumption (V̇O2max) (determined during first visit). The participants were given either C-CHO or placebo; non- carbonated CHO (PLA; NC-CHO) to mouth rinse for 10 second and spit into a baker. Physiological (blood glucose, heart rate and oxygen capacity) and psychological markers (perceived exertion, arousal, feeling scale, and gastrotestinal comfort scale) were collected intermittently. TTE performance for C-CHO was significantly longer (p<0.05) in each trial. However, the longer TTE with different solution in order effect (C-CHO, NC-CHO, PLA) did not reach statistical significance (P=0.196). Exhaustion time in V̇O2max and rate perceived exhaustions (RER) with C-CHO, showed no significant difference (P=0.885) in comparison with NC-CHO and PLA trial. Heart rate, oxygen uptake, plasma insulin, glucose, lactate in the C-CHO, NC-CHO and PLA were not significantly different in TTE. Rate perceived exhaustions (RPE) in the C-CHO, NC-CHO and PLA were not significantly different in each running performance trial. Meanwhile perceives activation scale (FAS) and feeling scale (FS) increased significantly during exercise in each 15 min TTE and each trial. From the current study, by rinsing C-CHO were not significantly improve performance in prolonged running. However, C-CHO does trigger extra signal towards FAS which may counter any potential benefits of CHO mouth rinsing in exercise performance.