Currently available beverages designed to boost performance contain additives that include electrolytes, proteins, carbohydrates, or caffeine. Revalesio Corporation is developing a novel type of sports beverage that aims at directly protecting muscle cells through charge-stabilized nanostructures (CSN).
PURPOSE: To determine whether oral consumption of Revalesio Sports Beverage (RSB), a water beverage containing CSN, alters selected physiological responses during strenuous exercise.
METHODS: RSB is produced using a proprietary pump involving Taylor-Couette-Poiseuille flow in the presence of oxygen. In this double blind, randomized crossover study, 25 fit, male subjects (age: 18 to 35 years) consumed either RSB or purified water (PW) as control for 2 weeks followed by a 60-minute treadmill exercise at 75% maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). VO2max was determined according to the Modified Astrand protocol and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was recorded according to the Modified Borg Scale at 15 and 50 minutes. Plasma markers of skeletal muscle breakdown, myoglobin and creatine kinase (CPK), were measured by ELISA. In addition, plasma concentrations of selected cytokines were measured with a Luminex 52-plex cytokine assay.
RESULTS: RSB consumption led to a 5% (P=.06) increase in VO2max in highly fit subjects and a trend towards a decreased RPE in lesser-trained subjects. In addition, RSB prevented or attenuated the exercise-induced increase in plasma myoglobin (-5.3 13.8 ng/mL in RSB group vs. 73.2 14.4 ng/mL in PW group at 60 minutes, P=.001), CPK (74.8 31.9 (RSB) vs. 202.0 68.1 (PW) units/Liter at 24 hours, P=.04), interferon- (2.6 1.8 (RSB) vs. 19.6 5.7 (PW) pg/mL at 24 hours, P=.02), epithelial neutrophil activating protein 78 (93.1 58.2 (RSB) vs. 525.5 134.4 (PW) pg/mL at 24 hours, P=.02), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (25.8 10.7 (RSB) vs. 318.5 91.0 (PW) pg/mL at 24 hours, P=.034).
CONCLUSION: These results indicate that daily consumption of RSB prior to strenuous exercise may improve performance and enhance training adaptation.
