A ketone ester drink developed by an Oxford University startup for the US Army has shown benefits to elite endurance athletes by unlocking “greater human metabolic potential.”
Ketone esters, normally made by the liver as a backup energy source when someone is observing a lowcarbohydrate diet or fasting (state of ketosis), were shown to boost athletic performance, with cyclists riding 400m further over 30 minutes compared to control in one of the five study arms.
“We have demonstrated the metabolic effects of elevated circulating ketone bodies as a fuel and biological signal to create a unique physiological condition,” the researchers concluded.
“Ketosis may alter substrate competition for respiration, while improving oxidative energy transduction under certain conditions, such as endurance exercise.”
The singleblind, crossover, randomised trial published in Cell Metabolism involved 39 injury and illnessfree professional or semiprofessional, 1840 year old, British resident male rowers, cyclists or triathletes.
“The ketone itself is inhibiting glycolysis, so that with the same exercise you’re preserving glycogen and producing much less lactic acid this hasn’t been seen before,” said researcher, Kieran Clarke, professor of physiological biochemistry at Oxford University Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics and CEO of UK ketonefocused startup, TdeltaS. Previous research has been animalbased or remained unpublished.
The researchers suggested the introduction of ketone esters provoked the performanceenhancing physiological shift to a state of ketosis. Other research has shown the body must be in a state of ketosis for a long period of time perhaps months before it would respond to the introduction of ketone esters and switch or moderate glucose and fat use to sourcing ketones for energy.
Method
In the five arms of the study participants, some of whom were former Olympians, were given either carbohydrates, fats, vitamin B or ketones in varying combinations.
The athletes performed exercises including untilexhaustion tests, and cycling at different intensities for different periods of time (30, 45, 60 and 120 minutes).
The study group drank formulations varying from 40%96% ketone esters of total calories before each trial, dosed at 573 mg/kg of athlete body weight.
“Ketosis increased intramuscular triacylglycerol oxidation during exercise, even in the presence of normal muscle glycogen, coingested carbohydrate and elevated insulin,” they said.
Participants were asked to avoid strenuous exercise 48 hours before each test, with no alcohol and caffeine 24 hours before, and to consume an identical meal the night before testing.
TdeltaS is awaiting EU novel foods approval (necessary for all ingredients not on market before May, 1997) for its cornsourced ketone esters, but expects a product to be onmarket by year’s end.
Clarke previously told us “7 to 8 pro cycling teams” had contacted her firm over the years to procure ketones but she has refused all requests in lieu of EU novel foods approval.
Ketone forms like acetone, acetoacetate, acetophenone and 3betahydroxybutyrate have appeared onmarket for 1000s of euros per litre.
TdeltaS’ novel foods application to the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) for its ketone ester specifies highperformance sports.
Professor Clarke will speak at a William ReedUBMESSNA (European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance) congress the day before Health Ingredients Europe (HIE) on 28 November in Frankfurt, Germany.
Professor Clarke has been working in ketone and ketogenic (lowcarb) diet research for about 20 years, much of it focused on health issues like diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Source: Cell Metabolism
