Effect of Nitrate on Athletic Performance: A Summary

Running head: SUMMARY PAPER
SUMMARY PAPER
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1SUMMARY PAPER
Introduction
The chosen ergogenic aid is nitrate and the following essay will focus concisely on its
effect on athletic performance and existing scientific evidence as per the literature search
conducted in Part A.
Discussion
Ergogenic Aid and Athletic Performance – Nitrate
Dietary nitrate supplementation has been implicated to yield beneficial effects on the
athletic performance and muscle power improvement associated with high intensity, endurance
sports and training. Nitrate supplementation enhances the bioavailabiliry through reduction of
dietary nitrates to NO upon consumption and digestion. NO then proceeds to improve athletic
performance by exerting its vasodilatory properties resulting in increased muscular blood
circulation. NO also enhances calcium bioavailability by regulating calcium homoestasis
resulting in improved muscle contractibility essential for performing short bursts of high
intensity athletic performance (Jonvik et al., 2017).
Dietary Sources
The dietary sources be rich in nitrate include beetroot, celery, green leafy vegetables,
rocket salad, root vegetables, with acute benefits in athletic performance observed from a
consumption of 5 to 9 mmol bolus consisting of 310-560 mg nitric oxide (Avort et al., 2018). In
accordance to the observations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), there seemed to
be limitations in dosage recommendations with a lack of benefits observed beyond the
consumption 16.8mmol/liter as compared to a dosage of 8.4 mmol/liter (Maughan et al., 2018).

2SUMMARY PAPER
Upon comparison to the researches taken into consideration in Part A, conflicting evidence could
be observed where beneficial effects were exerted at dosages of 12.5mmol/liter.
Dosage, Costing and Feasibility
As observed in the studies taken into consideration in Part A, there was no administration
of commercial sources of nitrate supplements and instead, dietary sources in the form of
supplemented beetroot juice was utilized by the authors. Due to the lack of commercial product
usage and absence of costing information reported by the authors, no conclusions could be
derived from Part A, concerning the cost effectiveness of supplementation. For the evaluation of
the costing of commercial nitrate supplement, ‘BEET IT Sports Stamina Shot’ was chosen. One
bottle of 70 ml, provides 400mg of concentrated nitrate and the recommended dosage is 1 bottle
(70 ml). Considering a pack of 15 bottles costing $55, the cost of one bottle will be
approximately 4 dollars. While the investment of a pack of 15 bottles may seem to be cost
effective, however, considering the conflicting and lack of beneficial effects observed in Part A,
the concerned athlete must engage in more research to ensure adequate justification of his/her
investment on nitrate (Beet It, 2019).
Insights from Research
The randomized controlled trial conducted by Rimer et al., (2016) observed beneficial
effects on the supplementation of dietary nitrate on maximal muscle and cycling power in
athletes. However, the research conducted by Lowings et al., (2017) and Richard et al., (2018)
did not observe any beneficial effects on the time trial performance and duration and speed in
swimmers and skaters. Additionally, the randomized controlled trial conducted by Curtis et al.,
(2018), observed no changes in the performance of endurance cycling sessions upon
consumption of commercial nitrate supplementation. Similar results were also observed in the