Effects of Carbohydrate Mouth Rinse on Human Capacity and Performance-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 90 Controlled Trials
Study Details
This new meta-analysis included 90 trials and 1,184 participants, examining the acute effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on exercise performance and capacity 🔍
Here are the key findings ⬇️
Key Findings
🏃 CHO mouth rinse produced a small improvement in distance covered compared with control (g = 0.17)
⏱️ Performance time also improved slightly (g = −0.15), although the effect was classified as trivial
⚡ Exercise speed increased by a similarly small amount (g = 0.17)
🏋️ Workload showed the clearest benefit, with a small positive effect (g = 0.25) and high-certainty evidence
💪 Maximum voluntary contraction also improved slightly (g = 0.18), although this finding was less robust in sensitivity analyses
↔️ CHO mouth rinse did not improve muscular endurance
🚴 Maximum power output was essentially unchanged (g = 0.008)
🫁 VO₂max was also unaffected, which is unsurprising given that mouth rinsing provides no additional metabolic substrate
🧠 The proposed mechanism is primarily central rather than metabolic, with oral carbohydrate sensing potentially activating brain regions involved in motivation, reward and motor drive
🔎 There was no consistent evidence that benefits differed according to exercise type, CHO type, solution concentration or fitness level
📊 Evidence certainty was generally moderate, high for workload and low for power output
⚠️ Publication bias/small-study effects were detected for performance time, power and speed
👨 96.45% of participants were male, substantially limiting generalisation to female athletes
Conclusion
Overall, carbohydrate mouth rinsing appears to provide a small ergogenic effect for selected outcomes and may be a useful low-cost adjunct when even marginal performance gains matter, but it should not be expected to meaningfully improve every aspect of exercise performance ✅
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42797082/
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