Is Carbohydrate mouth rise the new ‘IT THING’ for athletes

How many times have we seen our favourite athletes take a sip of spots drink, rinse it in their mouth and then spit it out? I am sure most of the football fans must have surely seen this happening! Ever wondered why Cristiano is doing exactly that in this picture? Keep reading this article to understand the WHY of this practice.

A carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinse is the practice of swirling a sports drink in your mouth for 5-10 seconds and then spitting it out. The fluid needs to be distributed evenly in the mouth for those 5-10 seconds. The most common carbohydrate used in mouth rinse is maltodextrin because of its colourless and tasteless properties. Glucose can be used as well. A systematic literature review  conducted by  Ataide e Silva. et al. a carbohydrate mouth rinse has been shown to increase performance of athletes performing moderate to high intensity physical activity for a duration of ~ 1 hour.

The mechanism of action is not the absorption of CHO since no changes in blood glucose levels were reported with the practice of a mouth rinse. The systematic literature review has specified that the positive effects are shown due to the effect of the CHO mouth rinse on the certain areas of the brain. The message was sent to the brain via the receptors in the mouth and the GI tract. The exact mechanism by which CHO mouth rinse increases performance is not fully understood, but it can potentially involve a group of receptors or signals in the mouth with connections to the reward areas in the brain. It is suggested that this mechanism, lowers the perception of exertion and increases motivation to perform physical activity in an athlete. Another key takeaway from this systematic literature review was that the studies that did show positive effects of the CHO mouth rinse had performed trials on athletes who were in a fasted state. This implies that, this practice might work better in a fasted state than a fed state. The athletes can fast for 4 hours or lesser before the start of their physical activity.

This blog spoke about the background and mechanism of the CHO mouth rinse, read our next blog to understand what these findings mean in practice and when an athlete can use a CHO mouth rinse.