Abstract:
Performance nutrition and weight management remains one of the most popular categories in health food and supplement markets globally. While this category was originally focused on products tailored for elite athletes and bodybuilders, it has expanded into mainstream markets. Consumers of varied athletic ability are seeking health products to support and enhance athletic training, improve body composition, support weight management and help maintain an active lifestyle. Consumers are looking beyond protein to formulate health products with trending botanical bioactive ingredients. In this regard, there is interest in the ergogenic potential of capsaicinoids from red chilli peppers. Capsaicinoids provide the spicy flavor of chili pepper fruits - capsaicin is the primary capsaicinoid and the most potent. Capsaicinods are associated with multiple biological effects including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and weight management support through boosting metabolism, increasing lipolysis and appetite control. In light of our existing data from human and animal studies, we conducted a systematic review of studies that support the functional benefits of capsaicinoids during and post-exercise. The ergogenic potential of caspaicinoids can be appreciated based on its mechanism of action primarily through the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel. Herein, capsaicinods activate TRPV1 to influence calcium release in muscle cells resulting in reduced fatigue, increases fatty acid oxidation thereby providing more available energy, inducing an analgesic effect and sparing the use of glycogen for physical energy. Indeed, we have shown that caspaicinoid supplementation in rats influences mitochondrial mass, increases IGF-1 levels, and reduced exercise-induced oxidative stress. In humans, we found that 2 mg of caspaicinoids supports exercise duration, increased time to exhaustion and work out intensity. Our data is consistent with previous observations wherein capsaicinoids has been shown to improves running performance and rate of perceived exertion, resistance training performance, and muscle strength in healthy and physically active individuals. Additionally, we have shown in two independent clinical studies that a daily dose of 2 mg capsaicinoids is able to boost metabolic rate under fed and fasting conditions in overweight subjects. Moreover, our data supports the use of capsaicinoids in combination with other ergogenic and weight management support botanicals including caffeine and piperine, both during exercise and at rest.
What will audience learn from your presentation?
- Expand their knowledge on approaches/nutritional solutions that can address weight management and physical performance
- Learn about new tools that can be incorporated as part of study designs to study weight management
- Identify opportunities to leverage new application technologies for products targeted toward weight management
- The research presented at this conference both in terms of the clinical science as well as the application technologies can be easily incorporated and applied by other faculty in their research programs as well as part of their teaching programs
- It will certainly help identify approaches that can be reliably applied in clinical research to deliver new nutritional strategies and solutions to individuals looking to increase physical performance and support their weight management goals
- It may increase academic-industry partnerships and collaborations – it can help to drive new innovations in the space of physical performance and weight management.
