Sodium bicarbonate supplementation and the female athlete: A brief commentary with small scale systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Sodium bicarbonate (SB) is considered an effective ergogenic supplement for improving high-intensity exercise capacity and performance, although recent data suggests that women may be less amenable to its ergogenic effects than men. Currently, an apparent paucity of data on women means no consensus exists on whether women benefit from SB supplementation. The aim of the current study was to quantify the proportion of the published literature on SB supplementation that includes women, and to synthesise the evidence regarding its effects on blood bicarbonate and exercise performance in women by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis. Electronic searches of the literature were undertaken using three databases (MEDLINE, Embase, SPORTDiscus) to identify relevant articles. All meta-analyses were performed within a Bayesian framework. A total of 149 SB articles were identified, 11 of which contained individual group data for women. Results indicated a pooled blood bicarbonate increase of 7.4 [95%CrI: 4.2–10.4 mmol·L⁻¹] following supplementation and a pooled standardised exercise effect size of 0.37 [95%CrI: −0.06–0.92]. The SB literature is skewed, with only 20% (30 studies) of studies employing female participants, of which only 11 studies (7.4%) provided group analyses exclusively in women. Despite the small amount of available data, results are consistent in showing that SB supplementation in women leads to large changes in blood bicarbonate and that there is strong evidence for a positive ergogenic effect on exercise performance that is likely to be small to medium in magnitude.

Highlights

• This study aimed to quantify the proportion of the published literature on sodium bicarbonate supplementation that includes women and to synthesise the evidence regarding its ergogenic effect on women, using a systematic review and meta-analytic approach.

• The sodium bicarbonate literature is skewed, with only 30 studies (20%) employing female participants, of which only 11 studies (7.4%) provided group analyses exclusively in women.

• Despite the small amount of available data, results are consistent in showing that sodium bicarbonate supplementation in women leads to large changes in blood bicarbonate and that there is strong evidence for a positive ergogenic effect on exercise performance that is likely small to medium in magnitude.

• Based on these findings, we do not believe there is any evidence to support sex-specific sodium bicarbonate dosing recommendations and that current recommendations of 0.2–0.3 g·kg⁻¹BM of SB taken 60–180 min prior to high-intensity exercise appear appropriate for the female athlete.

KEYWORDS:

• Ergogenic aid
• anaerobic capacity
• acidosis
• glycolysis
• sex differences
• high-intensity exercise

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo: [Grant Number 2016/50438-0, 2019/05616-6,2019/25032-9, 2019/26899-6]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ní­vel Superior: [Grant Number 001].