Effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on muscle strength and muscular endurance: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Abstract

The present systematic review with meta-analysis summarized studies that investigated the effect of carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinse on muscle strength and muscular endurance. The search was performed in six databases. Thirteen randomized clinical trials were selected and the standardized mean difference between CHO mouth rinse and placebo for maximal strength and muscular endurance was determined via a random-effects model using Review Manager 5.4 software. Meta-regression was also performed to explore the influence of load, number of sets, number of exercises, fasting time, CHO concentration, and number of mouth rinses on the main outcomes. There was no significant effect of CHO mouth rinse on maximal strength (mean difference= 0.25 kg, 95%CI − 1.81 to 2.32 kg, z = 0.24, p = 0.810). However, there was a significant positive effect of CHO mouth rinse on muscular endurance (mean difference = 1.24 repetitions, 95%CI 0.70 to 1.77 repetitions, z = 4.55, p < 0.001). Meta-regression identified that CHO mouth rinse has greater benefits on muscular endurance when using high workloads, multiple exercises, and a smaller number of mouth rinses (p = 0.001). In conclusion, CHO mouth rinse has no effect on maximal muscle strength but has a positive effect on muscular endurance and seems to optimize when fewer mouth rinses, high workloads and numbers of exercises are used.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2057417

Keywords:

• Maltodextrin
• mouthwash
• one-repetition maximum
• repetition to failure
• resistance-training

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Acknowledgements

The English text of this paper has been reviewed by Robin Hambly, a native speaker with extensive experience in reviewing scientific texts. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was carried out in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be interpreted as a potential conflict of interest. The results of this study are presented in an honest and clear manner, without inappropriate data manipulation.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.