Background

Dietary nitrate supplementation can enhance exercise performance in healthy people, but it is not clear if it is beneficial in COPD. We investigated the hypotheses that acute nitrate dosing would improve exercise performance and reduce the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise in people with COPD.

Methods

We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over single dose study. Subjects were randomised to consume either nitrate-rich beetroot juice (containing 12.9mmoles nitrate) or placebo (nitrate-depleted beetroot juice) 3 hours prior to endurance cycle ergometry, performed at 70% of maximal workload assessed by a prior incremental exercise test. After a minimum washout period of 7 days the protocol was repeated with the crossover beverage.

Results

21 subjects successfully completed the study (age 68±7years; BMI 25.2±5.5kg/m2; FEV1 percentage predicted 50.1±21.6%; peak VO2 18.0±5.9ml/min/kg). Resting diastolic blood pressure fell significantly with nitrate supplementation compared to placebo (-7±8mmHg nitrate vs. -1±8mmHg placebo; p = 0.008). Median endurance time did not differ significantly; nitrate 5.65 (3.90–10.40) minutes vs. placebo 6.40 (4.01–9.67) minutes (p = 0.50). However, isotime oxygen consumption (VO2) was lower following nitrate supplementation (16.6±6.0ml/min/kg nitrate vs. 17.2±6.0ml/min/kg placebo; p = 0.043), and consequently nitrate supplementation caused a significant lowering of the amplitude of the VO2-percentage isotime curve.

Conclusions

Acute administration of oral nitrate did not enhance endurance exercise performance; however the observation that beetroot juice caused reduced oxygen consumption at isotime suggests that further investigation of this treatment approach is warranted, perhaps targeting a more hypoxic phenotype.