Sport Mont (Feb 2017)

The Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate and Sodium Citrate on Blood pH, HCO3-, Lactate Metabolism and Time to Exhaustion

  • Soetanto Hartono,
  • Sukadiono

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 13 – 16

Abstract

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The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate in increasing lactate concentration, blood pH, HCO3-, and time to exhaustion. Increased time to exhaustion is an advantage since the athletes can do more anaerobic work. Exhaustion could be delayed by increasing HCO3- to catch H+ produced by lactate metabolism to form H2O and CO2. The design of this research was randomized pretest posttest control group design. Thirty badminton student players were randomly selected and randomly assigned to three groups. The first group (the control group) was given placebo, NaCl .9 g/dl, the second group was given sodium bicarbonate 300 mg/kg in 500 ml aqua, and the third group was given sodium citrate 300 mg/kg in 500 ml aqua. Blood pH and bicarbonate ion (HCO3-) were measured through Opti Medical Blood gas Analyzer. Lactate was measured by Cobas Roche lactate Analyzer. Data was analyzed using Manova with .05 significant level. Blood pH of the groups taking sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate were higher significantly against control group (p.05). Sodium bicarbonate is better than sodium citrate, although both were better than control (p<.05). Sodium bicarbonate is better than sodium citrate in increasing blood pH and time to exhaustion. The disadvantage of using sodium bicarbonate is that it can cause gastrointestinal problem and headache, so it is not advisable to be used by athletes who have the symptoms.

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