A supplement widely promoted for athletic performance may interfere with some of the heart’s beneficial adaptations to exercise, according to new Dalhousie University research published in Scientific Reports.
While these supplements are often promoted to support exercise performance and cardiovascular function, researchers found the combination of sodium nitrate and running prevented several beneficial cardiac improvements normally associated with exercise in females.
Those benefits included changes linked to heart structure, ventricular function and calcium handling in heart cells, which helps regulate contraction and relaxation. The effects were much less pronounced in males, pointing to important sex differences that researchers say are too often overlooked in supplement research.
