Ham Lake, MN—Bioenergy Life Science, based here, recently made public the results of a small-animal study in which the effects of caffeine and/or their branded ribose ingredient (Bioenergy) were tested on fatigued subjects.

The mice had used up their energy reserves, as determined by three-day swimming exhaustion experiments. On the third day, the mice swam 30% less than they had before. On the fourth day, mice were given their normal diet plus glucose, caffeine, ribose or a 50/50 ribose/caffeine combination. After testing their swimming time again, researchers found the ribose group had a 135% improvement in swim time, and the ribose/caffeine combination group showed a 150% improvement.

Of note, swim times for mice given only caffeine deteriorated; they plummeted to levels below baseline. Mice given only glucose had swim times about that recorded at baseline.

The second prong of the study involved various concentrations of the ribose/caffeine combination. “We determined that the optimal combination—when translated into human equivalents—is 10mg/kg caffeine plus 4 grams of ribose,” said Alex Xue, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief technology officer, Bioenergy Life Science. “With this combination, we could boost swimming time to 180%!” He also noted that tipping the ratio in favor of caffeine did not create longer swim times, possibly because caffeine bumped up the heart rate and exhausted the organ.

Similar human clinical studies will be conducted to further test these results. 

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, March 2014, online 1/27/14