Original title: Effects of acute Capsaicin analogue intake on athletic performance: a three-level meta-analysis
Researchers combined results from trials in which healthy adults took a capsaicin-like substance or a placebo, then exercised. A three-level meta-analysis combines results while accounting for multiple findings from the same research. The combined results showed a small improvement overall, with gains in power and muscular endurance but no clear effect on strength or aerobic capacity. The possible benefit varied by substance, training level, and dose, and the evidence is very uncertain.
Imagine packing for a day of sports and choosing one extra snack to help you through it. The trouble is that the same snack may help with a short burst of effort but do little for a long run, and the best amount may not be obvious. In this paper, comparing many trials is like checking how that snack performs across different activities: the possible help appears in bursts of power and repeated effort, but not in every kind of exercise.
Athletes and coaches may be interested in whether a single dose of a capsaicin-like supplement helps performance. The results point to possible small gains in power and muscular endurance, not a broad boost across every kind of exercise; the evidence is very uncertain.
The results come from acute oral intake tested in healthy adults, so they do not establish effects from long-term use or in other groups. The evidence has heterogeneity and publication bias, and its certainty is very low. The abstract does not establish that the observed performance differences lead to better real-world athletic outcomes.
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Effects of acute Capsaicin analogue intake on athletic performance: a three-level meta-analysis — Zhu Huang, Hengzhi Deng, Shuiquan Tan — Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition — doi:10.1080/15502783.2026.2733576
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.