INSPO Fitness Journal October 2017

Fight your exercise fatigue
WITH
MENTHOL?
One of the hindrances to athlete performance
is fatigue caused by over-heating (especially
in warmer climates).
BY RUSSELL BEST
As a runner myself, I’m more than familiar
with the feeling of over-heating,
and like most runners, have felt the
burn of fatigue it can bring on.
Keeping cool by drinking water or electrolytes
is the standard method athletes use to
try and reduce or delay over-heating. And it’s
effective up to a point.
If we can find a way for athletes to feel cooler
before or during exercise for longer, they’re
likely to be able to perform better because it
will take them longer to feel fatigued.
Something I came across several years ago
was early research into the use of menthol as
a cooling agent for athletes. This sparked my
interest and has led me to undertaking my
PhD research into how menthol could be used
to enhance athlete performance by affecting
the way athletes perceive heat.
What is menthol? Menthol is the natural oil
and alcohol found in mint. You’ll find menthol
in a range of products such as throat lozenges,
mouth wash and peppermint tea
The theory behind the use of menthol is
that by taking it orally, an athlete feels like
they can breathe easier, and feels cooler; and is
therefore able to increase their output. (Output
increase can be measured by running faster,
cycling further, or hitting harder, etc).
So far, the research shows that most athletes
(up to, but not including elite athletes) report
that exercise feels easier, that they are able
to go faster and further, and are able to stay
cooler for longer when taking menthol (we’ve
tested it with lozenges and liquid format).
This is where the research got interesting:
menthol use seems to have a neural rather
than a physiological effect. So although
athletes feel like the menthol is cooling them,
actually when we measured the results, it’s not.
Here’s what’s really going on: the use of
menthol sends a signal to nerve endings that
you’re being cooled. This creates a mismatch
between actual temperature and perceived
temperature, meaning that athletes feel like
the menthol is cooling them, and therefore
push themselves further and as a result their
output increases.
You might think this means that menthol
is a placebo, but it’s more complicated than
that, because it’s something we can actually
measure.
The next stage of research we’re working
on is trying to determine that if people know
the menthol is causing a neural (rather than
physiological) response, they still have an
increase in output.
What we also think is that menthol use
may be less effective on elite athletes because
they are trained to deal with the heat. Whereas
if someone is not physically fit, menthol use
could be more useful, because they feel hotter
faster, and find exercise more challenging than
someone who is an elite athlete.
In our biokinetic clinic at Wintec we’re
thinking about how we can apply these
learnings to help people who have just given
up smoking to start and stick with an exercise
plan. We’ll keep you posted on our findings.
In the meantime, why not give it a go yourself?
Try drinking some peppermint cordial
or sucking on a menthol lozenge before and/
or during your workout and see if you notice a
difference in your output, and then compare it
on another day without.
RUSSELL BEST is an Academic Staff Member at the Centre for Sport Science and
Human Performance at Wintec, and Nutritionist at the Waikato Human Performance
Hub. Russell is a PhD candidate and has worked as a nutritionist and lecturer in the
UK and New Zealand.
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www.naturallyhealthy.co.nz
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46 INSPO – FITNESS JOURNAL OCTOBER 2017