WHAT IS POLYLACTATE AND WHAT DOES IT DO?, by George Brooks, Ph.D., Professor of Exercise Physiology.
POLYLACTATE is a mixture of organic (mainly) and inorganic salts of lactic acid. Thus, POLYLACTATE is not an acid, but it is a rapidly used fuel the use of which helps to supply energy, maintain blood sugar (glucose), and neutralize naturally produced acids in the body, including lactic acid. The use of POLYLACTATE to supply energy rapidly in exercise, to bolster blood sugar, and to neutralize (buffer) body acids during exercise is explained in the following way.
Often in nature, success in any system depends on balance. For instance, for crop growth there needs to be a balance of nutrient soil, sunlight and water with excesses, or insufficient amounts of one component producing a poor result. So it is that balance in human physiology determines success of many metabolic processes. One critically important process has to do with the balance of formation and removal (utilization) of lactic acid in muscle during vigorous activity.
Recent research indicates that when muscles use blood sugar or stored carbohydrate (glycogen), much of these carbohydrates are converted to lactic acid. Lactic acid is a very strong organic acid. In physiological systems, almost all the lactic acid formed dissociates to the extremely useful lactate component (that represents 98.9%), and a hydrogen ion, or proton that represents 1.1%. Usually in the body the production and removal of lactic acid are in balance so that despite rapid production, little accumulates. In the past scientists thought that during exercise lactate was a dead-end metabolite which was produced because of insufficient oxygen and caused fatigue. In contrast, we now know that lactic acid is produced all the time in many cells and tissues, and in muscle, even at rest when there is plenty of oxygen. Only when the production outstrips removal does the acid part of the molecule linger to cause burning, fatigue and sensations that make athletes want to quit activity.
Why the body chooses to make lactic acid rapidly, and why the body uses this metabolic intermediate as the most important blood borne carbohydrate during exercise is an extremely complex, and revolutionary concept. However, for our present purposes we need only realize that the body needs and uses lactate, but the body suffers if hydrogen ions accumulate and causes lactic acidosis. In the form of POLYLACTATE, we then restore the balance of salt and acid by providing lactate molecules, but without the 1.1% acid component.
Muscle can use carbohydrates faster than lipids, more energy is available for a given oxygen supply, and muscles contract more forcefully if carbohydrates are used as fuels. Moreover, by releasing lactate during exercise, some muscle can fuel other muscles, including the heart which consume and utilize lactate and protons from the blood. Additionally, in the process of producing sugar for the body during exercise, the major material taken from the blood by the liver is lactate. In fact, the liver consumes two lactates and two acid protons to make one sugar molecule.
With this new knowledge in hand, it then becomes obvious what to supply the athlete during prolonged hard exercise and recovery; give the body what it uses most rapidly, and give it something which will help remove acid protons formed during exercise. Give the body a designer molecule, the lactate without the acid proton, give the body POLYLACTATE.