Ribose Usage

Ribose may be of benefit in improving exercise tolerance in people with angina by helping the heart regenerate its ATP, but the evidence that it works remains highly preliminary. ¹ One small study found evidence that ribose supplements might improve heart function in people with congestive heart failure . ² Sports enthusiasts are more interested in ATP's effects on regular muscles than on the heart muscle. At least one animal study seems to show that skeletal muscle, like heart muscle, replenishes ATP more quickly when ribose is added to the blood. ³ In theory, this could lead to enhanced performance in high intensity anaerobic exercise, such as sprinting. However, six small double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in humans failed to find any benefit. ⁴ In one of these studies, dextrose (a form of ordinary sugar) proved effective while ribose did not. ⁵ In one small, double-blind study, ribose failed to prove effective for enhancing mental function . ⁶ The researchers suggest that the dose they used (2 g daily) may have been insufficient.

In a few case reports, ribose apparently has produced an increase in exercise ability in people with a rare condition involving deficiency of the enzyme myoadenylate deaminase (AMPD). ⁷ However, no double-blind studies of ribose in AMPD deficiency have been conducted. Small, double-blind studies have failed to find ribose effective for another rare enzyme deficiency, called McArdle's disease, ⁸ or for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. ⁹