VO₂max — research review 2

...and this is why VO₂max is such a big deal in longevity. It's essentially the maximum rate at which your body can use oxygen during exercise. A really strong predictor of mortality, too.

Absolutely. We see so many supplements marketed for "boosting" VO₂max, or improving cardiovascular health, and it's easy to get caught up in the hype. But what does the human evidence actually show?

Right. Take beetroot juice, for instance. It's often touted for its nitrate content, which converts to nitric oxide, a vasodilator. Some smaller studies have shown acute performance benefits. But a meta-analysis in Physiological Reports from 2021 concluded that beetroot juice doesn't significantly enhance VO₂max in healthy, trained individuals. It's more about specific performance metrics, not an overall increase in fitness capacity.

That’s a crucial distinction. And what about things like creatine? Often associated with strength and power.

Creatine monohydrate is well-researched for increasing muscle mass and strength, particularly in resistance training. But when it comes to VO₂max directly, the evidence is pretty mixed, and many studies show no significant improvement. For instance, a review in Nutrients from 2022 highlighted that while creatine boosts high-intensity performance, its direct impact on aerobic capacity, or VO₂max, is largely unproven. It's not the magic bullet for cardiorespiratory fitness.

So, for most of these popular supplements, we're really still waiting for robust, long-term clinical trials specifically demonstrating an increase in VO₂max or a direct longevity benefit in humans. Many claims remain in the realm of potential mechanisms or very short-term, specific performance gains, not fundamental fitness improvements.

Exactly. We need to follow the data.