The Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate and Sodium Citrate on Blood pH, HCO3-, Lactate Metabolism and Time to Exhaustion

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate in increasing lactate
concentration, blood pH, HCO3-, and time to exhaustion. Increased time to exhaustion is an advantage since the athletes can do
more anaerobic work. Exhaustion could be delayed by increasing HCO3- to catch H+ produced by lactate metabolism to form H2O
and CO2. The design of this research was randomized pretest posttest control group design. Thirty badminton student players were
randomly selected and randomly assigned to three groups. The first group (the control group) was given placebo, NaCl .9 g/dl, the
second group was given sodium bicarbonate 300 mg/kg in 500 ml aqua, and the third group was given sodium citrate 300 mg/kg in
500 ml aqua. Blood pH and bicarbonate ion (HCO3-) were measured through Opti Medical Blood gas Analyzer. Lactate was
measured by Cobas Roche lactate Analyzer. Data was analyzed using Manova with .05 significant level. Blood pH of the groups
taking sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate were higher significantly against control group (p<.05), and sodium bicarbonate
group was significantly higher than the sodium citrate group (p<.05). Blood lactate tests showed that sodium bicarbonate group
and sodium citrate group gave significant difference vs control group (p<.05), whereas sodium bicarbonate did not differ
significantly against sodium citrate (p>.05). Sodium bicarbonate is better than sodium citrate, although both were better than
control (p<.05). Sodium bicarbonate is better than sodium citrate in increasing blood pH and time to exhaustion. The disadvantage
of using sodium bicarbonate is that it can cause gastrointestinal problem and headache, so it is not advisable to be used by athletes
who have the symptoms