Study finds long-term use of blackcurrant extract is more effective for recovery and ‘switches on’ adaptive responses to exercise

 NEW ZEALAND scientists have found that long-term use of New Zealand blackcurrant extract is more effective for muscle recovery than a single dose. Plus, they’ve found it provides other outstanding benefits, too.

In a ground-breaking finding, Plant and Food Research have revealed that five weeks’ daily dosing on the berry extract ‘primes’ the body for exercise and improves adaptive responses.

They say the berry is ‘switching on’ antioxidant and inflammatory defences, as well as multiple adaptive pathways – thus enhancing the beneficial responses to exercise, while reducing the damaging effects of harmful inflammation and oxidative stress.

Not only that, blackcurrant improved tissue repair and the body’s mucosal defences to infections.

We've seen in CurraNZ research that our extract improves a range of adaptive responses to exercise, from efficient fuel usage to blood flow during exercise, resulting in improvements to performance.

This new insight helps provide further explanation of ‘how’ this high-potency extract is enabling these changes to take place so rapidly on a cellular level.

The scientists believe the berry is stimulating a ‘transcription factor’ that switches on pathways responsible for changes that occur as a result of exercising.      

The finding contrasts conventional thinking on using antioxidants for muscle recovery. Studies have shown high doses of antioxidants Vitamin C and E blunt desirable responses to training. As a result, athletes have been cautious about using antioxidants when in a ‘building’ phase of their fitness program, but this science highlights that the opposite is true when it comes to using blackcurrant extract.  

The scientists concluded that daily long-term consumption improved recovery effectiveness of blackcurrant and created an anti-inflammatory/antioxidant microenvironment that helps control underlying chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Doses in the study were in a higher range, equivalent to two capsules of CurraNZ before exercising.

In summary, this adds another piece to the developing picture that blackcurrant enhances the benefits of exercise and its array of health-promoting and protective effects.

Daily Consumption of an Anthocyanin-Rich Extract Made from New Zealand Blackcurrants for 5 Weeks Supports Exercise Recovery Through the Management of Oxidative Stress and Inflammaton: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study was published in Frontiers of Nutrition DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2020.00016