The supplements of ATP (Adenosin-Tri-Phosphate) are over-the-counter products sold with the intent (of questionable honesty) of increasing ATP reserves in the muscles favoring sports performance.
It seems that the density of ATP is impoverished by intense physical exercise and that its TOTAL restoration requires a maximum time of 3 days (physiological cellular synthesis).
Do D-ribose supplements really facilitate the restoration of ATP reserves?
simplifying, we say that the "reserves" of ATP represent a "potentially" usable energy substrate in muscle contraction. The first consideration concerns the actual importance of this substrate; from the QUANTITATIVE point of view, it is SO SMALL to enjoy an absolutely negligible metabolic role resulting (in my opinion) useless.
Furthermore, most readers will be reflecting on the fact that, in the common sports physiology texts, that of the creatin-P (CP) is always cited as the 1st energy substrate of muscle contraction, also known to be the fastest to be exhausted ; glucose and fatty acids follow. In fact, users do not make any conceptual errors! From the physiological-sports point of view, the ATP reserves are considered so insignificant that they do not deserve to be placed within the energy mechanisms, also because it is not a real substrate, but rather a reserve of molecules that INCAMERANO BUT energy does not produce it.
Why do ATP supplements contain ribose?
The so-called "ATP" supplements contain predominantly ribose and, to the limit, few vitamins; ribose is a glycide / sugar / carbohydrate / glucose (if you prefer) with 5 carbon atoms, then pentose . Ribose, in addition to being an essential element of nucleic acids (genetic heritage), in association with adenine and three molecules of phosphoric acid, represents an essential piece of the ATP molecule; ... so far so clear.
What is NOT CLEAR is:
"Why should the increase in ATP be ergogenic, given that the sites in which the ATPs are located have a precise and NOT modifiable number?"
Certainly following the physical exercise the ATP reserves are depleted, but this depends on the level of athletic preparation, the subjective capacity for recovery and the intensity of the performance. If the ATP was really a limiting aspect, some athletes could never train 2 or even once a day.
... Moreover...
"Why should more ATP molecules increase performance, since it is a perfectly RECHARGEABLE molecule?"
In fact, ATP is a molecule located in the " myosin head ", one of the main proteins responsible for muscle contraction; therefore, to each myosin corresponds a determined number of ATP equivalent to the number of its heads. It follows that, despite having more ATP molecules in reserve form, the muscle would not be able to use them except following the simultaneous annihilation of all the ATPs present in the myosin heads (at least remote eventuality); endogenous muscular stocks are sufficient for physiological or sport-induced depletions.
Furthermore, ATP is a rechargeable molecule (like a battery); following muscle contraction it becomes ADP or, more rarely, AMP. In muscle contraction, the ATP loses a group (or two) of phosphoric acid; but the latter, through the 3 energetic metabolisms (anaerobic alactacid, lactate and aerobic anaerobic) and for the intervention of the enzyme ATP-synthase, is readily reconnected to the original molecule restoring the functioning of the complete ATP.
In conclusion, what would additional stocks of ATP serve? Probably to guarantee a good business profit for traders!
Curiosity: difference between ribose and D-ribose
The wording D of the ribose simply indicates the isomeric form, or the different distribution in space of the atoms within the SAME molecule; for amino acids, for example, the opposite of the form D- is the easily identifiable L- form (with the appropriate means) through viewing the rotation of the polarized light plane which, in the two isomers, is completely opposite. If in the molecules of the organism optically active compounds are present, therefore differentiable in D- and L-, they will never be interchangeable; just as in human proteins amino acids are always in the form -L, in nucleic acids and in ATP ribose is always D-ribose. This explains why in ATP supplements ribose is named as D-ribose and not simply ribose .
