Try again, Lactose: New thoughts?

OldNickToo said:

The idea is that we have been seeing the pain always associated with LA buildup, and assumed it caused the pain. However it may be a response to pain that is trying to help.

Add to that the fact that LA is fermented in our bodies from Lactose, and the article I just saw showing that a good old glass of milk is just as good or better than an energy drink becomes interesting.

Banana milkshake anyone?

Um, lactic acid (or more precisely lactate) is not "fermented in our bodies from Lactose". Not in our bodies, anyway.

It's a product of glycolysis (break-up of glucose in the muscle fibers to generate energy); well, what glycolysis really produces is pyruvate which is then converted to lactate and released in the blood stream, but it doesn't really matter in this discussion.

Then, the blood lactate can be taken up by the muscle fibers (esp. the type-I, or slow twitch, fibers), converted back to pyruvate which is in turn converted to acetyl-CoA that enters the TCA cycle to generate more energy, or it can be converted back to glucose by the liver (gluconeogenesis).

In short, lactate is not a biochemical waste of the anaerobic energy production pathway, or the cause of fatigue. It's actually a fuel for the aerobic energy production pathway.

For more information, see:
cyclingnews.comfitness.phpOpen ↗
en.wikipedia.orgLactateOpen ↗

um. I hate "ums"..such a put-down sound, don't you tnink?

However, thank you for your reply. Your decription is correct, of course. I was oversimplifying. Sorry.

I was wondering, really, if this is so obvious and old hat, why I still see mention of lactic acid being bad.

As I mentioned in my message, I was also interested to know if milk, which seems to have been found to be an "energy drink" of some merit, is such because it is a source of lactose. Does lactose get into our systems as such in a way that is more easily processed to lactic acid? Or is it only glucose that we make into (lactate), and we actually have to proces the lactose first, into glucose?

Nic,

I asked the question about "a glass of Milo" here: http://www.triwa.org.au/discus//messages/2636/4178.html?1144285900

gclark8 said:

Nic,

I asked the question about "a glass of Milo" here: triwa.org.au4178.htmlOpen ↗

I read the thread. I saw a _reference_ to milo, but no details.

OldNickToo said:

Does lactose get into our systems as such in a way that is more easily processed to lactic acid? Or is it only glucose that we make into (lactate), and we actually have to proces the lactose first, into glucose?

The latter, because lactose "is a disaccharide consisting of two subunits, a galactose and a glucose linked together" (Wikipedia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose

Although lactose and lactate (or lactic acid) share "lacto", the latin name for milk, I think they do so only for historical reasons, probably lactic acid was first separated from yoghurt, giving it an appearance of relating to milk, or something.