Potential benefits for heart health
Several review papers claim that ribose can treat heart failure in people with coronary artery disease;[1][2][3][4] however, much of the evidence comes from preclinical studies in rodents.[5][6][7][8] That said, some randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have found that supplementation with ribose (in addition to heart failure medications) can improve the symptoms of heart failure,[9][10][11] including increased left ventricular ejection fraction and exercise capacity, both of which are impaired in people with this condition.
Despite these possible benefits in heart failure, there are few clinical studies, outcomes are variable between studies, and potential risks need to be examined in more detail (see What are ribose’s main drawbacks?). Therefore, well-designed large-scale RCTs are needed to understand ribose’s efficacy in people with heart failure before it can be considered for widespread clinical practice.
Potential benefit for exercise recovery
Some RCTs show that supplementation with D-ribose can reduce feelings of muscle soreness and markers of muscle damage and oxidative stress following exercise,[12][13] while increasing the resynthesis of ATP in skeletal muscle.[14] However, the recovery of muscle strength is not improved,[12] and other studies find mixed outcomes or that ribose has no benefit on recovery.[15][16][17] Furthermore, RCTs have found that ribose has no benefit on exercise performance during either aerobic[18] or anaerobic[19][14][20][21][16] exercise tests. Therefore, ribose might assist with recovery, but it does not improve exercise performance. That said, studies in this field include fewer than 10 participants and only include men, which highlights the need for higher-quality research.