Can D-Ribose be used for weight loss?

NO. D-Ribose appears to indirectly achieve weight loss, but its clinical efficacy has not been confirmed. D-Ribose is a naturally occurring pentose monosaccharide that is a product of dietary nucleic acid digestion. Ribose has been shown to be a promising supplement to improve cardiac and skeletal muscle performance, but there is still controversy as to whether it can lead to weight loss. Studies have shown that ribose upregulates intestinal motility and inhibits weight gain in mice. Ribokinase, encoded by the Rbks gene, is the first enzyme in the body to metabolize ribose. Mutations in Rbks cause ribose to accumulate in the small intestine, thereby accelerating intestinal motility. Oral ribose treatment of wild-type mice also enhanced intestinal motility and made the mice resistant to a high-fat diet. The suppression of weight gain was due to increased excretion of ingested food. In addition, effective doses of ribose did not cause any known side effects (i.e., diarrhea and hypoglycemia). Overall, ribose can modulate intestinal motility and energy homeostasis in mice and suggests that administration of ribose and its analogs can modulate gastrointestinal motility, providing a new treatment for gastrointestinal dysfunction and weight control.

References:

[1] YAN LIU. Ribose Accelerates Gut Motility and Suppresses Mouse Body Weight Gaining.[J]. International Journal of Biological Sciences, 2016. DOI:10.7150/ijbs.13635.

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