In this episode, I look at press releases, posters, scientific publications, and @peterattiamd’s recent review of PR Lotion.

I show that the press releases announcing research do not link to any credible peer-reviewed research, despite Momentous-funded research apparently taking place at four separate research institutions. I show that the one peer-reviewed paper on PR Lotion (this one not funded by Momentous) showed no buffering capacity in the blood, no increase in bicarbonate in the blood, and no exercise performance improvement. Meanwhile, oral sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) showed robust changes in blood pH and bicarbonate, consistent with the experimental research.

The concept behind PR Lotion is that it would replicate the effects of oral sodium bicarbonate without the gastrointestinal effects, which prevent a minority of athletes from using sodium bicarbonate for the purpose of athlete performance. This would occur through direct absorption of bicarbonate through the skin.

The lack of pH buffering capacity in the blood or change in bicarbonate calls into question whether the proposed mechanism of PR Lotion—absorption of bicarbonate into the bloodstream—could even conceivably drive changes in exercise performance, even if they were ever demonstrated. And if such performance improvements were demonstrated, it would be unclear how these might be achieved without systemic absorption of the sodium bicarbonate, since PR Lotion *is* topical sodium bicarbonate.

I discuss Dr. Attia’s points, namely that positive findings were selectively highlighted, which may have been a statistical artifact. The rather harsh phrase characterizing this practice is called p-hacking. The fact that no peer-reviewed publications resulted from this research is suggestive that this is exactly what happened. After Dr. Attia’s critical post was published, many of the press releases and white papers were inexplicably removed from the Momentous website.

I conclude that there is no peer-reviewed evidence to show that Momentous’s PR Lotion works and some peer-reviewed evidence that strongly suggests that it does not.

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