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The Energy Advantage

Top Tip to Energize your life

Caffeine - Do you need it?

A staggering 2.5 billion cups of coffee are drunk world wide every day. This makes caffeine the world's most popular stimulant. It is a drug, not a nutrient and the 115mg in an average cup of coffee is quickly absorbed into you bloodstream. Within 15 minutes of sipping a single espresso, you are feeling the effects. Caffeine works directly on the brain by stimulating the release of two stress hormones, cortisol and adrenalin. It also causes your muscles to tighten and a slight increase in heart rate and blood pressure. As a potent diuretic, caffeine causes your kidneys to produce more urine. These effects are tolerable on a small scale, but too much caffeine in a day (over 500mg for most people) will drain your energy, wreck your sleep patterns and add to your stress levels. Most people are not short of regular doses of adrenalin and cortisol charging their system as a response to stress - so reaching for a coffee to help you cope with stress is crazy!

Caffeine remains in the system for around 4-6 hours in most people. But an individual isn't most people and we are all very different when it comes to how we handle caffeine. Smokers metabolise and break down caffeine faster compared with non-smokers so they feel the need for their next fix sooner. My own research, on the benefits of giving up caffeine, revealed dramatic changes in mood and energy levels. Individuals working offshore on Shell's oil platforms reported fewer headaches and better sleep habits as a result of giving up caffeine.

Regular drinkers develop a tolerance to caffeine and do not get the same "buzz" as usual, but suffer from withdrawal symptoms if they don't get the drug. The "need" for a cup of coffee is simply to neutralise the withdrawal symptoms (which include headaches, muscle and joint aches and short temper). These are what you can expect when you actively give up caffeine, and can last up to 3 days in some people. Don't reach for a headache tablet during this withdrawal phase since many contain caffeine. But the rewards of getting through this phase are great. With caffeine out of your system, you are likely to sleep better and have more energy.

Caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, tea, cocoa (used to make chocolate) and guarana (a herb often added to energy drinks and bars).

It is added to Colas and other soft drinks such as Lucozade, Iron Bru and Red Bull. There is a new drink from America called "Jolt" which contains twice the caffeine content of a can of Coke.

That's the story at rest but, in the world of athletics, caffeine has been shown to increase power, speed and endurance. Recent research revealed that runners were able to keep going for an amazing 41 minutes longer with caffeine tablets compared with the same amount of caffeine in coffee or decaf with pure caffeine added. This is because coffee contains a cocktail of substances, which may interfere with caffeine metabolism making it less effective than the pure drug. Caffeine can benefit endurance performance by stimulating the release of free fatty acids. This encourages muscles to use fat as a fuel, thus sparing the limited glycogen supplies.

Caffeine also benefits shorter term exercise of 30 - 60 minutes when there is still plenty of glycogen in muscles. In this situation, it is the stimulating effect on the brain which may boost performance. Individuals have a reduction in perceived exertion. Caffeine acts directly on muscles to increase the free calcium in the muscle cells and reduce the amount of potassium. Both have a positive effect on endurance. The amount needed to produce these effects is around 300mg - equivalent to 2 "mugs" of strong coffee. But before you reach for the Nescafe, these research findings were carried out in laboratory conditions, using highly trained athletes. It is likely that the effects during competition (when adrenalin levels are high anyway), or weekend cyclists would be much less. Nevetheless, the drug is considered a performance enhancing substance and its use is restricted (rather than banned) by the IOC. The permitted amount is 12 microgrammes per millilitre in urine. You would need to take 1,200mg to reach this level - an amount which would cause severe stomach pains and muscle tremors (so no good for archers or clay pigeon shooters!). The only good news is that exercise over-rides the diuretic effects of caffeine - provided you gulp down your coffee, get on your bike and go.

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