Caffeine in Athletics
The world’s most popular drug is legal, inexpensive, and believed to amplify workouts. It supposedly motivates athletes and helps them stay alert and focused while also boosting physical endurance by twenty to fifty percent. This stimulant is found naturally in sixty-three plants and is consumed by eighty percent of Americans. This white, bitter, crystalline substance is known as caffeine, and is commonly consumed in efforts to enhance athletic ability (http://gopher1.bu.edu/COHIS/substance/caffeine/about.htm).
Caffeine is a very popular stimulant among athletes because most believe that it provides energy, increases alertness, and quickens reaction time. When in beverage form, caffeine reaches all body tissues within five minutes of ingestion. However, peak blood levels are reached in thirty minutes. Therefore, many cyclists consume a cup of coffee half an hour before short races begin. Others drink a bottle of coke diluted with water during the last half of longer races (http://www.roble.net/marquis/caffeine). The use of caffeine is controversial in the sports world, because it is a stimulant. In fact, the UCI forbids drinking caffeine in large quantities prior to competitions. But, why is there such a desire amongst athletes to consume this drug? Are its results really that effective? To answer these questions one must investigate how caffeine works.
How does it affect the body?
The exact process by which it affects the body is unknown. It is suspected that caffeine affects the nervous system by altering the perception of effort and exciting the neurons responsible for contracting muscles. It may also be accountable for causing more fat and less...
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9. Zaharieva, D. P., & Riddell, M. C. (2013). Caffeine and glucose homeostasis during rest and exercise in diabetes mellitus. Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism, 38(8), 813-822.
Sports drinks contain electrolytes such as sodium and potassium, which carry an electrical current and aid in bodily functions as well as replenishing and rehydrating your body. (Griffith-Greene, 2014) Just as fluid balance is strictly regulated, the electrolyte balance in the body’s cells, must maintain at a certain level. When the body’s electrolyte balance is at the correct level, nerve impulses and muscle contractions, occur as intended. When, there is an imbalance of electrolytes in the blood, cell functions, physiologic function deteriorates and athletic performance is impaired. (Powerbar.com.au, 2014) Electrolytes are salts which are part of the body’s natural fluids, and so as an athlete or anyone who engages in physical activity sweats, electrolytes, are lost. If electrolytes are lost too quickly, the body is not able to restore them, which means, that deterioration begins to take place. Although drinking sports drinks means that the electrolytes are able to replenish...
Barnard, J. (1992) Caffeine in Sport: influence of endurance exercise on the urinary caffeine Concentration.
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Women in Latin America were expected to adhere to extreme cultural and social traditions and there were few women who managed to escape the burden of upholding these ridiculous duties, as clearly shown in “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. First, Latin American women were expected to uphold their honor, as well as their family's honor, through maintaining virtue and purity; secondly, women were expected to be submissive to their parents and especially their husbands; and lastly, women were expected to remain excellent homemakers.
Caffeine, commonly found in coffee and many other beverages, and containing certain chemicals compounds leading to the constant necessity of fidgeting, jitters, sleepless hours, and health hazards as though being tormented by a hobgoblin with the irresistible sweet aroma and multiple flavors trapping you into a path, not being able to truly quit as desired or consequences attached, but is it the world’s most used legal drug addiction or something enjoyable, you decide? “The delicious chemical in caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine”(Linn). “Caffeine is made by pressuring cooking beans with CO2 to produce the drug in powder form”(Linn). “In caffeine the consumption breakdown in Coffee is 54%, Tea it’s 43%, Food and misc it’s 3% and used as a common mood-altering drug in the world, most popular way of ingesting is through coffee”(Linn). The issue with drinking coffee is due to the fact that caffeine can cause some troubling effects like insomnia activity in the brain that prevents sleep, constant need to urinate leading to dehydration due to the lack of fluids in the body, and diarrhea causing the food right out because it accelerates the digestion in the stomach. The consumption of too much caffeine can cause damage in human health also causing an overdose leading to death. The impact in society is through how much caffeine Americans consume daily, and the effects it causes in human health and sleep patterns. Throughout the years past caffeine consumption in America has increased jarasicaly, about 90% in some form daily. “On average Americans have been known to consume 280 mg of caffeine per day or 2-3 cups of coffee”(Linn). Strangely enough, caffeine is still contained and found in decaffei...
Two similar, but separate studies were conducted. The first study (A) used 12 highly trained athletes, either triathletes or cyclists. The second study (B) used a smaller sample of 8 athletes with similar backgrounds. While training histories were similar, caffeine intake histories varied from occasional to regular intake of up to ~150 mg/day (2mg/Kg). Subjects first performed a maximal incremental power test to determine their VO2 peak, a measurement of the body's ability to taken in O2 and turn it into work. A work rate of ...
Bennett Alan, Bealer Bonnie (2002). The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World’s most Popular Drug
Doping is a practice that has been going on since the time of "ancient Greek athletes, who supposedly ate herbs, sesame seeds, dried figs, and mushrooms for this purpose" (Hoberman, 1992, 104). Likewise, athletes have readily consumed such drugs as caffeine and alcohol to improve performa...