Caffeine And Sport Performance : Caffeine Is The Most Loved And Widely Used Stimulants

About 80% of American adults consume 200 mg of caffeine a day. “A 12-oz. (tall) coffee from Starbucks will run you about 260 mg, while a 14-oz. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee contains 178 mg.” The daily intake of caffeine differed between products; one should always check the amount before consumption. There are no limits on how many energy drinks a person can purchase, which make it easy to abuse. Especially in younger children the addiction rate outstandingly high. Which may lead to other drug usage in the future and the committal dependence on stronger drugs.

(Graham, 1998) This shows the importance of caffeine in endurance sports such as cycling, running, and soccer which require a great deal of physical stamina in order to compete successfully. Studies also show that caffeine has very little affect on athletes requiring quick burst of energy such as sprinters and swimmers. Also caffeine has been known to decrease fatigue in athletes, which plays a physical as well as psychological role in the performance of an athlete.

This study focuses on the effects of ingested caffeinated energy drink compared to placebo in three different sports, rugby, soccer, and volleyball. Each sport had a dissimilar number of participants, including male and female. The effects were analyzed under different circumstances in each sport performed. A few materials were used during the activities to monitor precisely the changes in all participants’ bodies. This study illustrates significant positive changes and improvement in all participants’ performances when they ingested a caffeinated energy drink.

Thesis: Caffeine can have many different effects on the body depending on the amount of consumption.

An independent samples t-test was conducted to examine the difference between experimental conditions on test performance. The results indicated a significant difference between participants who consumed the caffeinated beverage and participants who did not, with participants in the caffeinated group (M = 7.64, SD = 2.41) performing worse than participants in the non-caffeinated group (M = 9.81, SD = 3.16), t (97) = 2.14, p < .05.

Caffeine is a substance found in coffee, tea and most sodas. When it is consumed, it is a mild stimulant. The energy drink, Monster, contains caffeine, which has the ability to manipulate adenosine (adrenaline), a substance present in the brain that is used to transmit brain signals to different parts of the body. Adenosine causes an increase in alertness and awareness. Modern studies show that there is direct benefits of the so-called “caffeine kick” that is experienced by drinkers.

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,

As well, sport drinks have the ability to provide a subject with an increased amount of endurance for their exercise. One reason why sport drinks have this capability is due to the carbohydrates found in the beverages. These carbohydrates exist as either of two sugars, sucrose and glucose-fructose, which provide the energy for the body that makes sport drinks better to use during exercise than water (Tsintzas 155). Carbohydrate consumption allows athletes to work harder for longer periods of time and to feel better while doing the exercises. A recent study determined that runners who had only water to drink lost speed during the race compared to those who had sport drinks. Also, performance time was faster in runners who consumed the sport drinks as opposed to water. It was only during the final 17.2 kilometres of the race that the performance times began to differ and the runners who drank the sport drinks ran faster (Tsintzas 156). Furthermore, the exercise intensity was higher towards the end of the race from those runners who had the sport drinks. As with most performance enhancing implements, sport drinks have potential drawbacks.

Thesis Statement: Caffeine is something that almost everyone has consumed and some people are even addicted to, it has negative and positive effects on one’s health.

One on the beneficial effects on caffeine, two the negative effects, and finally on trends in caffeine consumption

Ever stay up late studying for a test or exam and wake up exhausted? Or just experienced a long day and need an extra boost? Many people believe caffeine is the answer to anyone’s drained state of being. Healthline.com explains that, “Caffeine reaches your brain quickly and acts as a central nervous system stimulant.” Caffeine is commonly referred to the most widely used drug on the planet, so the next question is which caffeine-filled product is the most efficient? It is widely debated whether energy drinks or coffee can provide the best balance of caffeine, flavor, and other ingredients, but after researching, I have come to conclude coffee is superlative in all aspects.

In 2002, a group of Australian researchers published a paper entitled the "Effect of different protocols of caffeine intake on metabolism and endurance performance". Caffeine use during sporting events has become much more popular and has widely studied. The purpose of the research was to examine the work increasing (ergogenic) effects of differing regiments of caffeine on metabolism and performance while simulating the typical nutritional preparation an athlete would do for a race. The study also sought to examine the effect of timing of caffeine intake, comparing

Caffeine has many negative effects on humans, such as increased heart rate (Lane, J.D., 2002), depression (Goldstein, 2008), and addiction to this “drug.” You may be asking yourself, “What is caffeine?” Well, caffeine is actually a stimulant (Barone, Roberts, 2008) that is found in beverages such as tea, coffee, and soft drinks. In fact, caffeine is the highest grossing and most used stimulant in the United States (Barone, Roberts, 2008). It is estimated that 85% of adults living in the United States consume caffeine on a daily basis (Barone, Roberts, 2008). That means for every 100 adults, 85 of them have had a drink that contained caffeine on any given day. One reason caffeine is so widely available compared to other stimulants is

Do sports drinks help improve performance of non professional athletes? I believe that they do not and that drinking water would be more beneficial.”During exercise, water is lost in the form of sweat, as a way of helping to maintain a stable body temperature. Sweat losses vary from person to person and can be affected by an individual’s genetics, body size and level of fitness. Also most people are likely to sweat more as it gets hotter and more humid, as well as with an increased level of activity.” Sports drinks have a lot of salt and sugar in them and could make the athlete consume more calories than they are burning. Sports drinks are also sold to many children who would not be doing as much work as their idols do and would be consuming too much sugar for their daily recommended needs of 20 grams. How much activity do you have to do to need to drink a sports drink for it to be beneficial for your performance? I’m using information conducted by Oxford University and the British Medical Journal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4e85ZnVjmU Mensfitness http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-drink/sports-drinks-vs-water

In addition to the benefits caffeine has on the body, there have been studies completed to see the effect of caffeine on the performance of athletes especially in terms of increasing endurance. Many athletes try to improve their endurance through various methods such as eating high carb meals prior to competitions. Some athletes also drink large amounts of caffeine in order to improve their endurance through energy drinks or caffeinated beverages hoping to eliminate the fatigue from the sport. The results of some studies have shown that ingesting caffeine prior to exercising in a sport will extend endurance in moderate aerobic activity; other studies showed that caffeine consumption on elite distance runners and swimmers can increase their performance times. Even though there are some studies to show effects on endurance, another study showed that caffeine did not produce any effect on maximal muscular force when studying voluntary and electrically-stimulated muscle actions. However, the data gained from that study did show that it has the effect of reducing muscle fatigue on muscles during repetitive motions. Furthermore, caffeine does have documented positive effects to improve performance. Because of the effect of caffeine, the International Olympic Committee banned athletes from performing with 12 mg/mL or more of caffeine in urine tests. In order to have this much caffeine in