Caffeine and Sports Performance Essay

Caffeine is a natural central nervous system stimulant. It is considered a drug that if is overly consumed can be dangerous for one’s body. Caffeine is a temporary energy booster that improves mood and alertness for most people, mainly athletes. It can be an eye-opener in the morning, could be drunk or eaten on practice brakes, and for some, it just became a habit that they cannot go through a day without a cup of coffee before exiting their doorways. Furthermore, it requires good health and stamina for athletes to perform throughout the game, particularly the one in teams,

Caffeine is a huge component in pre-workout supplements, and is probably the one ingredient that is most controversial. Chemically, caffeine does promote alertness and focus, but the long-term effects and other side effects are what scare most people away from taking additional caffeine to what many people already take on a daily basis. When someone gets tired, it is because of a chemical called adenosine. Adenosine builds up in the brain whenever you are awake, and it binds to adenosine receptors on brain cells. The binding of adenosine causes drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity. To a nerve cell, caffeine looks just like adenosine, so caffeine is able to bind to the adenosine receptors in your brain. However, caffeine does not slow down the cell’s activity like adenosine would. The cell cannot “see” adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the receptors adenosine binds to,

Another study looked at the effects of acute caffeine ingestion on sprint performance following a week of creatine loading (7). Creatine loading is simply ingesting 20-30g of the creatine supplement daily for a week (5-7days). In the study the mean and peak power of the caffeine and creatine treatment group were significantly higher than the control group (7). With increased peak power more force production is being produced, thus sprinters are more explosive, enhancing their sprint performance. By increasing the mean power, the sprinter is able to maintain their performance for a greater

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 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

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 is a natural product that is extracted from the raw fruit of coffee plants over sixty creased alertness. Caffeine gives most people a temporary energy boost and elevates mood..species to be exact. kola nuts, cocoa, yerba maté, guarana berries, coffee beans and teas contain this. Caffeine is rapidly absorbed in about 30 to 60 minutes in our bodies after ingestion. Caffeine is defined as a drug because it stimulates the central nervous system, causing increased alertness. Caffeine gives most people a temporary energy boost and elevates mood.caffeine can also be in things like over the counter medications, and pain relievers.

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.

All the data illustrates a similar trend: caffeine treatments are favored in percent correct and reaction time. According to one study (Chayka, 2014), this positive trend could be due to the fact that caffeine can bind to adenosine receptors and increases blood pressure, alertness, and ability to concentrate thus increases human’s short-term memory retention. In comparison to caffeine treatment, taurine exhibited a slight lower percentage value but greater when compared to taurine+caffeine treatment (figure 1). Taurine is a nonessential sulfur-containing amino acid; the addition of taurine to energy drinks is to increase the availability of amino acids. As the building blocks of proteins, amino acids play major role in metabolic processes. With an increased availability of amino acids (taurine) it will

Caffeine is a substance that occurs naturally in certain plants, Caffeine can also be man-made, and it is added to many substances. Caffeine is one of the most commonly tested ergogenic aids (substances that enhance an individual 's energy use, production, or recovery) and is known to help athletes improve their performance allowing them to train harder and longer. Caffeine stimulates the brain and contributes to clearer thinking and greater concentration.

What is really in caffeine? Are there any health risks associated with caffeine? Caffeine is a naturally occurring compound found in the leaves and fruits of certain plants. Today caffeine will most likely be found in teas, coffee, and soft drinks making it the most widely consumed psychoactive drug in the world. Most don’t know that caffeine is a drug that half of America is addicted to.

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

Caffeine can increase mental alertness at work or while studying which can also enhance performance on certain mental tasks.

(Childs and de Wit, 2006) They recruited participants in the age group of 18-35 (N=102) with males (n=51) and females (n=51) to “investigate the effects of acute caffeine administration in individuals who do not regularly consume caffeine.” (Childs and de Wit, 2006, p. 515) The demographic variables did not have a significant impact upon these results. This study was comprised of three levels of caffeine that were consumed. When given larger doses of caffeine their tests showed their working memory, or short-term, did not produce beneficial results. However, it did not impact their memory as time passed during the test. Reaction times were also lower with the higher doses as well. In their final findings they discovered that, “a low dose of caffeine enhanced self-reported alertness in the absence of any other effects upon mood and behavioral performance.” (Childs and de Wit, 2006, p. 521) The higher doses did not produce the same results within the total group of participants instead with a higher dose the effects became more diverse. While it made some participants moods happier it made others incur more anxiety. As stated before their working memory and reaction times

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.