Caffeine – Where Do We Stand? Legal Performance Enhancer?
John Post, MD
Rockstar Medical Director
Do You “Pre-race Dope” With Caffeine? Why Not?
“You know my temperature’s risin’, the juke box’s blowing a fuse.
A heart’s beatin’ rhythm and my soul keeps a singin’ the blues.” Roll Over Beethoven, Chuck Berry
Food For Thought
Caffeine – Your Legal Drug
We’ve learned a lot about caffeine over the years. Heck, when you consider the caffeine I’ve consumed so far today without even thinking about it, you’d have to include the coffee I had before breakfast, iced tea with lunch and Diet Coke afterwards. Don’t forget my fave, the Hersey’s dark chocolate kisses. If perchance I’d had a headache and taken a couple Excedrin, there’s more caffeine there than the a.m. coffee. But, you wouldn’t find any in the Gatorade I had after working out. The Gatorade web site points out, “Currently, caffeine has no place in Gatorade products. There is no convincing scientific data that shows caffeine can consistently and safely enhance the performance of athletes in a wide variety of situations. Caffeine is a stimulant and many sports medicine professionals have concerns about athletes over-consuming caffeine.” As a big company (with a legal division) you’d expect such a carefully worded statement in that they have no control over who consumes the product or how.
Matt Fitzgerald, author of Racing Weight, How To Get Lean For Peak Performance says that, “Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. Despite the negative connotations of the word drug, however, caffeine is by and large a benign and even beneficial substance for humans.”
It first came to my attention in medical school when David Costill a pioneering member of an early group of physician/runners who wanted to measure, to quantify running, to make it more precise, published early work on the benefits of caffeine to the running population. As a caffeine user (some would say addict) I was asked for a post-race sample of my blood at the finish line in Hawaii to measure the caffeine level a few years back also. If you think about the number of products in our daily lives that are laced with the stuff, it’s a sizable list. Think Jolt Cola and Five Hour Energy Drink, think weight loss aids and over the counter pain meds, think chocolate and many ice creams.
OK, so we know it improves performance and your level of alertness but there are a few negatives to keep in mind. As a stimulant it can raise both your heart rate (see blog 3/11/2011) and blood pressure to a degree. As a slight diuretic, it may increase urination, potentially increasing your risk of dehydration and it’s detriment to performance. Know anyone with “the shakes” in the office from that one too many cups of morning coffee? And, don’t forget the insomnia for some who have coffee/ tea/etc. after supper.
What is also known is the beneficial effects of this drug are much less in those who are already habitual users. If they double the dose on race morning, it may help a little but the non-consumer will get more of a boost. I’ve seen it written that if daily users also want the positive kick from caffeine that we should cut our intake for the week preceding the event and then “pop some” on race morning. A 70 kg athlete would consume about 400 mg 30 -60 minutes before the gun. The effects last around 5 hours and some athletes I know will “re-dose” in T2 of an iron distance race. However, at least once source suggests limiting caffeine to 500 mg per day. Occasionally, the habitual user who suddenly reduces consumption may experience some element of caffeine withdrawal.
Fitzgerald has also noted that pre-exercise caffeine, particularly in the non-user, will diminish post-exercise muscle soreness up to 50%.
So what do I recommend?
A) decaf the week before and 400 mg as you finish setting up your transition area, or
B) decaf always except in specific situations, the long drive, expected muscle soreness following a
planned work out, or pre-race.
“The best part of waking up is Folgers in………………”