Athletes boosted by caffeine

Jun 23 2005

Scientists at the University of Birmingham say that caffeine can help athletes by boosting the body's absorption of carbohydrates.

According to a study conducted by researchers at the university's school of sport and exercise sciences, it was found that by introducing caffeine into sports drinks it increased the absorption rate of carbohydrates by 26 percent.

A group of eight cyclists took part in three two-hour exercise sessions, and for each of the three trials, the cyclists took one of three different sports drinks, glucose, glucose mixed with caffeine, and water.

The researchers found that caffeine increased the amount of carbohydrates absorbed from the sports drink.

Dr. Asker Jeukendrup, the director of the University's Human Performance Laboratory, says if you can get more energy from your drink, it means you are using less energy from your body stores.

Jeukendrup says the results do not prove that caffeine is a performance-enhancing substance, but rather how caffeine affects the body's carbohydrates.

Jeukendrup says they did not measure performance, and this is just a way to increase the availability of carbohydrates. He says that there are other ways of increasing the availability of carbohydrates, and the simplest way would be to just eat more carbohydrates.

However, Jeukendrup does plan to include it in future caffeine studies by controlling the test subjects' exercise, diet, temperature and motivation to perform.

Caffeine, an ingredient in coffee and cola, was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency list of banned substances in January 2004. WADA, however, continues to monitor the use of caffeine.

The test subjects in the Birmingham study were given a high dosage of caffeine, equivalent to drinking four cups of coffee an hour.

In future studies, less caffeine will be used in the experiments.