FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Caffeine may help the elite athlete win by seconds – in competitions where every second counts

New York, NY – Nov. 1 – “Caffeine is an ergogenic aid that can enhance the performance of the elite and professional athlete,” a metabolic physiologist told science and fitness editors today.

Dr. Terry Graham, Chair of the Department of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, spoke at a symposium, Coffee: Breaking News about Health, Fitness and Performance, held at the Reebok Sports Club here.

He explained that early studies of performance used field trials, which are not reliable environmentally, causing difficulties in making detailed measures of factors other than performance times. Now exercise physiologists can use exercise equipment, which is highly controllable.

“The general consensus is that caffeine enhances performance,” Dr. Graham told the group. “However, the mechanisms of action for the ergogenic properties of caffeine remain elusive. Interestingly, caffeine has a positive effect on exercise that lasts as little as one minute and as long as two hours, and enhances both aerobic and muscle strength endurance. There is little doubt that the physiological limitations of these various activities are quite different, and yet they are influenced by caffeine. This suggests that there are multiple actions of caffeine.”

As to the question of whether caffeine causes dehydration, he said, “There have been concerns that the diuretic effects of caffeine could interfere with its ergogenic potential. But the caffeine-induced diuresis takes several hours to develop, and if exercise takes place within this period, there does not appear to be an effect on perspiration rate, plasma volume, electrolyte shifts or production of urine.”

He cited the work of other scientists, including that of Lawrence Armstrong and Jane Griffin, who also presented at the symposium, agreeing with their conclusions that “ingestion of caffeinated beverages resulted in the same urine production as the consumption of water, and there was no evidence of fluid-electrolyte imbalance.”