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Can drinking coffee lead to dehydration? ③ Part of the reports points out caffeine may influ-
ence pain feeling in brain and spinal cord, making
athletes not sensible to injuries and prolonging per-
Birmingham University Sport and Exercise
School reported that drinking coffee is almost as same formance time.
However, whether caffeine can enhance sport
as drinking clear water and cannot lead to dehydra-
tion, on the contrary, as any other beverage, it helps performance, it’s still under question.
to hydrate your body. The study compared effects of
drinking coffee and clear water and also measured Is caffeine the cure to prevent Alzheimer’s
black coffee impact on a body; scientist took 50 men disease?
(women cannot be tested due to menstrual cycle af-
fecting the study). During the 3- day experiment, one A group of researchers from University of
team had to drink 4 cups of black coffee per day, Wisconsin at Milwaukee conducted a study by track-
while the other team needed to drink only water; ing every year’s behavior of 6467 people, who were
after those 3 days experiment continued, making 2 over 65 years old. Every year, researchers evaluated
teams switch their roles. tested people cognitive ability and required them to
In order to know hydration state, researchers used record daily consumption of coffee, tea and coke to
a variety of effective hydration measurements, includ- calculate their intake of caffeine. After 10 years re-
ing weight and total water body percentage measure- cording, compared to the tested people with no caf-
ments, as well as blood and urine analysis. Scientists feine intake, persons, who took more than 26.1mg
found out that there were no big difference between caffeine per day, reduced their risk of having Al-
people who drank water and who drank coffee. zheimer’s disease by 36%. What’s more, researchers
from Greece showed that 1 cup of coffee a day can
Will coffee be a banned drug for athletes? keep the arteries healthy and blood pressure stable
after a study of 485 people, who were also older than
65. Study on 600 volunteers from UK University of
It is well known that caffeine has been com- Bristol also indicates that 1 cup of coffee a day may
monly used in sport field, however, Academia has de- empower brain.
bated for a long time whether the usage of caffeine can These benefits, mainly due to caffeine, can in-
strengthen athletic ability. Caffeine was regarded as hibit aseptic inflammation in the brain, thereby re-
banned drug by IOC as early as 1984, but later it was duce the forming and deposition of abnormal protein
taken out of list in 2004 due to no scientific evidence which can cause disease. This will not only help to
on its positive impact on athletic ability has been reduce the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease but also
proved. But now, caffeine is still on the watch list of prevent the neurodegenerative diseases like Parkin-
WADA for the reason of popular usage by athletes.
In order to make it clear, UK researchers has con- son etc.
ducted a study on the relationship between absorption
speed of carbohydrates and intake of caffeine. The
study is to test drinks taken by endurance athletes
including bicyclist and triathletes. The result shows
that intake of 0.5mg caffeine per kg of an athletes
weight can increase 26% absorption speed of carbohy-
drates. From this point, caffeine might have a positive
impact on athletic ability. Several reports summarize
the 3 reasons, listed below:
① Caffeine is a kind of alkaloid, which can stimulate
the brains central nervous system, making the ath-
letes become excited which leads to quick reaction
during sports and reduces their feeling of being tired
in long-term sport activities.
② Caffeine can promote body and muscles release
fatty acids into the blood, for the use of saving gly-
cogen and increasing storage ability of glycogen,
which will finally help the continuation of endurance.
This brings bigger benefit to endurance sports such
as long distance cycling and running.

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