COFFEE ENHANCES ALERTNESS AND ENDURANCE

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Jeffrey Newman

Caffeine in coffee has been reliably proven to enhance alertness and endurance but only when taken in limited amounts, generally thought to be one cup every six hours maximally. One way it works in the brain is this; Adenosine is a relaxant that is required to restore the nervous system from a stress state to a relaxed state. Too muc coffee prevents the relaxing effects of adenosine. However, a limited amount of caffeine can actually allow for more adenosine in this way: caffeine inhibits an enzyme in the brain called phosphodiesterase (PDE). PDE breaks down adenosine so when the caffeine inhibits the PDE, there is more Adenosine, as long as the caffeine is taken in limted quanities. See studies by Roger Spealman of Harvard Medical School. The normal effective dose of caffeine is estimated at 100mg, which is about what you would see in 5 ounces of percolated coffee. The key is also that the average length of time caffeine stays in the the body is about 6 hours for a healthy adult. Too much coffee leads to hyperarousal and in a study of 1500 college students, higher caffeine consumption was found to correlate with lower academic performance.