Coffee Reduces Pain of Exercise

[liveonearth]

--Title: Coffee Lessens the Pain of Exercise, by Livescience staff (who?)
--new study
--coffee appears to reduce the pain of athletic exertion
--what is THAT I ask?
--effect is same whether user is accustomed or not to caffeine intake
--caffeine works on the adenosine neuromodulatory system, involved in pain processing
--University of Illinois
--Robert Motl: researcher, former cyclist, kinesiology & community health prof
--caffeine blocks adenosine
--adenosine is the skeleton of ATP and ADP, important in energy transfer and so in exercise
--group: 25 fit, college aged males
--split into two groups: low to no caffeine, vs 400mg/day users (3-4 cups)
--an hour before each exercise session cycles were given a pill: either 5mg caffeine per kg body weight, or placebo
--exercise testing on stationary bike in lab: initial run to measure individuals max O2 consumption (aerobic power) and then two high-intensity 30 minute exercise sessions
--perception of quadricep muscle pain recorded at regular intervas, also O2 consumption, HR and work rate
--International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, April
--Co-authors: Steven P. Broglio (UIll), Sigurbjorn A. Arngrimsson (Ctr for Sport and Health Sci, Iceland U of Ed)
--next step: study rodents to understand mechanism of caffeine in pain reduction
--another idea to study: effect of caffeine on sports performance
--Motl's other studies: relationship between physical activity and caffeine
--HUH?: "Clearly, if you regularly consume caffeine, you have to have more to have that bigger, mental-energy effect," Motl said. "But the tolerance effect is not ubiquitous across all stimuli. Even brain metabolism doesn't show this tolerance-type effect. That is, with individuals who are habitual users versus non-habitual users, if you give them caffeine and do brain imaging, the activation is identical. It's really interesting why some processes show tolerance and others don't."

SOURCE:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512017,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/health/090331-coffee-pain.html

Comments

[b-vainamoinen.livejournal.com]

Is it the case that in for us coddled 21st Century Americans -- any exertion (particularly that which causes sweat) is interpreted as painful?

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Maybe they're talking about "the burn" that athletes learn to recognize as reaching a training level of exertion??

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

How can one quantify "pain" from one person to the next? We all have our own tolerances to various kinds of discomfort. Difficult to quantify.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

This is a major weakness in the study. It would be much more convincing if there were some objective measure instead of the subjective "pain" report. Perhaps there is a way of knowing how much lactic acid is building up in a muscle? Subjective reporting is interesting as additional data when correlated with "harder" data, but standing alone it doesn't tell us much.