The Effects Caffeine Has on Physical and Mental Alertness
The question is: does caffeine actually enhance a person’s mental alertness and performance or is it all a myth? It sounds like one of those ideas that are to hard to believe but studies have shown that caffeine really improves a persons performance. This performance is not just limited to physical or bodily improvement but also in mental improvement and alertness as well. It’s probably not surprising that caffeine helps to boost energy, if you read the ingredient label on any sports energy drink, you are bound to confirm this. Even professional athletes are known to take drinks which have some form of caffeine content few hours before any competition in order to gain an edge in the game. Sometimes you might be likely to believe that is the sprinters who gain most from having caffeine in their drinks but actually the endurance sports athletes are those who benefit the most. When you think more about it, it also makes more sense. Who needs more energy and caffeine, the fellow running a 100 meter race or the one running the marathon race.
Well how exactly does caffeine impact on physical endurance, well the body’s best fuel is its fat. The body allows caffeine get to its storage supply of body fat and this makes our systems function like a well-tuned car, caffeine is sort of like putting STP in the body, it helps fat burn a lot more effectively. It takes just a few minutes from the time the caffeine has been ingested for it to travel from the intestines to the bloodstream, once caffeine is in the blood; it also makes its way to every organ in the body.
Once caffeine reaches all the major organs in your body, it kicks into action, your heart rate increases, your smooth muscles start to relax and your digestive acids move into motion. Caffeine also increases the levels of dopamine in your body thus performing like an amphetamine, other than this caffeine also pumps adrenaline into your bloodstream which contributes to the energy that most people get when they take their morning coffee. Evidently it isn’t hard to see how ingesting caffeine can improve your physical performance. You should also remember than that the blood carrying caffeine around the body is the same blood which goes to the brain.
Studies have shown that there is a correlation between some moderate caffeine consumption and improved mental alertness. The most important part of the sentence is “moderate caffeine consumption”. In order to fully benefit from the ability of caffeine to help you maintain a greater focus or level of attention, you simply can’t go and fill an extra large mug with 50 ounces of coffee and consume it between waking up and getting to the office. Unless you monitor your caffeine intake and limit it to what you take normally in foods and beverages, the advantage in mental capacity will be diminished by a plethora of disadvantages which includes many of the severe withdrawal symptoms and extended periods of fatigue.
Darren Williger is an over-caffeinated, low carbohydrate eating, winemaking enthusiast who writes for CaffeineZone.com, MyLowCarbPages.com, and HomemadeWine.com.
