Steve Edwards at The Straight Dope is doing himself a little happy dance over the new study out of the University of Illinois proving that caffeine not only improves performance for athletes, it can also deaden the pain brought on by athletic exertion. From Livescience.com:
Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.
And here's what Steve-o had to say about it:
Over the years I've done a lot of experimenting with caffeine and this study is consistant with my (anecdotal) research. A couple times per year I "cycle" my coffee, weaning myself off of it and than re-introducing it. I used to do this for athletic events because I always felt it was more ergogenically effective after a layoff. This study confirms my theories in a lab setting.
Steve's been confabulatin' on about java since I first met him in college 20 years ago and was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award by Juan Valdez. Cappuccinos are on him tonight.
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