Caffiend V

So, just as I'm deciding what sport to traumatize myself with, to replace my caffeine addiction, I find this article in the news. I will quote the entire article here instead of posting a link, because it might be removed from the MSN site in the future.



Quoted directly from MSN Health and Fitness:

The Caffeine Advantage.

Everything you need to know to think faster, exercise harder, and live longer.

By now you'd think scientists could close the book on caffeine and move on to other mysteries, like why anyone would ever order a chai latte. After all, coffee and related beverages have been revving people up since, oh, the 15th century. And in the past 60 years, researchers have conducted more than 21,000 studies on our favorite stimulant. That's an average of one new study a day through all of those decades. (Those nutrition scientists may have gotten into their own stash.)If we don't know caffeine by now, you may well ask, when will we know it? And do I have time for a fix while I'm waiting?Make it a venti, and sit down.We'll explain a few things. First off, caffeine is a complex compound. And it's made even more so by America's preferred delivery method,coffee. For instance,caffeineraises blood pressure, but habitual coffee drinkers are half as likely to die of heart failure as those who don't fill their mug daily. And while caffeine spikes blood sugar, a java habit may help you dodge diabetes.
Confused? Then use this primer to learn how to consumecaffeineto your advantage — at work, in the gym, and for overall health.


The Biology

To understand how a double espresso can take you from dead tired to completely wired, you first need an introduction to the compound adenosine. Right now, adenosine is coursing through your veins, and its job is to put the brakes on your central nervous system. You might call it nature's chill pill. That's because as your day progresses, adenosine builds up naturally in your bloodstream, causing you to slow down and become sleepier — a convenient way to let you know it's time to turn off Conan and recharge your batteries.

Adenosine accomplishes this total-body shutdown by plugging into adenosine receptors — like electrical cords into outlets. "These connections inhibit the release of neurotransmitters, which are chemical messengers that control both brain and muscle function," says William Lovallo, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Oklahoma. "As a result, both your mind and your body slow down."

But as it turns out, caffeine is an excellent adenosine impersonator. In fact, when the two rivals jockey for the same parking space, caffeine wins. "If caffeine is plugged into the adenosine receptors, adenosine can't do its job," says Lovallo. "And this causes your central nervous system to run at a faster rate." Thus you experience the classic and often sought-after caffeine jolt. Here's how to make it work for just about every part of your body.

Be smarter for life: Refill your cup three times a day. Harvard researchers have determined that men who drink 4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day are half as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as those who skip the java — presumably because caffeine keeps dopamine molecules active. What's more, blocking adenosine may slow the buildup of amyloid-beta, a toxic brain plaque that's associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Your Brain

The Science: Soon after your first sip, caffeine begins to work its magic by causing the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical that stimulates the area of your gray matter responsible for alertness, problem solving, and pleasure. "You have that feeling of being activated, sharper, and on the ball," says Lovallo. "And you can also experience a mild mood-elevating effect." All of which goes a long way in explaining why there are around 9,000 Starbucks outlets in the United States, and more opening every day around the globe.

Be smarter instantly: Down a cup of joe just before your next meeting — it'll boost your mind power for about 45 minutes, according to a recent Austrian study that directly measured the impact of 100 milligrams (mg) of caffeine on brain activity.

Be smarter for life: Refill your cup three times a day. Harvard researchers have determined that men who drink 4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day are half as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as those who skip the java — presumably because caffeine keeps dopamine molecules active. What's more, blocking adenosine may slow the buildup of amyloid-beta, a toxic brain plaque that's associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Your Heart

The Science: Adenosine helps blood vessels relax. But once caffeine infiltrates the receptors that line vessel walls, your arteries constrict, causing your blood pressure to rise. In fact, research has shown that blood pressure may increase by as much as 10 points in nonhabitual drinkers. Yet when Harvard researchers tracked the coffee intake of more than 128,000 people, they determined that drinking more than six cups of coffee a day didn't boost the chance of developing heart disease. And last year, scientists at Brooklyn College found that men who drank 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily had a 53 percent lower risk of dying of heart disease than those who never took a sip.

"If you don't have hypertension to begin with, the temporary blood-pressure increase from a cup of coffee isn't a problem," says Matthew Sorrentino, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "Plus, the impact on blood pressure tends to be smaller in habitual caffeine drinkers because their bodies become somewhat tolerant to its effects."

Take your health history into account: If caffeine makes your heart race or skip beats, you're probably genetically sensitive to the stimulant. "Although this may sound serious, symptoms such as palpitations are actually considered innocuous, unless you've had a recent heart attack," says John Kassotis, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at SUNY Downstate, in Brooklyn. Still, Dr. Kassotis suggests playing it safe. His rule of thumb: If you think you're caffeine-sensitive, consult your physician to determine if you should limit your intake.

Stick with antioxidant-rich java: Scientists aren't sure whether it's the caffeine or the antioxidants in coffee — or a combination of the two — that provide the aforementioned cardiovascular benefits. But unless you're caffeine-sensitive, go with the leaded variety. Research shows that antioxidant levels are decreased by about 15 percent in decaf.

Your Muscle

The Science: Because caffeine revs up your central nervous system, it slightly increases your heart rate and breathing rate, both of which help prepare your body for peak performance. Caffeine may also have a direct effect on your muscles. Here's how: Calcium must be released within a muscle fiber in order for that fiber to contract, and caffeine may block the adenosine receptors attached to muscle fibers, triggering electrical activity that prompts bigger bursts of calcium. "The result is a stronger muscle contraction," says Terry Graham, Ph.D., a professor of human health and nutritional sciences at the University of Guelph, in Ontario.

Jumpstart your workout: Studies show that consuming 140 to 400 mg of caffeine 30 to 60 minutes prior to exercise can improve both speed and endurance and make your workout seem easier. But to achieve those effects, researchers have used either caffeine pills or caffeinated soda. The reason: "Many other chemical compounds in coffee appear to counteract caffeine's ability to impact your exercise session," Graham says. Now you know why energy drinks were created. Looking for a boost? Try Celsius, which is sugar-free and contains about 200 mg of caffeine per 12-ounce can. To determine if it's enhancing your performance, be sure to monitor how it impacts your exercise session both mentally ("My workout seemed easier" or "I felt like I was dragging") and physically ("I completed more repetitions" or "I didn't improve").

Use caution: If you have heart problems or a family history of heart disease, avoid high-caffeine energy drinks for 4 hours before exercising. A 2006 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology determined that 200 mg of caffeine decreases bloodflow to the heart by up to 39 percent during exercise because it constricts coronary arteries.

Your Liver

The Science: When your central nervous system is activated, so is your body's fight-or-flight response. This causes the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. These in turn signal your liver to pump sugar into your bloodstream. After all, had you been in a truly stressful situation — say, face-to-face with a cranky barista—your body would need that sugar for quick energy. But in everyday life (read: sitting at your desk), extra blood sugar is the last thing you need, because it signals your body to store fat and increases your risk of diabetes.

Keep your blood sugar in check: Forgo the sugar in your coffee and you'll actually reduce your risk of developing diabetes, according to multiple studies. For example, in 2005, Harvard University researchers determined that drinking 5 cups of coffee a day cuts in half the risk of developing diabetes. Scientists aren't sure why coffee may have a protective effect against diabetes, but credit its high level of disease-fighting antioxidants. While visiting Starbucks, we recommend a Caffè Americano, which is coffee at its finest: strong and flavorful, but sugar-free.

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Interesting article, yes? After reading that, I think I'll put aside Extreme Sports for the moment. I must re-think my stance. Weigh the pros and cons. Is caffeine good? Caffeine bad? With all the damn studies going on, who the hell knows? Is it worse than killing myself by attempting to climb a bunch of rocks with nothing to hold me up but a nylon rope and some metal clips? Or should I just relax and sip my nice, hot coffee and let Wonderbra hold me up instead? Nylon and metal clips...with hot coffee, OR nylon and metal clips without hot coffee. Just icy wind and black, jagged rock. Not a very tough decision, when I look at it from this angle :P Coffee!! I might get the sporty Wonderbra, just to make myself feel like I'm not missing out on anything. Maybe I'll even get energetic, and watch sports on TV while wearing my sporty Wonderbra. The sky is the limit, really.

Caffiend IV

Today's Runner Up:

Highway 40, The Met.

Pah, how bad can it be? A road as an Extreme Sport?? Well.. Here's the thing. I live in a major Canadian city that is quite old. And this old city has some equally old roads. The antique highway I speak of was built in the 1940's. It was created to carry cars that had an average speed of 40mph and no suspension to speak of. And far, far fewer of them. Now, whirl this old ribbon of asphalt into the year 2008, where my car abides, it with the comfortable cruising speed of 80 to 120mph and the ability to run circles around it's own sassy self should it choose to do so. Thankfully, this ability saves my ass on a daily basis. I use it to avoid being crushed to death by tanker trucks and to avoid being flipped over cement walls.

The highway, for most of its inner-city length, is suspended about 20 feet in the air. This makes the asphalt colder, icier, and far slipperier than the roads connecting to it, giving one a false sense of control as one rides up the on-ramps. Once you leave the relative safety of the side roads and hit the raised section, you realize that up here all bets are off, careless drivers abound, and your life hangs in the balance. Your tires lose traction faster. Your escape routes are non-existant. If someone cuts you off, there is not much you can do about it, swerving means certain death if you hit the ski ramps. More on the ski ramps soon.

This raised highway to hell is called The Métropolitain by the locals, and consists mainly of three narrow lanes in both directions, with cement medians preventing you from falling off of it. No shoulders to pull over onto, should the occasional fool run out of gas (weekly) or have car trouble (bi-weekly) or become involved in an accident (geezus, people). The resulting backlog has to dribble around the offending automobile(s) until the police and 15 towtrucks show up, slowing traffic considerably, raising stress levels to match. Independant towtrucks, fortunately, are never too far away and are quick to remove the offending vehicles. I don't know how they manage to show up so fast, I think they hover like buzzards around a dried up watering hole, invisible until something looks like it's gonna die.
Like buzzards, they are quite efficient at what they do, which is fine by me.

The rainwater that falls on this highway is supposed to run off through an antique drainage system that leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The drains seem to be constantly blocked. This results in large puddles of water collecting in splashy pools along its entire length. Try hitting a 4 inch deep body of water when you are doing even a mere 30mph on black ice. Montreal drivers have nerves of steel.

On a side note the Decarie section of highway is below sea level, and one day water levels rose higher than the hoods of peoples cars after an afternoon storm. Some poor guy drove a wheel into a sewer after the manhole cover was pushed off by the force of the water coming up from below. He was angry. :P So were the people sitting on the roofs of their cars waiting to be rescued. The towtrucks would not venture anywhere near them and rescue teams had to be sent. I'd have been pissed, too, but I can swim, so no big deal. Montrealers took it in stride, and kept on truckin.

Back to the ski slopes. In winter, the cement medians along the raised section get snow packed up against them, melting occasionally, re-freezing, creating little ski-jump slopes along the entire length of the highway. Someone sued the city once because their families car lost control and hit one of these icy snow ramps and shot up over the cement wall, flipped in midair, and landed upside down 20 feet below on the service road, killing all inside instantly. The public was enraged. Complaints were made. The city learned a valuable lesson. Now every month the entire highway is closed off so the city workers can clear the snow away from the cement walls to prevent such a thing from happening again. In the meantime, we gotta take the side streets. This inconvenience has resulted in people get their panties all in a bunch, even though they were the ones complaining about the risks. Fools. Speaking of courtesy, and I must, I notice that driver courtesy has slipped in the last few years. Sad thing, if you ask me. Now people just cut you off without so much as a middle finger salute. I miss that. It meant they were aware I existed..now I just feel invisible. Kinda scary, but I guess I'd make a good towtruck driver :P

Back to the driving. Now let's discuss the bigass trucks blasting along at 70mph in lanes only one foot wider than the average car. The speed limit along this patch of highway is only 50mph...out-of-town truckers do not seem to realize the danger they are in and whip along at the speed of light. If a flatbed truck happens to be hauling a bulldozer, you ain't passing it unless you use up a lane and a half to go around it. And if the driver can't stay in the middle of his own lane, he'll take up some of yours, but that's okay, more Montrealers need to learn how to share, anyways. If a truck decides to change lanes, you better haul your ass out of the way, cuz he's coming over whether you like it or not. And whether he sees you or not..and whether or not it involves crushing you up against a cement wall or running you up onto a ski slope take-off, giving you enough speed to make Don Garlits proud.

If you can survive the trucks, do not underestimate your fellow drivers. The angry, stressed, frustrated, irritated, late-for-work, rude-ass drivers on their way through town on a highway that was never intended to support this kind of traffic in the middle of a busy city. My favorite part is where the highway splits in two directions, leaving the driver in the middle lane to decide which way he is going...left, or right? Sometimes they cannot decide, and pull back in front of you just as you speed up to pass them. Lovely! Thereby forcing you to head straight for the icy ski ramp in the middle of the road and the inevitable lift-off... The last time this happened to me, things were complicated even further by the huge truck beside me that splattered my windshield with icy slush, blinding me completely and forcing me to turn the wheel and follow the curve of the road using only memory. Having traveled this highway a million times, I managed it. I can only hope such a thing never happens to someone without such experience, they'll be flipping in midair and collecting a nice tidy sum from the city.

We take our highways in stride, but you can tell when out-of-towners are driving along. They go too goddamned slow. I remember years ago one of my boyfriends telling me he would not even drive on this highway, that it was a nightmare and a death trap. And that he would not come to visit me because of it. I had to go pick him up and drive him into town! Hahaha! What a pussy. Well, what do you expect, he was from Toronto. >:]

When it storms, the plows don't bother with the Met, they know we can plow it ourselves by building up enough speed on the on-ramps and immediately throwing our cars into well-controlled, ice-enabled Tokyo drifts. Hands down, this highway is an Extreme Sport. I risk my life every single day just driving to work. Piece of cake, baby. Piece of cake. Granted, if I ever stop blogging, you'll know why: the ski slopes got me.

Might as well go out screamin.