the contemporary shopping lifestyle

When I was growing up I always looked at the long line of cars in front of Dunkin Donuts every morning and thought “suckers, I’ll never get hooked on coffee (or ‘legal crack’ as I saw it)”. Well, as the times have changed so has my opinion. What was once thought of as an addictive upper is now becoming classified as an extremely useful health supplement for fitness, disease prevention, mental awareness, and overall health.

A recent article in Men’s Health Magazine entitled The Health Benefits of Caffeine delves deeper into some of the ways you can use caffeine to your advantage:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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”).

An article posted Wednesday on the BBC (found via Ken Hoyt’s blog) discussed the results of a University of North Dakota study in which researchers found that coffee can actually lead to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s Disease:

Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders

Dr Jonathan Geiger
University of North Dakota

Whether you choose to consume caffeine via energy drinks, green tea (my favorite), coffee, or caffeine capsules it’s looking more and more like it’s stupid not to consume caffeine in one fashion or another.  I never thought I’d say this, but the health benefits seem to be overwhelmingly positive for any healthy adult.