Biotechnology study finds caffeine to be major performance enhancer for athletes

                Since the 2000 Summer Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency has been regulating the use of performance enhancers among athletes who had attempted to get away with anything and everything to gain an extra edge. But researchers have proved that one of the few performance enhancers not outlawed by the World Anti-Doping Agency is actually available cheaply and legally, and athletes need look no further than their local grocery store, vending machine or pot of coffee to find it.
    Caffeine, along with its endurance-increasing abilities, has been proven to enhance performance in a variety of athletic activities, including endurance sports, stop-and-go sports and sports involving sustained high-intensity activity of one hour or less, according to a report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
    While that jolt you feel after a cup of coffee has long been attributed to caffeine's ability to promote wakefulness, McMaster University Professor of Neurology Mark Tarnopolsky explained in another NCBI report that the drug has significant effects for other reasons as well.
    By increasing the calcium release in skeletal muscle, caffeine amplifies contractile force; and by augmenting the pain and effort threshold in the central nervous system, caffeine increases the capacity for physical labor.
    Thus, through a small dose of caffeine — one milligram for every kilogram of body weight or two 12-ounce cans of Coke for a 176-pound male, according to The New York Times — athletes can circumvent the need for risky ploys and get their performance-enhancing boost legally.
    But some on the Tufts campus hardly received the research with open arms for various reasons. For starters, caffeine has several notorious side effects including high heart rate and blood pressure, addiction, headaches and crashing.
    "People have different tolerance levels for caffeine," Diane L. McKay, assistant professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy said. "Not everyone responds to caffeine positively … It does give you a boost in energy level but then some people crash right away, and it's kind of an unpleasant experience, especially for some people who have high blood pressure or are anxious."
    In such cases of preexisting conditions, caffeine can actually worsen symptoms, McKay said.
    Sophomore Andrew Quinn, a former member of the Tufts tennis team, shared similar opinions, as did his teammates, whom Quinn never saw consume anything more than the occasional energy bar.
    "I would never drink or eat any caffeinated products before a sports game because it increases your heart rate and it's dangerous. Plus, when caffeine wears off, you usually crash, and if you crash in the middle of a tennis match, you're in big trouble," he said.
    Even those who are willing to take the physical hit have moral qualms about using the drug as a performance enhancer. Currently, the Olympics and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) outlaw the use of caffeine only in exorbitant doses, but some students and faculty members were hesitant to support against even the most minimal doses when used in ways that resemble restricted doping practices.
    Senior Aliza Sandberg, a member of the Tufts women's club rugby team, was curious about caffeine's physical benefits but grappled with its legitimacy in the context of competitive sports.
    "When it came down to it, I don't know if I would use caffeine [to enhance sports performance]," she said. "I already associate caffeine with drugs and that's why I don't drink coffee to begin with. I do have teammates who go to Dunkin' Donuts for their coffee before every game, though."
    Fellow senior and rugby player Glenn Katz agreed. But while Katz considers the use of caffeine as an enhancer unethical, she sees nothing wrong with the use of caffeine resulting from habit or addiction regardless of participation in organized sports. For her, it all comes down to intention.
    "If you're using anything to enhance your performance, it's cheating," Katz said.
    Moral or amoral, it would be counterproductive to place a ban on caffeine use in sports because of its ubiquity and its many positive medical uses, instructor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Helen Rasmussen explained in an e-mail to the Daily. In addition, she said, the recommended amounts of caffeine could hardly be classified as drug use.
    Currently, no one is taking measures to formally integrate the caffeine debate into sports competition. Tufts women's varsity soccer coach Martha Whiting — along with other physical educators — still harps on the reputation caffeine has long held in the athletic world.
    "We ask our kids to try and stay away from caffeine during season because it can dehydrate you and it kind of messes with your sleep patterns," she said. "For now, I will continue to warn against using caffeine in any way, shape or form for our students."