Transcription
[Music] Really good-hearted scientific professionals and medical professionals make statements about caffeine and coffee, and they advise on what we should do for optimal caffeine utilization and performance benefit. They do so with really good intent, and a lot of times, it's rooted in some science, although maybe it's smaller, dodgy science that we shouldn't be rooting it in.
So, there was a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition that is a massive study—one of the largest caffeine studies ever done—looking at all kinds of different literature to really debunk some of these common caffeine myths. Things like, well, not even debunk, but confirm or debunk and really investigate them. Things like: Do you build up a tolerance? Should you really wait in the morning before you have it? Do people respond differently? How should you use it? Do you actually get addicted to it? Comprehensive study.
So, we're going to jump right in to one of the most hot-button topics when it comes down to caffeine, based upon some pretty big names that have made some pretty bold claims with it. So, let's see what the literature has to show. After today's video, I put a link down below for Element electrolytes. Now, for what it's worth, in the context of caffeine, a lot of times I just have electrolytes in the morning. I love caffeine, don't get me wrong; I love coffee, I love tea. But a lot of times, I will just have electrolytes—3,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 60 milligrams of magnesium. I find that wakes me up. Sometimes it's maybe what I need to get my electrical system moving—a little bit of sodium, a little bit of just minerals in general.
But Element now has a sparkling version in a can, so it's bubbly, but it's still the same electrolyte blend, still the same mineral ratios. It is awesome, and that link down below gets you a free sample variety pack of their normal stick packs: grapefruit salt, citrus salt, chocolate salt—all that with any purchase. So, if you want to try their sparkling, you can get a variety pack of the regular stick packs. It's a pretty cool thing; it's pretty cool times with Element. They are really changing the game in the way of electrolytes, so that link is down below: drinklmnt.com/thomastop. Line of the description, and it also helps support this channel so that we can keep doing what we do.
Okay, so the first thing we need to address here: Does caffeine need to be postponed when you wake up? Lots of people say, "Get up in the morning, and you need to wait 30, 60, 120 minutes before you have caffeine." And there is some premise to it, right? So, the premise is that we have adenosine, which is basically built-up fatigue in our brain that needs to come down first. So, we need to wake up; we need to let that come down before we have caffeine because we essentially have a little bit to kind of burn through first. We need to essentially wait for that to come down so that caffeine can have the utmost effectiveness and potentially reduce the crash later on. It makes a lot of sense also from a cortisol standpoint. Like, okay, your cortisol levels are high in the morning; do you really want to add to those cortisol levels? You should let cortisol come down before you spike cortisol again. Totally valid.
So, the first thing we need to look at is there was a study that looked at caffeine and cortisol to begin with. Yes, caffeine increased cortisol about 30%. So, that's significant. Okay, but here's what's interesting: After a short amount of time, that cortisol spike didn't happen anymore. So, that really seems to be only with an initial bolus of caffeine, and once there's an adaptation and you have caffeine habitually—and if you're drinking caffeine or coffee in the morning, you're probably a habitual coffee or caffeine consumer—so you're not going to really have a massive cortisol spike.
The other thing that was interesting is that most of the literature that looks at caffeine and cortisol spikes is finding and looking at this well after 90 to 120 minutes after waking. So, the cortisol spike happens regardless of whether it's first thing in the morning or later on in the day. But the bottom line is you will only get this cortisol spike that's of any significant degree when you first add caffeine in.
The other piece is that adenosine needs to come down first, and apparently that takes some time. If you let that come down first, you ride sort of your natural energy wave before you put caffeine into your body. It makes sense in some theory, except it's based on very flawed stuff. It's a poor basis because if you know anything about circadian biology, like adenosine shifts rapidly the moment we wake up. The moment we get out of bed and go from sleep to wake, adenosine levels are low. Okay, we are reset.
So, think about how adenosine works. We have adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is energy in the body. When we cleave off the phosphate molecules to create energy, we have a spare adenosine left over. The adenosine builds up, and that's what actually creates some fatigue. Okay, caffeine blocks adenosine, so it blocks the adenosine from making us feel fatigued. So, in the morning, what happens is adenosine is dumped; it's gone; it's low. Okay, because you're starting the day, and as the day goes on, adenosine builds up.
Now, playing devil's advocate here, it doesn't make sense to have caffeine in the morning a lot of times because we're tired, and a lot of times it's just habitual. But caffeine is going to be more effective later in the day. That is one thing we can't deny because if you have low levels of adenosine, caffeine is not really doing much; it's only blocking a little bit of adenosine. However, later in the day, as adenosine builds up, that's going to get you more of an impact from caffeine. Not suggesting you necessarily do it, but yeah, you might want to wait for that effect.
So, people do notice sometimes if they wait a little bit longer, "Huh, I'm getting a little more out of the caffeine," because you're naturally pretty awake in the morning. It's probably just a, you know, like beta wave transition; you know, you're trying to just switch brain waves there. The point is that most of it's debunked. You can drink coffee right when you roll out of bed.
Now, the only thing that I might consider is if you're getting up and it's still dark out, maybe you wait for the sun to come up a little bit so you're not just alerting your body. That's one thing I do notice: If I start getting up and have coffee first thing in the morning, then I start getting up earlier and earlier and earlier every day. I want to kind of break that cycle. But bottom line is you do not need to wait; you can have it right when you roll out of bed.
Let's talk habitual intake for a second. Do you lose performance, mental, fat loss effect of caffeine if you consume it regularly? Interesting because there was a study published in the European Journal of Nutrition that looked at soccer players. It was cool because they had soccer players that were habitual chronic caffeine consumers and ones that were not at all. They put them on a treadmill with a simulated soccer game—kind of interesting. Okay, and they had them either take a placebo or caffeine; they didn't know what they were getting.
Across the board, caffeine increased performance, increased their time to exhaustion, and decreased their perceived exertion, whether they were habitual consumers or not. This was interesting because it tells us that it doesn't matter if people were consuming caffeine all the time or barely ever consumed it. Giving them a shot of caffeine decreased their perceived exertion and increased their performance.
However, there was a study published in the Journal of Sports Sciences that found somewhat of the opposite. It found that VO2 max testing actually went down after four weeks of caffeine consumption. So, that's kind of interesting. But then we look at the big data. This study published in Sports Medicine looked at 60 studies, and I'm just going to read you an excerpt from it: "Habitual caffeine consumption does not appear to influence acute ergogenic effects of caffeine on performance."
So, when you look at the large data, if you're a chronic caffeine consumer, you still get the performance effect, and the performance effect is largely driven by the increased availability of fuel substrates and, of course, obviously the wakefulness and the cognitive effect. So, you probably still get continued fat loss effect; you almost certainly still get continued performance effect. But one thing is for certain: If you want an extra edge, you should preserve your higher caffeine dosages for your game day or for your high performance or for your VO2 max testing.
So, it's an easy workaround. You don't need to come off of caffeine. However, it is noted that if you come off of caffeine, it only takes about five days to start to reset. So, you could go three to five days away from caffeine and then come right back, and you're going to regain the performance effect.
Now, the next one: This is interesting. I know a guy—my father-in-law is an awesome guy—but he tells me that he drinks caffeine or coffee because he likes the taste of it; it doesn't really do much for him. And I believe him. I've seen him drink like seven cups of coffee and do nothing. I like to think that he has a tolerance to it, but there are a lot of people out there who say, "Caffeine just doesn't do much for me; I'm a slow metabolizer."
Well, this was interesting because they investigated this, and at the end of the day, there are really interesting results. So, does caffeine work for everybody? Ultimately, pretty much. But we used to think that it had to do with sort of a gene variant, like cytochrome P450, and I think it's the CYP1A2—something like that is like the primary system and genes required or involved for like 90% of caffeine metabolism.
So, in theory, we had slow metabolizers and fast metabolizers, and that was supposed to be what would differentiate people that would respond well to caffeine versus not. Most of the literature now suggests that it doesn't have much to do with the gene variation at all, and it might be something completely different. There was a study in Nutrients that basically said all subjects get some benefit or performance benefit or effect from caffeine, but it's highly variable and it's not repeatable.
That's what makes it hard: Everyone's getting a benefit from caffeine, maybe a drawback too, or a performance effect, but it's not repeatable and it's highly variable. But it doesn't seem to have to do with a genetic level; it might be more inclined to be like their lifestyle or stress or other things going on. So, maybe you're not born with just an ability or inability to feel the effects of caffeine, but there are things in your life that make it different. But also, it's just hard to pinpoint.
But at the end of the day, most of us are getting some effect. Some of us might need more; some of us might get by with less. But we also have other lifestyle factors, maybe even anxiety and things like that, that make us more on edge and ready for caffeine to have an effect.
Lastly, is it really addictive? Well, that's what's interesting. Based on actual literature, since there's no real effect of dopamine on the ventral striatum in the brain, it's not actually addictive. It's not legitimately addictive to where you feel like you need it. There's a level of psychological dependency that comes on it, and because there are legitimate withdrawal feelings from it, it can be classified as something that has withdrawals and could be addictive in nature.
But it's much more of a dependency, and I think most of us like caffeine, so we have an affinity for it too. Anytime we get a positive effect, it's going to be harder to kick something like that, whereas something that we know has negative effects is a little bit easier to justify in some ways. But the jury is still out; there's no real solid verdict on it other than the fact that we are not affecting dopamine at that ventral striatum level to really make it truly, truly addictive.
And it takes so little time for it to clear our system. I think it's perfectly okay because we could get it out and be able to live without it in just a matter of days. So, as always, keep it locked in here on my channel, and I'll see you tomorrow.