caffeine

i think 3-4 grams of caffine would kill you

HSer wrote:

i think 3-4 grams of caffine would kill you

Not 3-4g unless one was quite small. Roughly 10g is the termed "lethal" dosage for a 150lb person. 3-4g would cause major jitters, loose bowels, etc. Dont take that much.

Those caffiene pills like Vivarin and NoDoz are roughly 200mg apiece. So 3-4 grams would be like taking 15-20 of those pills. Or you could drink 30-40 cups of coffee. Great idea!!

I have some sort of caffeine between 30 and 60mins before a race, every race. Sometimes that will be a coffee or a red bull. I've taken pills too but find that more 'natural' sources seem to work better for me. I feel more aware and sharp when the gun goes off and find that it helps with my asthma as well. Try it before a hard workout and see if it helps you. Be careful with the coffee as it can do your stomach in if you are not used to it.

because being sharp on the gun is reallllllyyyyy important in a marathon!!

Good job bringing up the marathon for the first time in this thread and acting as thought the whole thing was about the marathon. How do you put up with these other idiotic posters!?

I think that there is an journal article by Duffy talking about caffeine. Generally they take it about 30-60 minutes before the race. Also, the dose that they have found that works best is 10 milligrams/kg of body weight. They have tried to use 3 mg/kg of body weight, but that didn't give an effect. Caffeine acts as a bronchodilator which is why it can be beneficial for those who have asthma. Good luck with trying it.

Wouldnt professional athletes be suspended for having that much caffiene in their system during a race? Besides that, I'm not sure if 10milligrams per kg is a healthy dosage. Let's assume that the average runner is approx. 65kg. That would be a 650mg dose of caffeine, the same amount of caffeine you could find in EIGHT CANS OF RED BULL!!!

What's the current status of caffeine on the banned substances list? It's been a long time since I needed to be worried about such things, but my recollection is that 10mg/kg would have put an athlete in the danger zone for a positive test under the standards that were in effect a dozen years ago. My recollection is that the standards were subsequently tightened up, but perhaps thereafter eliminated altogether, making "caffeine loading" perfectly "legal" now. Anyone know for sure?

In the NCAA, legal levels of caffeine in the blood during a drug test are in the micrograms. I could be wrong, but that is what I remember from college.

I don't think you people are recognizing the fact that you are talking about WAAAAAAY too much caffeine here. For crying out loud, 10mg/kg is a hell of alot of caffeine. See my above post.

redmeansdead wrote:

In the NCAA, legal levels of caffeine in the blood during a drug test are in the micrograms. I could be wrong, but that is what I remember from college.

The test (I thought it was a urine test, not a blood test) would set limits in micrograms per milliliter. From the athlete's perspective, though, it's more useful to know roughly how many milligrams of caffeine consumed might result in a concentration of caffeine metabolites that comes close to the doping threshold (assuming that there is still such a threshold for caffeine).

I think you're right. That makes more sense. But the fact still remains that 10mgs/kg of caffeine is a huge amount of caffiene.

redmeansdead wrote:

I think you're right. That makes more sense. But the fact still remains that 10mgs/kg of caffeine is a huge amount of caffiene.

I wouldn't say that it's a huge amount -- three or four cups of strong coffee for most people. Obviously, many people consume that much caffeine in the course of a day, and even in a single sitting. But under the old standards, it would have put you pretty close to the doping threshold.

Caffeine is no longer a banned substance, I'm pretty sure.

In any amount, that is.

Ok, I'm gonna go over this again. Because I'm either A). Not getting through to you or B) my calculations are incorrect. And I really don't think my calculations are incorrect, because it's quite simple.

Ok, 10mgs/kg. Let's assume again that the average runner weighs 65 kgs (that's about 145 lbs, right?). If you ingested 10mgs of caffeine per kg of body weight, that would be 650 mg of caffeine right? OK....moving on.

Let's take RedBull as an example again. If you care to look it up, you will notice that a 12oz RedBull (one of the most caffeinated beverages you can buy) contains about 80mgs of caffiene. So you are saying that ingesting THREE LITERS of RedBull is equivalent to the amount of caffeine most people have in a single sitting???

Caffeine is not on the WADA list of banned substances in any amount. It was one of the substances on the monitoring program last year but they decided it should not be banned for now at least. Check the site for yourself. The info is there.

You're a bit misinformed about caffeine concentrations in beverages. (Also, you haven't read my message carefully. I said that "many people" -- not "most people" -- may consume as much as 10 mg of caffeine per kg. body mass in a single sitting. And I didn't assume, as you do, that all of those people are 65 kg.)

I'll take your word that something called "RedBull" has a concentration of 80 mg of caffeine per 12 oz. serving. But if that's the case, then "RedBull" isn't anywhere close to "one of the most caffeinated beverages you can buy." Coffee generally has much higher concentrations; depending on how it's prepared, it can contain 150 mg or more per cup. (Espresso would be higher still.) Your "RedBull" is not going to get you any more wired than a sip of tea, I'm afraid -- despite its energized brand name.

FYI,

According to the National Soft Drink Association, the following is the caffeine content in mgs per 12 oz can of soda:

Afri-Cola 100.0 (?)

Jolt 71.2

Sugar-Free Mr. Pibb 58.8

Mountain Dew 55.0 (no caffeine in Canada)

Diet Mountain Dew 55.0

Kick citrus 54 (36mg per 8oz can, caffeine from guarana)

Mello Yellow 52.8

Surge 51.0

Tab 46.8

Battery energy drink -- 140mg/l = 46.7mg/can

Coca-Cola 45.6

Diet Cola 45.6

Shasta Cola 44.4

Shasta Cherry Cola 44.4

Shasta Diet Cola 44.4

Mr. Pibb 40.8

OK Soda 40.5

Dr. Pepper 39.6

Pepsi Cola 37.2

Aspen 36.0

Diet Pepsi 35.4

RC Cola 36.0

Diet RC 36.0

Diet Rite 36.0

Canada Dry Cola 30.0

Canada Dry Diet Cola 1.2

7 Up 0

By means of comparison, a 7 oz cup of coffee has the following caffeine (mg) amounts, according to Bunker and McWilliams in J.Am. Diet. 74:28-32, 1979:

Drip 115-175

Espresso 100mg of caffeine

1 serving (1.5-2oz)

Brewed 80-135

Instant 65-100

Decaf, brewed 3-4

Decaf, instant 2-3

Tea, iced (12 ozs.) 70

Tea, brewed, imported 60

Tea, brewed, U.S. 40

Tea, instant 30

Mate 25-150mg

The variability in the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee or tea is relatively large even if prepared by the same person using the same equipment and ingredients day after day.