A large dose of coffee before exercise could help prevent asthma sufferers from having an attack.
A team of American and British scientists has found that consuming caffeine an hour before exercising can reduce the symptoms of exercise-induced asthma (EIA).
After studying ten asthmatic subjects – all of whose symptoms were brought on by exercise – they report that 9 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight was as effective as the albuterol inhalers commonly used to prevent attacks. To put this into context, somebody weighing ten stone (64kg) would need to consume 570mg of caffeine and there are 240mg in a tall Starbucks coffee.
The participants were given 3, 6, or 9mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight, or a placebo, an hour before running on a treadmill. They underwent pulmonary function tests 15 minutes before the exercise and then 1, 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes afterwards.
The team found that large doses of caffeine had the same effect as an inhaler while smaller doses of 3mg and 6mg per kilogram of body weight reduced wheezing, coughing and other symptoms of EIA.
Martin Lindley, of Loughborough University, Timothy Van Haitsma, from the University of Utah, and David Koceja and Joel Stager, from Indiana University, have also been researching whether diet can help ease the symptoms of EIA. They report that a diet high in fish oil and antioxidants and low in salt has the potential to reduce the severity of EIA.
However, while some caffeine can be a good thing – not only for ashthma sufferers but also for athletes and even premature babies – too much can de detrimental. The Lancet has released a report on a 13-year-old Italian boy who was hospitalised after ingesting too much caffeine.
The boy, who was treated in the Second University of Naples and Monaldi Hospital, was admitted with a rapid heartbeat, prickling sensations in his legs and raised blood pressure.
He was diagnosed with caffeine intoxication and admitted that he had eaten two packets of "energy" chewing gum. According to The Telegraph, he had ingested 320mg of caffeine.
Dr Francesco Natale, who treated the boy, said: "Our patient...presumably had high caffeine sensitivity in view of his low habitual caffeine intake, so 320mg was a substantial amount of caffeine.
He added that these chewing gums could be behind other cases of childhood caffeine intoxication: "The risk of intoxication is high in children and teenagers in view of general caffeine-naivety, and the unrestricted sale of these substances."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
