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Lead Stories: Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Q&A: Does caffeine really improve athletic performance, or do you just feel more alert?

Posted January 24th, 2008 at 10:15 AM by Jeremy Sussman

Section: Nutrition, Supplements, Health & Fitness, Exercise

In endurance events, the first cause of fatigue is loss of muscle sugar, so athletes do whatever they can to preserve sugar levels. Caffeine causes the body to produce large amounts of adrenalin, which causes fat to be released from fat cells and float in the bloodstream.

This extra fat is taken up by the muscles and used for energy, thus preserving the body’s limited stored supply of muscle sugar. When muscles run our of sugar, the athlete requires more oxygen to do the same job, slows down, fatigues earlier, and has difficulty maintaining his performance.
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Low Blood Sugar Causes Mental Fatigue During Competition

Posted November 23rd, 2007 at 3:45 PM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Race Prep & Recov, Health & Fitness, Exercise

Athletes can expect to feel fatigued when their blood sugar levels drop. Researchers at Loughborough University, UK showed that athletes who did not take sugar during soccer competition lasting 90 minutes felt more tired, had less competitive desire, and had far lower blood sugar levels than athletes who took a sugared drink every 15 minutes during their game (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, October 2007).

Your brain gets more than 98 percent of its energy from sugar in the bloodstream. However there is only enough sugar in the bloodstream to last about three minutes. The liver must constantly release sugar into the bloodstream, but there is only enough sugar in the liver to last eight hours during rest and far less than that during exercise. So athletes who do not take a source of sugar during events lasting more than an hour can suffer the psychological effects of low blood sugar levels what include a mental feeling of fatigue and lowered competitive desire.
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ASK LARA: Serotonin- Effects, sources, and suggestions for a healthy, active lifestyle

Posted September 8th, 2007 at 5:30 PM by Lara Johnson

Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Columns, Ask Lara

Need advice? Injured? Confused? Overwhelmed? Bored? ASK LARA!
ASK LARA is a free advice column to help you with all of your running, fitness and nutrition inquiries. To ASK LARA — simply fill out the form at the conclusion of the column.

Q. I know that there are specific foods that help serotonin in the brain. What are they? Chocolate is one. Thanks.
~Michelle from Georgia

A. Interesting question. Since I am not a serotonin expert, I turned to some other sources for help in answering this one. Serotonin is defined as:

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) and enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal tract of animals including humans. Serotonin is also found in many mushrooms and plants, including fruits and vegetables.

Basically, serotonin is a chemical in the CNS that carries signals from one nerve cell to the next (hence, a neurotransmitter), thus allowing the brain to communicate. It is also one type of neurotransmitter that is highly sensitive to what we eat and influential in affecting mood. Other “moody” chemicals are dopamine and norepinephrine (source: the Mood-Food Connection).
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Q&A: Will following a low- carbohydrate diet help me run faster?

Posted August 17th, 2007 at 10:30 AM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Race Prep & Recov

There is no evidence that it will. Runners get fuel for their muscles from fat and sugar in muscles, fat and sugar in the bloodstream and, to a lesser degree, from protein. The key to increasing endurance for racing is to store as much sugar in muscles before you race and keep it there as long as possible. Muscle sugar gives you the most energy for the least amount of oxygen.

Restricting carbohydrates does not stimulate muscles to store more sugar (Sports Medicine, April-May 2007). A low carbohydrate diet may impair performance if carried out for extended periods because a runner cannot train on a low- carbohydrate diet.
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Preserve muscle sugar for speed and endurance

Posted August 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 PM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Hydration, Race Prep & Recov, Health & Fitness, Exercise

How fast you can move and how long you can exercise intensely depends on the amount of sugar (glycogen) stored in your muscles. The same rule applies in all sports: when muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, they require more oxygen and you have to slow down.

Fluid is less important than muscle sugar because dehydration will not cause you to slow down until your blood volume is reduced. As you lose fluid from sweating, interstitial fluid stored around cells is released into the blood to maintain blood volume. When you compete is sports at a very high intensity, your muscles run out for stored sugar long before your blood volume is reduced, and you slow down from lack of muscle sugar before you slow down from reduced blood volume (Sports Medicine, April- May 2007).
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The Juice on Juice: A nutritional, medicinal, and flavorful guide to the perfect post-run drink

Posted July 10th, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Bridget Sullivan

Section: Nutrition, Hydration

The following article clip recently appeared in Runner’s World Magazine. Author Leslie Goldman, MPH, is a women’s health writer who regularly contributes to Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Shape Magazine, People, and the Chicago Tribune. Her highly acclaimed debut book, Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the “Perfect” Body, recently came out in paperback and is available at amazon.com. Leslie regularly blogs about body image and women’s health at ivillage.com.

It’s hot out, you’ve finished your workout, you’re standing in front of the mini-mart fridge considering your options. Water isn’t quite enough, and you had a pre-run sports drink. Here’s something new: a juice blend called pomegranate blue. Sounds refreshing and, as a bonus, healthy. But is it?

“All juices are not created equal,” says Princeton University sports dietitian Mandy Clark, R.D. “Are you getting nutrients or are you drinking sugar water?” Indeed, some fruit-juice products contain only 10 to 15 percent juice; the balance includes as much as 27 grams of high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, or even the healthful-sounding organic cane sugar. They may look like fruit juice, but technically they’re “fruit drinks,” and the distinction is important. Nutritionally speaking, fruit drinks are not much better than soda and should be consumed sparingly, according to the Beverage Guidance Panel, a group of health experts established to make recommendations on what and how much Americans should drink to stay healthy and control their weight.

Read the rest of this entry at: RunnersWorld.com

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Do not limit calories before competition

Posted June 14th, 2007 at 9:03 AM by Jamal Walker

Section: Nutrition, Race Prep & Recov

Most athletes know that lack of fluids weakens and tires them, so they take adequate amount of fluids, before, during and after competitions.

However, many do not know how much they need extra calories. They often are told incorrectly that the human body has so much fat on board that lack of calories is not a significant problem.

Researchers at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom found that moderate calorie restriction two days prior to competition slows down endurance far more than reduced fluid intake over that same period (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, February 2007). Moderate dehydration does not harm performance until a person becomes severely dehydrated. On the other hand, lack of calories stops you cold in your tracks.

Read the rest at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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Studies: Caffeine can help athletes in both endurance and sprinting events

Posted March 29th, 2007 at 4:00 PM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Supplements

It has been established for more than 50 years that caffeine helps you exercise longer in events that require endurance.

Recently researchers at Christ Church University in Canterbury, UK, showed that caffeine also helps you in much shorter events. Trained cyclists raced one kilometer (0.6 mile) on three times, in random order, after taking 5 mg of caffeine, taking a placebo, or taking nothing.

Their speed, mean power and peak power were more than three percent higher after taking caffeine (Journal of Sports Sciences, November 2006).
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Does your heart get tired when running and/or during other types of exercise?

Posted March 26th, 2007 at 9:59 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise

A healthy heart is so strong that it is almost never a cause of tiredness during exercise.

Tiredness during exercise comes from your muscles. They run out of fuel or out of oxygen. Skeletal muscles use both fat and sugar for energy.

When your muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, called glycogen, they cannot contract and function adequately. You feel tired, your muscles hurt and you have difficulty coordinating them.

On the other hand, your heart muscle gets energy directly from fat and sugar in your blood and even from a breakdown product of metabolism called lactic acid. It is virtually impossible for the heart muscle to run out of fuel unless you are starving to death.
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Exercise makes cells more efficient; increases overall health & life expectancy

Posted March 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise

Why does risk for heart attacks, strokes or diabetes increase with age? A team from Yale University showed that as you age, you lose your ability to make AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) (Cell Metabolism, February 2007). This enzyme functions to increase mitochondria in muscles.

Anything that reduces the number or efficiency of mitochondria interferes with your body’s ability to burn fat and sugar for energy. As a result, blood sugar, fat and cholesterol levels rise.
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