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26.01.2014

Caffeine, not pseudoephedrine, makes triathletes faster

Caffeine doesn't appear on the doping list, pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, does. Endurance athletes who think that illegal pseudo-ephedrine will enhance their performance better than legal coffee are making a big mistake, say sports scientists from the University of Western Australia in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. The researchers tested both substances on 10 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes.

Caffeine doesn't appear on the doping list, pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, does. Endurance athletes who think that illegal pseudo-ephedrine will enhance their performance better than legal coffee are making a big mistake, say sports scientists from the University of Western Australia in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. The researchers tested both substances on 10 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes.
Caffeine doesn't appear on the doping list, pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, does. Endurance athletes who think that illegal pseudo-ephedrine will enhance their performance better than legal caffeine are making a big mistake, say sports scientists from the University of Western Australia in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. The researchers tested both substances on 10 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes.

A number of studies have recently published negative results on pseudoephedrine. A few weeks ago we wrote about another human study which showed that pseudoephedrine had no effect as a doping substance. That study also happened to be done in Australia. One theory is that the vasoconstrictive effect of pseudoephedrine cancels out its stimulatory effect.

On three different occasions the researchers gave their subjects: a placebo, 200 mg caffeine or 180 mg pseudoephedrine. To be precise: the men were given a dose of 2.5 mg caffeine or 2.3 mg pseudoephedrine per kg bodyweight.

All subjects also consumed caffeine daily in the form of coffee, tea or energy drinks. The researchers asked the men to stop doing this for the 48 hours before the experiment started.

One hour after ingestion the men had to do a timed 40-km ride on an ergometer.

The researchers discovered that giving the subjects pseudoephedrine had no performance enhancing effect whatsoever. Nor did their power [in other words their speed] increase after taking pseudoephedrine either. This did happen after ingesting caffeine, although the effect was not statistically significant.


Caffeine doesn't appear on the doping list, pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, does. Endurance athletes who think that illegal pseudo-ephedrine will enhance their performance better than legal caffeine are making a big mistake, say sports scientists from the University of Western Australia in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. The researchers tested both substances on 10 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes.


Pseudoephedrine didn't reduce the amount of time the men needed to complete the 40-km ride. Caffeine did reduce the time, but once again the effect was not statistically significant.


Caffeine doesn't appear on the doping list, pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, does. Endurance athletes who think that illegal pseudo-ephedrine will enhance their performance better than legal caffeine are making a big mistake, say sports scientists from the University of Western Australia in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. The researchers tested both substances on 10 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes.


"These results favorably show that the effects of the legal stimulant caffeine are likely better than that of the banned substance pseudoephedrine", the researchers conclude. "Hence, an adverse finding of pseudoephedrine misuse in athletes may not have incurred a performance gain any better than that achievable via legal means."

Source:
Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013 Oct;23(5):507-12.

More:
Pseudo-ephedrine unreliable doping agent for cyclists 23.12.2013