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Study
Backs Exercise Supplements
Excerpt By
IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
(AP) - Caffeine and ephedrine supplements could help soldiers
tap their deepest reserves of strength, according to researchers
who say that giving the drugs to troops could be ethically sound
even though giving them to athletes is not.
Men using
caffeine and ephedrine increased their performance in bursts of
powerful effort, the study found.
``The change
we get in terms of very high exercise intensity would be of interest
to the military,'' said Ira Jacobs of the Defence and Civil Institute
of Environmental Medicine, a research arm of the Canadian Department
of National Defence. ``It could be another component in an arsenal
of tools that might be included ... in the event of an emergency.''
For athletes,
however, Jacobs said, ``We are in no way advocating the use of
caffeine and ephedrine.'' Not only are there health risks, but
high levels of either substance constitute doping, and are banned
by the International Olympic Committee and other organizations.
Just the
same, athletes in training are likely using both, in what amounts
to uncontrolled experiments on their own bodies, so it makes sense
for scientists to try to learn what the substances do, said Jacobs'
colleague Douglas G. Bell.
In the study,
24 volunteers whose average age was 32 underwent tests of their
anaerobic performance. The results were published in the American
College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine and Science in Sports
and Exercise.
In one part
of the experiment, 16 men were tested to see how much power their
muscles could generate in 30 seconds or less against heavy resistance
on a stationary bike. Another eight men biked in a separate but
also very taxing test of 2 minutes or more, while researchers
measured chemicals in their exhaled breaths to assess their metabolic
capacity for anaerobic work.
Men in both
types of activity were given capsules of caffeine, ephedrine,
both, or placebos.
In the 30-second
bike test, administration of ephedrine produced an increase in
power compared with the fake drug, the study found. The gain came
only in the first 10 seconds, and was only 1.5 percent greater.
However, that could be enough to make a difference between victory
and defeat among elite power athletes, Jacobs said.
In the longer
anaerobic test, caffeine combined with ephedrine produced an increase
of about 7 percent in the ability to do work.
Ephedrine
appeared to increase the ability of nerves to call on muscles
to do work, the study said. Caffeine, meanwhile, seemed to increase
the abilities of the muscles themselves to do the work, it said.
However,
neither compound is safe at high doses, Jacobs and Bell said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers ephedrine, in
particular, risky for people with high blood pressure, heart conditions
and neurological disorders. FDA has reported serious injuries
and a number of deaths among the general public. High doses of
caffeine also may raise blood pressure, Bell said.
Although
the study suggests that caffeine and ephedrine may improve performance,
it doesn't prove the case, said researcher Terry Graham of the
University of Guelph in Ontario, who was not connected with the
study.
In very intense
activities such as those that the study examined, there is ``a
fair amount of variability day to day,'' Graham said. A small
amount of normal variation might be enough to account for improvements
that the study attributed to the drugs, he said.
The results
for caffeine seem more supportable than those for ephedrine. Other
researchers have found caffeine has an effect - it enhances aerobic
endurance - but not much is known about ephedrine, Graham said.
As for whether
the findings would encourage athletes to use ephedrine or caffeine,
Graham considers the point moot, mostly because they already do.
Ephedrine especially is used by body builders who are trying to
raise their metabolic rates, burning more fat to get more muscle
definition.
But users
should realize that they are playing with fire, especially if
they have blood pressure problems, Graham said.
Even if the
drugs work, they still are wrong, said Paul Melia, chief operating
officer of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which tracks
athletic drug use. ``The athlete has to be aware, they are ultimately
responsible for what ends up in their system,'' he said.
And the study's
finding that the drugs can improve performance justifies the disqualification
of athletes who have ingested cold medications that contain ephedrine's
chemical cousins - frequently along with caffeine, Jacobs said.
On the
Net:
Abstract of the study, in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed
database: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query
Enter in search box: Bell Jacobs Caffeine Ephedrine
Defence and
Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine: http://www.dciem.dnd.ca/DCIEM/welcome-e.html
Food and
Drug Administration report on ephedrine: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/(tilde)dms/ds-ephe3.html
Reference
Source 102
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