Controversy: No or no caffeine in sports

Beijing Olympics is coming, many scientists believe that many athletes will still use caffeine (out of the list of stimulants banned from sports) to increase achievement, while arguing "Prohibited or not banning the use of this substance "has not fallen.

Caffeine - a stimulant out of banned categories

An editor in this issue of Clinical Evidence Magazine said there is strong evidence that athletes use caffeine before competing because they believe this helps boost performance.

In 2004, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) removed caffeine from the list of banned substances.

Sports Doctor in Melbourne (Australia), TS. Peter Larkins, who founded the National Committee for Stimulants in Sports and Source Athletes, said: "The test results clearly show that the athlete in this country uses a lot of caffeine." Since WADA has removed this substance from the banned list.

Scientists advise athletes not to use caffeine on competition day (Photo: Reuters)

Dr. Larkins also said that studies confirmed that caffeine stimulated athletes' performance. He said: 'We accept it as a stimulant, make you more alert, stay alert longer, increase blood flow, increase your heartbeat, and dispel fatigue - the state that athletes fill. business wants'.

Dr. Larkins also identified: A majority of athletes who took advantage of caffeine were not banned, and caffeine helped them to outperform their competitors.

In the 80s and 90s, athletes in the Olympics were banned for caffeine test results, including Australian athletes, Alex Watson. This athlete was returned to the country at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Four years ago, WADA argued that athletes with urine tests with caffeine greater than 12 µg / l of urine were violating the agency's regulations.

But some concerns forced WADA to remove caffeine from its list of banned substances. WADA spokesman said that there are serious studies showing that caffeine actually reduces achievement at a certain threshold.

"Run" status

GS. John Hawley, head of the metabolic process team at Melbourne's Royal Institute of Technology, says too much caffeine can make you "run" and this will be "a problem". when the archery exam - the sport requires a sure hand.

'In some sports it may not be good. More often is not better " - Professor said.

But GS. Hawley also said that he had no doubts about the information that caffeine could boost performance. "I can give you 200 articles that show this result," he said, adding that caffeine stimulates the nervous system and reduces the athletes' efforts because of their achievement, though High but only happens once.

The research of GS. Hawley also showed that caffeine's benefit in helping athletes recover faster after heavy exercise is because it increases the ability to store glycogen in muscles.

Professor said caffeine is a useful substance in keeping heat for athletes in swimming, track and judo finals. "I doubt most athletes in most other competitions need more concentration than moto racing (like archery, shooting) that will be able to use caffeine."

Sensitivity of each person

Both Dr. Larkins and GS Hawley say the key to the problem depends on how much the body is sensitive to caffeine. 'Some people are not sensitive to caffeine and others do. People absorb caffeine at different speeds, lawyers can argue that athletes use caffeine in normal drinks daily, within the limits'.

Dr. Larkins thinks more research is needed to distinguish between stimulants and doping with caffeine users. In the meantime, he advised athletes not to use caffeine on the day they played.

Also according to TS. Larkins, in the first year that caffeine was removed from the WADA list, the amount of caffeine in the athletes' urine reached 30, 40 and 50 µg / l of urine. This shows that they used on 1 or 2 cups of coffee before playing or after dinner.

The prohibition of "lack of reality"?

Unlike TS. Larkins, GS. Hawley thought, caffeine should never be placed at the top of the WADA ban list. The widespread occurrence of caffeine in foods and beverages such as coffee, chocolate and cocoa drinks makes it difficult to ban.

"The introduction of caffeine-containing natural foods is out of the question, " he said, but the question is whether or not to ban caffeine. WADA will not suffer from the problem of whether or not to use caffeine increases the performance of athletes, but it is hard to say, how caffeine is used as a stimulant in sports.