scholarly journals The Role of Genetics in Moderating the Inter-Individual Differences in the Ergogenicity of Caffeine

Nutrients ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Southward ◽  
Kay Rutherfurd-Markwick ◽  
Claire Badenhorst ◽  
Ajmol Ali

Caffeine use is widespread among athletes following its removal from the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list, with approximately 75% of competitive athletes using caffeine. While literature supports that caffeine has a small positive ergogenic effect for most forms of sports and exercise, there exists a significant amount of inter-individual difference in the response to caffeine ingestion and the subsequent effect on exercise performance. In this narrative review, we discuss some of the potential mechanisms and focus on the role that genetics has in these differences. CYP1A2 and ADORA2A are two of the genes which are thought to have the largest impact on the ergogenicity of caffeine. CYP1A2 is responsible for the majority of the metabolism of caffeine, and ADORA2A has been linked to caffeine-induced anxiety. The effects of CYP1A2 and ADORA2A genes on responses to caffeine will be discussed in detail and an overview of the current literature will be presented. The role of these two genes may explain a large portion of the inter-individual variance reported by studies following caffeine ingestion. Elucidating the extent to which these genes moderate responses to caffeine during exercise will ensure caffeine supplementation programs can be tailored to individual athletes in order to maximize the potential ergogenic effect.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Zettler ◽  
Christoph Schild ◽  
Lau Lilleholt ◽  
Lara Kroencke ◽  
Till Utesch ◽  
...  

People and institutions around the world have been affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Herein, we investigate the role of both basic (HEXACO and Big Five) and specific (Dark Factor of Personality, Narcissistic Rivalry and Admiration) personality traits for 17 criteria related to COVID-19, grouped into (i) personal perceptions in terms of risks and worries about the disease, (ii) behavioral adjustments in terms of following the health recommendations and hoarding, and (iii) societal evaluations in terms of the appropriateness of different measures and feelings of social cohesion. (Internal) Meta-analytic results across five samples from two countries (overall N = 10,702) show—next to gender and age effects—the importance of several traits, including Emotionality/Neuroticism for personal perceptions and anti- or prosocial traits for behavior in line with health recommendations. The investigation thus highlights the importance of individual differences in uncertain and changing situations and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular.


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Filip ◽  
Michal Wilk ◽  
Michal Krzysztofik ◽  
Juan Del Coso

Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive substance in the world, and data suggests that it is widely used by athletes before competition to enhance physical and mental performance. The high number of athletes that regularly use caffeine suggests the need to investigate the effect of acute caffeine ingestion in athletes habituated to caffeine. However, most of the studies supporting this claim have used samples of athletes who do not consume caffeine on a regular basis, and with caffeine intake withdrawal prior to the experiments. A search through 19 databases conducted on habitual caffeine users was performed. The results of the studies regarding the ergogenic effect of caffeine in naïve vs. habitual caffeine consumers are contradictory. The diversity of results are likely associated with the use of different thresholds to categorize individuals as naïve or high caffeine consumers. There are no valid and standardized methods to accurately estimate the amount of caffeine ingested per day in athletes. We proposed a classification of athletes that habitually consume caffeine by using dietary questionnaires, and ultimately, to reduce the likelihood of discrepancies caused by the improper qualification of daily caffeine intake in studies directed at the assessment of acute caffeine intake in habitual caffeine consumers.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Millán Aguilar-Navarro ◽  
Gloria Muñoz ◽  
Juan Salinero ◽  
Jesús Muñoz-Guerra ◽  
María Fernández-Álvarez ◽  
...  

The ergogenic effect of caffeine is well-established, but the extent of its consumption in sport is unknown at the present. The use of caffeine was considered “prohibited” until 2004, but this stimulant was moved from the List of Prohibited Substances to the Monitoring Program of the World Anti-Doping Agency to control its use by monitoring urinary caffeine concentration after competition. However, there is no updated information about the change in the use of caffeine as the result of its inclusion in the Monitoring Program. The aim of this study was to describe the changes in urine caffeine concentration from 2004 to 2015. A total of 7488 urine samples obtained in official competitions held in Spain and corresponding to athletes competing in Olympic sports (2788 in 2004, 2543 in 2008, and 2157 in 2015) were analyzed for urine caffeine concentration. The percentage of samples with detectable caffeine (i.e., >0.1 μg/mL) increased from ~70.1%, in 2004–2008 to 75.7% in 2015. The median urine caffeine concentration in 2015 (0.85 μg/mL) was higher when compared to the median value obtained in 2004 (0.70 μg/mL; p < 0.05) and in 2008 (0.70 μg/mL; p < 0.05). The urine caffeine concentration significantly increased from 2004 to 2015 in aquatics, athletics, boxing, judo, football, weightlifting, and rowing (p < 0.05). However, the sports with the highest urine caffeine concentration in 2015 were cycling, athletics, and rowing. In summary, the concentration of caffeine in the urine samples obtained after competition in Olympic sports in Spain increased from 2004 to 2015, particularly in some disciplines. These data indicate that the use of caffeine has slightly increased since its removal from the list of banned substances, but urine caffeine concentrations suggest that the use of caffeine is moderate in most sport specialties. Athletes of individual sports or athletes of sports with an aerobic-like nature are more prone to using caffeine in competition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110016
Author(s):  
Ingo Zettler ◽  
Christoph Schild ◽  
Lau Lilleholt ◽  
Lara Kroencke ◽  
Till Utesch ◽  
...  

Individuals and institutions around the world have been affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Herein, we investigate the role of basic (Big Five and HEXACO) and specific (Dark Factor of Personality, Narcissistic Rivalry, and Narcissistic Admiration) personality traits for 17 criteria related to COVID-19, grouped into (i) personal perceptions in terms of risks and worries about the disease, (ii) behavioral adjustments in terms of following health recommendations and hoarding, and (iii) societal evaluations in terms of the appropriateness of different measures and feelings of social cohesion. (Internal) Meta-analytic results across five samples from two countries (overall N = 19,718) show—next to gender and age effects—the importance of several traits, including Emotionality/Neuroticism for personal perceptions and anti- or prosocial traits for behavior in line with health recommendations. The investigation highlights the importance of individual differences in uncertain and changing situations in general and during the COVID-19 pandemic in particular.


2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastien Anizan ◽  
Marilyn A Huestis

Abstract BACKGROUND Currently, urine and blood are the only matrices authorized for antidoping testing by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Although the usefulness of urine and blood is proven, issues remain for monitoring some drug classes and for drugs prohibited only in competition. The alternative matrix oral fluid (OF) may offer solutions to some of these issues. OF collection is easy, noninvasive, and sex neutral and is directly observed, limiting potential adulteration, a major problem for urine testing. OF is used to monitor drug intake in workplace, clinical toxicology, criminal justice, and driving under the influence of drugs programs and potentially could complement urine and blood for antidoping testing in sports. CONTENT This review outlines the present state of knowledge and the advantages and limitations of OF testing for each of the WADA drug classes and the research needed to advance OF testing as a viable alternative for antidoping testing. SUMMARY Doping agents are either prohibited at all times or prohibited in competition only. Few OF data from controlled drug administration studies are available for substances banned at all times, whereas for some agents prohibited only in competition, sufficient data may be available to suggest appropriate analytes and cutoffs (analytical threshold concentrations) to identify recent drug use. Additional research is needed to characterize the disposition of many banned substances into OF; OF collection methods and doping agent stability in OF also require investigation to allow the accurate interpretation of OF tests for antidoping monitoring.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.


2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Botella ◽  
María José Contreras ◽  
Pei-Chun Shih ◽  
Víctor Rubio

Summary: Deterioration in performance associated with decreased ability to sustain attention may be found in long and tedious task sessions. The necessity for assessing a number of psychological dimensions in a single session often demands “short” tests capable of assessing individual differences in abilities such as vigilance and maintenance of high performance levels. In the present paper two tasks were selected as candidates for playing this role, the Abbreviated Vigilance Task (AVT) by Temple, Warm, Dember, LaGrange and Matthews (1996) and the Continuous Attention Test (CAT) by Tiplady (1992) . However, when applied to a sample of 829 candidates in a job-selection process for air-traffic controllers, neither of them showed discriminative capacity. In a second study, an extended version of the CAT was applied to a similar sample of 667 subjects, but also proved incapable of properly detecting individual differences. In short, at least in a selection context such as that studied here, neither of the tasks appeared appropriate for playing the role of a “short” test for discriminating individual differences in performance deterioration in sustained attention.


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