Using Caffeine to Optimize Mental & Physical Performance

If you really want to see the maximum performance-enhancing effects of caffeine, you will do either one of two things: You will either abstain from caffeine for a few days or three days prior to ingesting caffeine, or you will use caffeine on an empty stomach.

For most people, ingesting 1-3mg of caffeine per kg of body weight is going to be the range in which caffeine can have positive effects without making us feel overly anxious and give us that feeling that we're jumping out of our skin and turn the otherwise positive experience of caffeine into an aversive one.

Some people are surprised to discover that the coffee that they get from some of the more standard popular vendors out there—the small coffee or the medium coffee, for instance—can contain as much as 400-600 milligrams of caffeine, and that the large coffee... can contain as much as 1 gram, 1000 milligrams, of caffeine.

It's been shown in studies on humans that getting bright light in your eyes in the first hour after waking, or as soon as possible after waking, increases the peak of that cortisol pulse by 50%, five zero. And that cortisol pulse, yes, increases mood, yes, increases alertness, but it does one other very important thing, which is that... it can clear out any residual adenosine that might be present in your system when you wake up in the morning.

If you are somebody who insists on drinking caffeine very shortly after waking, I would encourage you to drink half of your caffeine then and then the other half of your caffeine about an hour later. That, also, will help offset some of the afternoon crash for reasons related to the so-called kinetics of caffeine.

It has been shown that ingestion of caffeine... can increase sex hormone-binding globulin, such that it can slightly reduce overall levels of free testosterone and free estradiol in women.

The every-other-day schedule of caffeine intake, to me, seems like the most rational one if one wants to maximize on the performance-enhancing effects of caffeine without suffering the effects of caffeine withdrawal that are associated with being a regular consumer of caffeine...

[Caffeine] also stimulates certain neurotransmitters and so-called neuromodulators within the brain and body that give the neural circuits in the brain that are associated with learning and memory a lower threshold to activation. What does that mean? That means that we are better able to access the brain circuitry involved in learning and memory when we have a certain amount of caffeine circulating in our system.

The quarter-life of caffeine is 12 hours ... If you ingest caffeine at noon, 25% of its effects... is still going to be bioactive at midnight that night.

If one examines reaction time, mood, alertness, focus, and memory... or physical dexterity, power output, endurance, and overall feelings of well-being during exercise & exertion, caffeine has been shown in numerous studies in both men and women to improve all of those metrics significantly.

There are really nice studies showing that being a regular consumer of caffeine can help offset some of the probability... of developing Parkinson's and maybe Alzheimer's related dementia as well.

Caffeine seems to stimulate the release of dopamine in the parts of the brain that are associated with alertness and cognition ... We have multiple dopamine systems in the brain and body, and caffeine seems to stimulate dopamine directly within the components of the brain that are associated with clarity of thought and well-being, but more so clarity of thought.

Many people find that if they delay their caffeine intake to 90-120 minutes after waking up that they feel more alert in the morning and they completely avoid that afternoon crash.

If, however, you were to wake up and immediately drink caffeine... by blocking those adenosine receptors and because of the indirect effects of caffeine on the cortisol system, you actually are reducing the clearance of adenosine that would otherwise occur.

Theanine can be terrific for enhancing quality, depth, and duration of sleep. It can also reduce the jitteriness associated with caffeine-containing beverages and foods. And it has certain antidepressant and pro-endothelial effects...

Yerba mate teas are known to stimulate significant amounts of GLP-1 release, and so they can be effective as a weight loss tool, mainly by blunting appetite. And again, they do that both at the level of the brain and at the level of the gut.

The large-scale analyses of the relationship between depression and caffeine shows that, provided people are not drinking so much caffeine that it makes them overly anxious, that regular intake of caffeine is inversely related to levels of depression.

I should mention that if you ingest caffeine on an empty stomach, it will have a more potent stimulant effect.

There are no consistent increases or reductions in testosterone or estrogen in men or women that can be directly attributed to the caffeine intake.

Caffeine acts as a strong reinforcer ... When it's present in drinks and foods, we actively come to like those foods and drinks more than if caffeine were not contained in those foods and drinks.