Learn to leverage your caffeine: whether you get your fix via coffee or a caffeine supplement, here are 10 useful facts about caffeine that you don't know yet, but should. Use them. Check it out:
- According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, it takes about 30 to 60 minutes for caffeine to reach its peak level in the blood. That means you want to ingest your pre-workout caffeine dose about 30 minutes before you start warming up to reap the most benefits.
- Energy drinks actually contain less caffeine than a cup of coffee (especially C&K coffee) and are loaded with chemicals and sugar, so you end up feeling worse for less energy. Just drink coffee (or clearly caffeine)!
- It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to start feeling the effects of caffeine after it reaches your stomach. Time that pre-meeting coffee wisely.
- Caffeine makes you feel "awake" by blocking adenosine, the neurotransmitter that tells your brain it’s tired. While adenosine is blocked, dopamine production increases, meaning that a cup of coffee in the morning might just make you a happier person.
- Caffeine increases the amount of calcium released inside our muscles, enabling them to work harder and improving your athletic performance.
- In the psychology handbook "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-5), caffeine withdrawal is listed as a mental health condition. Withdrawal side effects include a throbbing headache, fatigue, irritability, depressed mood and difficulty concentrating. If you have a coffee every morning, odds are you're caffeine dependent.
- Caffeine can help relieve pain. Researchers found that a single dose of 200 milligrams (mg) of ibuprofen plus 100 mg of caffeine was substantially more effective than a placebo at providing pain relief over six hours. In other words, take your 200 mg of ibuprofen WITH your cup of C&K coffee.
- Big night? Early morning? Caffeine is your new hangover cure. Dose yourself to mitigate that morning-after malady.
- Make your naps work better: consume a cup of coffee right before a 15-minute nap to create a power nap, which helps increase alertness and focus.
- Two cups of coffee a day may improve a man’s sex life; however, benefits decline after two cups. A study found that men who drank two cups a day were 42 percent less likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction compared to men who didn't.
Yes, of course the list ended with a sex fact. As if you needed more motivation to sip the sauce, hope this list leaves you feeling inspired to tweak your caffeine intake in some strategic way. Let us know in the comments below which point you're gonna try! Stay caffeinated, Team CK.