Online tool tracks risks and benefits of coffee
Online tool uses caffeine intake and sleep patterns to measure alertness, impairment
I definitely have a love/ hate relationship with coffee. Its aroma gets me up in the morning and forms part of the “bulletproof diet” that I’ve embraced. It’s also an addictive leash that caused me to slip on the ice during an early morning coffee run in Toronto, ripping two shoulder muscles while carrying a tray of the stuff.
It turns out the military is also keenly interested in coffee.
In a recent article in the Journal of Sleep Research, scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command took a scientific look at one aspect of coffee — its ability to keep us awake and alert.
The army, along with many organizations, needs its people to be alert, even with challenging schedules and sleep deprivation. Yet they don’t want soldiers drinking too much coffee. Who wants a jittery finger on a trigger, or even a too-hyper Uber driver on the midnight shift?
Since there were “no tools to guide the timing and amount of caffeine consumption to optimize its benefits,” army researchers led by Dr. Jaques Reifman set out to create one. The result is an algorithm that, they claim, “enhanced performance of the predicted psychomotor vigilance task by up to 64 per cent while using the same total amount of caffeine.” With the correct dosing schedules and amounts, these researchers claim they can reduce caffeine consumption by 65 per cent without reducing alertness.
One of the nicest trends in research is the move toward open access journals. This means you can, if so motivated, read this entire paper for free online. Even better, authors are starting to publish their research creations for anyone to try. Work from this group can be accessed as an online tool and it’s fascinating, even if they don’t have their latest findings incorporated yet. The citizen scientist in me was able to fool around with various sleep/wake schedules and caffeine dosing, and see the predicted effects. Some sleep restriction and caffeine combinations produced an alertness impairment equal to a bloodalcohol level of .08, so it’s worth paying attention.
If you want to try this tool, you should know it’s for educational use only so don’t treat it as a medical advice. Also, you’ll need to determine the caffeine content of your favourite drinks. A medium-sized cup of weak coffee weighs in at 148 milligrams of caffeine, while a Grande from Starbucks may have more than twice that amount. Tea, chocolate, some medications and energy drinks also contribute to our caffeine intake.
Despite the “one size fits all” nature of this caffeine dosing tool, there is quite a bit of variability from person to person. We may have different chronotypes, the body’s natural sleep-wake pattern, which is largely governed by the hormone melatonin. Caffeine can even alter our internal clocks. A recently published study of college students by Dutch researchers found downing a double espresso at bedtime over 49 days shifted the body’s circadian timing by 40 minutes.
Most of this research applies to men and women, though it does seem men are the more popular coffee research subjects. An oftcited 2011 study from Brooklyn College found men who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 53 per cent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than non-coffee drinkers.
Genetics is also a factor, especially the version of the CYP1A2 gene you inherited from your parents. If you received two copies of the A variant, you are a fast metabolizer of caffeine, otherwise, you are in the slow lane.
How you do know which group you’re in? Direct to consumer genetic testing kits usually contain information on this gene, and there are even services that specialize in caffeine gene analysis. Testing is done from cheek cells and doesn’t require a blood sample or lab visit. You can use the results to guide you in your caffeine consumption.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006 found slow caffeine metabolizers have a significantly higher risk of nonfatal heart attacks if they consume two or more cups of coffee per day. On the flip side, fast metabolizers seemed to benefit from having at least one cup of coffee per day, with a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease.
There is also some evidence that moderate coffee drinking may protect against some kinds of cancers, including prostate cancer.
That seems to be the key word — moderation. Evidence from many studies shows a few coffees a day is beneficial, and better than total abstinence, while too much caffeine can be harmful. Having that U.S. army online tool might well be useful to those of us who want another cup of java right now.