3 WAYS CAFFEINE IS KILLING YOUR TESTOSTERONE
New research is discovering that our highly caffeinated culture might be shooting itself in the foot
in hopes caffeine will get them moving little bit faster. It is becoming clear that Caffeine may have more of a negative impact on our hormones then just a little extra energy .
1. That Morning cup of Joe
Are you the type of person that drinks coffee and tries to hide the taste of it with chocolate syrup and whip cream? Or maybe put 6 packets of sugar and a heap of half and half? Well you might just be compounding the “caffeine effect. ” Which basically is a drastic increase in the amount and duration of cortisol in your blood stream. Cortisol and testosterone have a reciprocal relationship in that when cortisol is elevated testosterone production is decreased. Since testosterone is what makes us build muscle, burn fat and keeps us healthy its obviously something we want to keep elevated not depressed by high cortisol levels So not only are you elevating and extending your cortisol response and lowering the amount of free testosterone in your blood stream with that cup of coffee but the high sugar content is additionally spiking your insulin and searching for any fat you may have also ingested like a donut to conveniently store on your belly. The necessity for a morning cup of coffee to get you going is commonly indicative of having long term elevated cortisol levels associated with adrenal fatigue. In a study on the affects of coffee “providing 3 mg of caffeine/kg body weight, was found to prevent morning cortisol concentrations from falling back to baseline. (Anna Gavricli, Mary Yannakoulia et al 2011)
I wont even go into the metabolism disaster that is replacing breakfast with coffee in this article.
2.The Pre-workout supplement.
So what about those caffeine pack pre-workout supplements that get you slamming those heavy weights around? Better workout should mean better results right? Not necessarily.“ Data shows a moderate effect of caffeine in elevating cortisol concentrations during resistance exercise. The cortisol elevation observed is consistent with the results of Lane, Pieper, Phillips-Bute, Bryant, and Kuhn (2002), and this elevation might counter the anabolic effects of testosterone.” This is tragic. Almost every guy in the gym is taking a pre-work supplement to maximize his testosterone boosting gym time. When in fact the persistence of the “ Caffeine effect” was still hormonally “apparent 10 or more hours after ingestion. A significant dose produced a substantial and long-lasting effect on cortisol concentration. “(Lawrence D. Hayes, et.al 2010)
“Much research has reported that suppressing cortisol during resistance exercise by nutritional supplementation is associated with greater gains in muscle mass (Bird et al., 2006). These observations suggest that the cortisol increase associated with caffeine ingestion might counteract any benefit derived from the increase in exercise-induced testosterone concentration”. Indeed, the anabolic–catabolic balance, as illustrated by the testosterone:cortisol ratio, showed an overall caffeine-induced decrease, with the decrease being most pronounced at the highest caffeine dose. This data suggests that catabolic processes were predominant in the recovery phase after resistance exercise when higher doses of caffeine were ingested.
.“Elevated levels of cortisol have a highly significant negative effect on circulating testosterone concentrations” (Bambino and Hsueh, 1981; Cumming et al.,1983).
3. Daily sodas and energy drinks
Do you drink multiple sodas a day? Or maybe a couple energy drinks to really keep you productive at work? The extended Caffeine effect is destroying your manhood. Drinking sodas through out the day keeps your cortisol levels spiked and never allows them to return to baseline level. Which like I stated above keeps your free testosterone levels flaccidly low. All this caffeine is a compounding problem, the more we drink the more we elevate our cortisol and depress our testosterone, and the more we need to drink to feel alert and awake.
What this all boils down to is not as complicated as all the science may make it sounds. Essentially high consumption of caffeine affects our hormones negatively. The more caffeine we consume the more cortisol our body will produce and the less testosterone will be available in our blood.
Possible indications of Caffeine induced cortisol elevation
!. Waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason with difficulty falling asleep again.
2.Needing caffeine up on waking to feel awake even with uninterrupted sleep.
3. Difficulty losing belly fat, regardless of exercise and diet.
4 Intense cravings for sweets
5. Decreased sex drive. Since testosterone ( aka the sex hormone) and cortisol have an reciprocal relationship high cortisol means low sex drive .
6. You are having gut issues ie. Cramps, diarrhea , constipation , heart burn. The gastrointestinal region is very sensitive to excess cortisol .
References
MUSTAFA AL’ABSI, P H D , WILLIAM R. LOVALLO, P H D , BARBARA MCKEY , RN, BONG HEE SUNG, P H D , THOMAS L. WHITSETT, MD, AND MICHAEL F. WILSON, MD
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Responses to Psychological Stress and Caffeine in Me
Ahtiainen, J.P., Pakarinen, A., Kraemer, W.J., & Häkkinen, K. (2004). Acute hormonal responses to heavy resistance exercise in strength athletes versus nonathletes. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 29(5), 527–543.
al’Absi, M., Lovallo, W.R., McKey, B., Sung, B.H., Whitsett, T.L., & Wilson, M.F. (1998). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical responses to psychological stress and caffeine in men at high and low risk for hypertension. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 521–527.
140 Beaven et al.
Batterham, A.M., & Hopkins, W.G. (2006). Making meaningful inferences about magnitudes. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 1, 50–57.
Bhasin, S., Storer, T.W., Berman, N., Callegari, C., Clevenger, B., Phillips, J., et al. (1996). The effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men. The New England Journal of Medicine, 335(1), 1–7.
Biaggioni, I. (2004). Adenosine receptors and autonomic regulation. In D. Robertson (Ed.), Primer on the autonomic nervous system (pp. 66–69). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Bird, S.P., Tarpenning, K.M., & Marino, F.E. (2006). Independent and combined effects of liquid carbohydrate/essential amino acid ingestion on hormonal and muscular adapta- tions following resistance training in untrained men. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 97(2), 225–238.
Bridge, C.A., & Jones, M.A. (2006). The effect of caffeine ingestion on 8 km run performance in a field setting. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(4), 433–439.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Daly, R.M., Rich, P.A., & Klein, R. (1998). Hormonal responses to physical training in high-level peripubertal male gymnasts. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 79, 74–81.
Davis, J.M., Zhao, Z., Stock, H.S., Mehl, K.A., Buggy, J., & Hand, G.A. (2003). Central nervous system effects of caffeine and adenosine on fatigue. The American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 284, R399–R404.
Graham, T.E., & Spriet, L.L. (1995). Metabolic, catecholamine, and exercise perfor- mance responses to various doses of caffeine. Journal of Applied Physiology, 78(3), 867–874.
Nehlig A, Daval JL, Debry G: Caffeine and central nervous
system: Mechanisms of action, biochemical, metabolic, and
psychostimulant effects. Brain Res Rev 17:139-170, 1992
2. Rail TW: Central nervous system stimulants: The xanthenes. In: Goodman LS, Gilman AG (eds). Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 6th Edition. New York, Macmillan, 1980, 589-
603
3. Pincomb, GA, Lovallo, WR, Passey, RB, et al: Effect of
behavior state on caffeine’s ability to alter blood pressure. Am J
Cardiol 61:798-802, 1988
4. James JE: Caffeine and ambulatory blood pressure. Am J Hy-
pertens 6:91-96, 1993
5. Lane JD, Williams RB: Caffeine affects cardiovascular re-
sponses to stress. Psychophysiology 27:648-655, 1985
New research is discovering that our highly caffeinated culture might be shooting itself in the foot
in hopes caffeine will get them moving little bit faster. It is becoming clear that Caffeine may have more of a negative impact on our hormones then just a little extra energy .
1. That Morning cup of Joe
Are you the type of person that drinks coffee and tries to hide the taste of it with chocolate syrup and whip cream? Or maybe put 6 packets of sugar and a heap of half and half? Well you might just be compounding the “caffeine effect. ” Which basically is a drastic increase in the amount and duration of cortisol in your blood stream. Cortisol and testosterone have a reciprocal relationship in that when cortisol is elevated testosterone production is decreased. Since testosterone is what makes us build muscle, burn fat and keeps us healthy its obviously something we want to keep elevated not depressed by high cortisol levels So not only are you elevating and extending your cortisol response and lowering the amount of free testosterone in your blood stream with that cup of coffee but the high sugar content is additionally spiking your insulin and searching for any fat you may have also ingested like a donut to conveniently store on your belly. The necessity for a morning cup of coffee to get you going is commonly indicative of having long term elevated cortisol levels associated with adrenal fatigue. In a study on the affects of coffee “providing 3 mg of caffeine/kg body weight, was found to prevent morning cortisol concentrations from falling back to baseline. (Anna Gavricli, Mary Yannakoulia et al 2011)
I wont even go into the metabolism disaster that is replacing breakfast with coffee in this article.
2.The Pre-workout supplement.
So what about those caffeine pack pre-workout supplements that get you slamming those heavy weights around? Better workout should mean better results right? Not necessarily.“ Data shows a moderate effect of caffeine in elevating cortisol concentrations during resistance exercise. The cortisol elevation observed is consistent with the results of Lane, Pieper, Phillips-Bute, Bryant, and Kuhn (2002), and this elevation might counter the anabolic effects of testosterone.” This is tragic. Almost every guy in the gym is taking a pre-work supplement to maximize his testosterone boosting gym time. When in fact the persistence of the “ Caffeine effect” was still hormonally “apparent 10 or more hours after ingestion. A significant dose produced a substantial and long-lasting effect on cortisol concentration. “(Lawrence D. Hayes, et.al 2010)
“Much research has reported that suppressing cortisol during resistance exercise by nutritional supplementation is associated with greater gains in muscle mass (Bird et al., 2006). These observations suggest that the cortisol increase associated with caffeine ingestion might counteract any benefit derived from the increase in exercise-induced testosterone concentration”. Indeed, the anabolic–catabolic balance, as illustrated by the testosterone:cortisol ratio, showed an overall caffeine-induced decrease, with the decrease being most pronounced at the highest caffeine dose. This data suggests that catabolic processes were predominant in the recovery phase after resistance exercise when higher doses of caffeine were ingested.
.“Elevated levels of cortisol have a highly significant negative effect on circulating testosterone concentrations” (Bambino and Hsueh, 1981; Cumming et al.,1983).
3. Daily sodas and energy drinks
Do you drink multiple sodas a day? Or maybe a couple energy drinks to really keep you productive at work? The extended Caffeine effect is destroying your manhood. Drinking sodas through out the day keeps your cortisol levels spiked and never allows them to return to baseline level. Which like I stated above keeps your free testosterone levels flaccidly low. All this caffeine is a compounding problem, the more we drink the more we elevate our cortisol and depress our testosterone, and the more we need to drink to feel alert and awake.
What this all boils down to is not as complicated as all the science may make it sounds. Essentially high consumption of caffeine affects our hormones negatively. The more caffeine we consume the more cortisol our body will produce and the less testosterone will be available in our blood.
Possible indications of Caffeine induced cortisol elevation
!. Waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason with difficulty falling asleep again.
2.Needing caffeine up on waking to feel awake even with uninterrupted sleep.
3. Difficulty losing belly fat, regardless of exercise and diet.
4 Intense cravings for sweets
5. Decreased sex drive. Since testosterone ( aka the sex hormone) and cortisol have an reciprocal relationship high cortisol means low sex drive .
6. You are having gut issues ie. Cramps, diarrhea , constipation , heart burn. The gastrointestinal region is very sensitive to excess cortisol .
References
MUSTAFA AL’ABSI, P H D , WILLIAM R. LOVALLO, P H D , BARBARA MCKEY , RN, BONG HEE SUNG, P H D , THOMAS L. WHITSETT, MD, AND MICHAEL F. WILSON, MD
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Responses to Psychological Stress and Caffeine in Me
Ahtiainen, J.P., Pakarinen, A., Kraemer, W.J., & Häkkinen, K. (2004). Acute hormonal responses to heavy resistance exercise in strength athletes versus nonathletes. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 29(5), 527–543.
al’Absi, M., Lovallo, W.R., McKey, B., Sung, B.H., Whitsett, T.L., & Wilson, M.F. (1998). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical responses to psychological stress and caffeine in men at high and low risk for hypertension. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 521–527.
140 Beaven et al.
Batterham, A.M., & Hopkins, W.G. (2006). Making meaningful inferences about magnitudes. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 1, 50–57.
Bhasin, S., Storer, T.W., Berman, N., Callegari, C., Clevenger, B., Phillips, J., et al. (1996). The effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men. The New England Journal of Medicine, 335(1), 1–7.
Biaggioni, I. (2004). Adenosine receptors and autonomic regulation. In D. Robertson (Ed.), Primer on the autonomic nervous system (pp. 66–69). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Bird, S.P., Tarpenning, K.M., & Marino, F.E. (2006). Independent and combined effects of liquid carbohydrate/essential amino acid ingestion on hormonal and muscular adapta- tions following resistance training in untrained men. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 97(2), 225–238.
Bridge, C.A., & Jones, M.A. (2006). The effect of caffeine ingestion on 8 km run performance in a field setting. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(4), 433–439.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Daly, R.M., Rich, P.A., & Klein, R. (1998). Hormonal responses to physical training in high-level peripubertal male gymnasts. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 79, 74–81.
Davis, J.M., Zhao, Z., Stock, H.S., Mehl, K.A., Buggy, J., & Hand, G.A. (2003). Central nervous system effects of caffeine and adenosine on fatigue. The American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 284, R399–R404.
Graham, T.E., & Spriet, L.L. (1995). Metabolic, catecholamine, and exercise perfor- mance responses to various doses of caffeine. Journal of Applied Physiology, 78(3), 867–874.
Nehlig A, Daval JL, Debry G: Caffeine and central nervous
system: Mechanisms of action, biochemical, metabolic, and
psychostimulant effects. Brain Res Rev 17:139-170, 1992
2. Rail TW: Central nervous system stimulants: The xanthenes. In: Goodman LS, Gilman AG (eds). Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 6th Edition. New York, Macmillan, 1980, 589-
603
3. Pincomb, GA, Lovallo, WR, Passey, RB, et al: Effect of
behavior state on caffeine’s ability to alter blood pressure. Am J
Cardiol 61:798-802, 1988
4. James JE: Caffeine and ambulatory blood pressure. Am J Hy-
pertens 6:91-96, 1993
5. Lane JD, Williams RB: Caffeine affects cardiovascular re-
sponses to stress. Psychophysiology 27:648-655, 1985