Caffeine

Question 1

What is the primary mechanism of caffeine in the brain?

Answer 1

antagonist of adenosine receptors in the brain.

Activity regulated by production of adenosine to attenuate neuron cells from firing
Normally, when adenosine binds with receptors, neural activity slows down and promotes ‘sleepiness’

caffeine blocks adenosine receptors with own molecule, preventing adenosine from binding, thus brain activity remains elevated as adenosine is blocked.

Question 2

what is adenosine?

Answer 2

accumulates in the neuronal synapse, binds to and activates adenosine receptors found on certain CNS neurons. -increasing drowsiness.

Question 3

how does caffeine prevent the activation of adenosine receptors?

Answer 3

blocks the adenosine receptor
- resulting in caffeine preventing drowsiness, and maintaining/restoring alertness.

Question 4

what are other benefits of caffeine?

Answer 4

lower risk of CHD
Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
increased attention and reaction time

less proven memory benefits.

Question 5

What factors influence coffee effects?

Answer 5

SNP - single nucleotide polymorphism.

CYP1a2 – rate of metabolism
Higher risk of non-fatal MI in ‘slow metabolisers’ (unless <200mg/d-1)
ADORA - Adenosine receptor
Associated with caffeine sensitivity

Question 6

caffeine recommendations based off of genetics

Answer 6

see powerpoint/ask perplexity

Question 7

Genetic testing ##

Answer 7

Based on studies looking at well defined groups of individuals (small cohorts of elite athletes in specific sports)
It is unclear how these findings will relate back to broader populations
It is unlikely that potential customers fully understand issues with applicability based on advertising created by companies offering genomics based fitness tests.
More than 150 loci have been associated with athletic performance, but few have been replicated in multiple studies.

Although some companies providing DTC genetic fitness tests provide citations to scientific literature for their interpretations, the assessments they provide are not adequately supported by the sources.
DTC companies can cherry pick studies to provide as scientific evidence for their interpretations, leading to a lack of comparability and reproducibility across companies.