Caffeine Fix
July 12, 2010
Caffeine has been in the news a lot
lately.
I gather it enhances absorption of
particular over-the-counter drugs (at
least, that’s what I’ve been told).
Media hype reveals that elite sports
people use it as a performance
enhancer, or “upper”, to maximize their
sporting efforts.
In fact, I saw on the sports news the
other night an AFL club staff member
wandering around before the game with
a bowl of capsules and a texta written
label “No-Doz 2-3”.
I watched in awe as a high profile
forward stepped up, put his hand in the
bowl and washed either one or more
down with a quick slurp of water (might
have been something else).
The media frenzy here revolves
around caffeine as an “upper” followed
by the after-game “downer” which
seems to be in the form of medically
prescribed temazepam.
Interestingly, a spike in the sales of
caffeine tablets over the last few days
means a renewed interest in the
performance enhancing aspects.
What are our obligations here as
health professionals?
Do we supervise the sales of these
medicines?
I can hear the objections though.
“They are available at my local service
station in small packs”, “why not
supervise the sales of Mother drinks,
and all guarana drinks”, “if it’s good
enough for AFL players to use them,
why bother?”.
We’re missing the point here.
Maybe it’s time for us to be professionally
responsible by advising the purchaser,
as we do for Pharmacist Only Medicines.
Maybe we can demonstrate once again
our role in being “supervisors of
medicines”.
There is no doubt that caffeine use in
sport at all levels is quite common.
We need therefore, as responsible
health professionals, to keep it out of
junior sports, and away from the wellmeaning
but competitive parent who
wants his or her Johnny to give bestbest-
on-ground displays every week?
Can we do it? Will we do it?
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