Hmm… I posted this  two weeks ago and it automatically magically disappeared.  Now it’s almost time for fall break!

Jolt Energy Gum would like to salute the countless people who are heading into their respective institutes of learning in order to emerge more knowledgeable with their well spent tuition and supply funds to help them attain their goals of becoming what they.. always.. wanted to be.. in life.. haha I’m sorry I couldn’t even finish that without laughing.

School work has always been a chore. Make it easier by being a chewer!

But don’t fret! While you’re juggling your books, supplies, laptop, there’s another menace in your hands that is making you think “I wish I could just carry one of these things in my mouth.” That’s where Jolt Energy Gum comes in. Instead of lugging around that energy drink or coffee why not chew gum since it has more benefits?

Chewing gum makes your brain work harder… and better – basically, chewing gum makes you smarter.  Even guy in the corner with the conical hat knows that you smart  + you study = you improve test scores.

http://www.wired.com/2011/11/the-cognitive-benefits-of-chewing-gum/

Not only will chewing Jolt Energy Gum help your brain work better, but with the added caffeine, you’ll also be able to actually stay awake while your professor drones on and on about something that has absolutely nothing to do with what you’re there to learn!  Chewing gum only makes you smarter if you’re awake. So chew Jolt Gum.

Oh, and remember to stay Classy.  When you’re chewing gum in class, chew with your mouth closed.

Class dismissed.

Looks like our friend here has a stack overflow error.

What if we told you there was something that would help you run faster, improve reaction times, and then recover faster post-exercise?  

And it’s legal.  Where can we get some of that stuff?

If you’re like most people, you already did this morning.

Have a plate of penne, a spoonful of spaghetti, a cup of cola and a canteen of coffee after a workout and you’ll recover a lot faster!

There’s more and more science showing that caffeine not only improves athletic performance, but now we’re learning it also helps your muscles recover faster after exercise too.  It makes some sense right away if you think about it… assuming most races or competitions involve fixed distances, if caffeine helps you to run faster or perform better, it must have helped you to do something more efficiently.

Indeed, University of Birmingham (England) researchers tested the effect of caffeine on the rate which carbs are consumed during exercise.  They found that the usage rate of carbohydrates was 26 percent higher in the cyclists receiving carbs with caffeine than in those receiving carbs without caffeine.  The conclusion is that caffeine may have increased the rate of glucose absorption, giving muscles more fuel more quickly. The extrapolated effect on performance is the ability to work harder for a longer period of time without getting as fatigued.

But what if you’re already exhausted?  Put a check mark in the caffeine and carb boxes again.  A recent study showed that athletes carb-ed up and caffeinated had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense exercise.  If you have 66% more fuel for the next day’s training or competition, there is absolutely no question you will go farther or faster,” said Dr. Hawley, senior author of the study.

Not that we’re not a little biased on the caffeine, but science sure seems to indicate that having caffeine before exercise, and carbs and caffeine after exercise is a win win.  Let Jolt caffeine gum help you in your workout and recover after it!  THAT’S what we’re talking about when we say, “Jolt Caffeine Gum… Chew More.  Do More!”

Hit the town a little too hard last night and now if feels as if the town’s hitting back inside your head?  Run a half-marathon and now your back hurts so much you think you must have been half-crazy to do it?  Aspirin, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen and paracetamol are all good choices.

The dream team – aspirin and caffeine

If you want to play medical MacGyver, just add a little caffeine and you’ll supercharge your pain killer without any additional medicine.  That’s the reason some medicines like Excedrin add caffeine to the pill itself – Excedrin typically has 65mg of caffeine per pill.

Simply, manufacturers add caffeine to their pills to make them work better.  A study in “The Journal of the AMA”  (American Medical Association) compared 30 studies of that took place over a 20 years. One of the findings was that adding caffeine to products like Tylenol (acetaminophen) boosted its performance by 20 to 30 percent.

In 2000, researchers from the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago analyzed the effectiveness of caffeine combined with Advil (ibuprofen). Volunteers were given ibuprofen alone, ibuprofen with caffeine,  caffeine alone or a placebo. Caffeine & ibuprofen together provided better pain relief.

Do you need a lot of caffeine?  Not really.  Scientists from Johns Hopkins compared the effect of a placebo, 50, 100 and 150 mg doses of ibuprofen alone or combined with caffeine. The most significant were from the combo of even low dose of caffeine and ibuprofen, up to 2.4 times as powerful as taking ibuprofen by itself.

Caffeine all by itself increases alertness, focus, mental speed, and helps improve memory.  Chewing gum all by itself  increases alertness, focus, and most kinds of memory.  Put them together and… well, you do the math. Scientists know that the 1 + 1 is at least two, but they’re not sure exactly why.  Knowing why may not be as important to you as knowing caffeine gum can help you score higher on exams.

Let’s start with chewing gum.  Any flavored chewing gum will do.  There are numerous studies that show chewing gum, especially a flavored gum, will help improve alertness and memory, in some cases by as much as 24%.

The Hippocampus is a key area for memory

There are a few potential explanations for gum’s benefit, says Dr. Andrew Scholey, author of several studies and director of the Center for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University, Melbourne.  In 2000, researchers showed that brain activity in the hippocampus, an area important for memory, increases while people chew.

Other research suggests that insulin receptors in the hippocampus may be involved in memory. “Insulin mops up glucose in the bloodstream and chewing causes the release of insulin, because the body is expecting food. If insulin receptors in the brain are involved in memory, we may have an insulin-mediated mechanism explaining our findings.”

Alternately, it could be as simple as increased alertness and/or increased blood flow to the brain from and increased heart beat.

But what if we could improve upon chewing gum?  What if there was a magic ingredient we could add to gum that would help your brain even more?  What if we didn’t keep writing “what if’s” when you already know where we’re going with this?

Caffeine, as we’d all expect,  increases alertness, but together with a little glucose, has a significant effect on memory.  Caffeine also improves cognition and mental speed, so basically, caffeine just helps you think better and faster.    Put the caffeine inside the gum as they do with a caffeinated gum like Jolt Energy Gum, and you’ve got a little magic mastication!

The Hippo Campus is also a place where Hippos go to college

The only time where you might want to go for the Starbucks and not the double-word-score caffeine gum combo, is if you’re taking a test involving a type of short-term memory called serial recall – recalling items or events in the order in which they occurred.  Any rhythmic activity such as chewing gum or tapping with your hands has been shown to decrease test results in this area.

In summary,  if you have to memorize a long list in order, brew up a pot of coffee or chug a Jolt Cola.    If you want to improve performance on pretty much any other kinds of exam or mental exercise, reach for a pack of Jolt Energy Gum.  Now chewing Jolt caffeine-energy gum isn’t just smart, Jolt Energy gum actually makes you smarter.

Not only will you stay alert, but you’ll remember why you’re doing so.

Everyone knows caffeine is a diuretic, right?

Don’t be so fast to flush that toilet… turns out that conventional wisdom is wrong.  The latest science that… ummm… people who actually research the topic shows that consuming a caffeinated beverage has no more of a diuretic effect than… wait for it… water.  As far back in 1928, caffeine was found to have no significant impact on output of urine. Later studies corroborated this, finding caffeinated beverages did not affect total volume or flow any differently than other beverages.

The Institute of Medicine found that “caffeinated beverages appear to contribute to the daily total water intake similar to that contributed by non-caffeinated beverages.”

Does this image of a waterfall make you want to pee? Maybe. But does a caffeinated beverage? Not so much.

So did the conventional wisdom become conventional? i.e.  how did the wive’s tale get started?  Basically, it seems the belief that caffeinated beverages increases your total urine output stems from research solely among people who don’t use caffeine.  And indeed, if you are a caffeine virgin, i.e. you don’t consume caffeine,  the old rules apply.  Caffeine is a mild diuretic for those people who haven’t used it in a while.

On the other hand, if you’re similar to the significant majority of actual people who consume caffeine, then according to a bunch of studies and articles about studies, caffeine actually doesn’t increase the number of times you need to visit the loo.

Causes of Sleepiness

Continued from part 1

In a AAA study on drowsy drivers, about 50% of the sleepy drivers who crashed reported that they felt only “slightly” or “not at all” drowsy before they crashed.  That percent isn’t far off the 40% who said they would deal with any drowsiness while driving after they got sleepy rather than try to prevent it.

We’ll skip past the obvious flaw in that “logic” – it’s pretty clear if you’re waiting to prevent sleepiness until after you’re sleepy, but don’t know you’re sleepy until after you crash, it’s probably a little late to do anything about it.

The less obvious problem in that logic is how caffeine actually works to keep you awake and alert.  Caffeine works much better as a prophylactic, preventative measure to keep you from geting tired than an after-the-fact remedy.  Here’s how it works: The more tired you are, the more of a nucleoside, adenosine, your body creates.  When adenosine finds its way to the adenosine receptors in your brain, *poof*, those receptors signal your body it’s time to rest, i.e. you get tired.  One of the key ways caffeine works is by functioning as an adenosine blocker.  Caffeine is structurally similar to adenosine so it kinda sorta fits, but different enough not to switch on the sleep response.  If there’s a caffeine molecule lodged in there first, the adenosine molecule can’t get in to bid and make you tired.

Give adenosine and tired-ness the Heismann. Take caffeine before you get tired, not after.

What to do if you’re already tired?

If the adenosine gets in there first, then then the best thing you can do is fill your body with caffeine and then take a short nap of even 15-20 minutes.  This will signal your body to “refresh” and now the caffeine can fill your adenosine receptors first!

Sleepiness or drowsiness is usually brought one of two factors: lack of sleep (or the lack of good sleep), and your body’s natural body clock which programs us to be sleepy twice a day, once in the middle of our night time sleep period, and a second time in the late afternoon.  According to “Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine,” other factors such as what you eat, room temperature, monotony (boring meeting, long, straight highway), etc. can “unmask” the physiological need but do not cause it.    We prefer our sleepiness masked.  Stay away from these foods before a road trip because they can exacerbate sleepiness:

Don’t make it Worse!  

Good foods that are good to avoid before a long road trip:

Almonds:  Almonds contain tryptophan and magnesium, which both help to naturally reduce muscle and nerve function while also steadying your heart rhythm, so great for a pre-bedtime snack, but not so helpful pre-roadtrip.

Honey:  Honey contains glucose, which triggers your brain to stopproducing orexin — one of the chemicals known to trigger alertness.  We like alertness when we’re driving.  So we like orexin.  And we’d prefer all the other drivers had some too.  Save your inner Pooh for until after you arrive.

Bananas:  The magnesium and potassium found in bananas serve as muscle and nerve relaxants. Accordingly, bananas make an awesomely health spa treat, but are clearly

Bananas – good for monkeys, bad for road trips.

less useful in the drivers’ seat.  What’s more, the Vitamin B6 found in the fruit also converts tryptophan into serotonin, increasing relaxation even more.  Vitamin B6 has other benefits, which is why it’s in some energy drinks, but if alertness right now is one of your goals, avoid bananas and vitamin B6.

Cereal with milk – If you’re planning on eating a healthy breakfast before a roadtrip, try something other than cereal and milk.  Ironically, cereal and milk make a great bedtime food.  Cereal has a great balance of protein and carbohydrates. These two essential nutrients, when combined, will put you to sleep in no time. That’s because protein contains an amino acid called tryptophan, which makes you feel sleepy, and carbohydrates help tryptophan reach the brain more easily.   Not really a big problem if you’ve had a good night sleep, but possibly an issue if you, like us, had to put sleep on the back burner.

High Glycemic Foods – Foods with a high glycemic index spike your body’s blood sugar, which in turn causes your body to start manufacturing insulin on an over-time, 3-shifts-a-day schedule.   That’s a) not really healthy and b) a good way to fall asleep right after the initial sugar rush.  And since sleeping is a really bad idea while driving, definitely stay away from those high glycemic index foods. And since those foods aren’t always obvious (e.g. a baked potato can have twice the glycemic index of a cola!) we’d suggest reviewing a good glycemic index chart so you know what you’re eating and drinking.

Continued tomorrow with Part III tomorrow: What you should eat and drink, and how to stay awake

Listen to my voice…You’re getting sleeepy…

You’re driving….

WAKE UP!

In a recent study, more than 50% of New York State drivers admitted that they had driven while drowsy in the past year, while almost 25% percent reported that they had fallen asleep while driving at some point in their lives.  But people are tired all the time, right?  Does this sleepiness really amount to anything more than a little yawning?  Big-time super-cala-soporfic-ally yes.  Drowsy driving causes 100,000 crashes each year according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Lack of Sleep = Same Impact as Drinking Alcohol

When people were kept awake for 17 hours, they tested the same on cognitive-motor tests as a person with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 percent; after staying awake 24 hours they tested equivalent to a BAC of 0.10 percent.  0.08 percent is enough to get you arrested for DUI in all 50 states, so basically, if you wake up at 6 am and drive home at 2:30 a.m., your driving skills would be the same as if you were DUI!

Even a micro-sleep, i.e. a quick “zone-out,” can be enough to cause serious trouble.  If you’re driving 60 mph, you’re going 88 feet per second.  Fall asleep for just three seconds, and you’ve nearly covered the length of a football field!

Who’s most likely to nod off behind the wheel?  Grandpa?  Actually, grandpa might be your safest driver as it relates to drowsy driving statistics.  It’s the grandkids you should be worried about.  Drivers aged 18-29 are 3.5x more likely to drive drowsy than seniors 65+.  71% of those 18-29 admitted to driving while drowsy, a number that gets higher still among men and people who work night shifts.

Our friends at The Automobile Association of America (AAA) offer two proven tips for staying awake:  Get sleep, and take caffeine. Caffeine we can do.  We can happily do (see Juan Valdez, Red Bull, Jolt Gum).  But while we’d all love a solid nine hours of sleep every night, we imagine even the good folks at Triple A aren’t getting that much.  So what can you do to stay awake?

Part II tomorrow…..