According to researchers at England’s Coventry University, caffeine increases strength in the muscles of older people and it could help older people maintain their strength and reduce their chances of falling and injuring themselves.
As people get older, they tend to become weaker, making ordinary tasks more difficult. This new study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology, concludes that caffeine actually makes muscles stronger.
Sports scientists tested the strengthening effects of caffeine by isolating muscles in juvenile and older mice.
The scientists examined two different skeletal muscles: the diaphragm, a core muscle used for respiration, and the extensor digitorum longus, a leg muscle used for locomotion. They discovered that caffeine did in fact strengthen the muscle performance of these muscles in elderly mice. This strengthening was not observed in young mice.
“The performance-enhancing benefit of caffeine could prove beneficial in the aging population,” conclusded said Jason Tallis, the study’s primary author.
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