Sunday, April 26, 2009

Coffee Before Exercise and My McMaster Supervisor!!!

One of my best experiences at McMaster was doing my thesis on "Gender Differences in Carbohydrate Loading" with Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky in my 4th year. The faculty at McMaster, specifically in the Kinesiology department was and is first rate and am grateful I was able to learn from such a great group of people. The practical experience I got in a lab and actually seeing and organizing a study was phenomenal. Not too mention all the research studies that I had to read gave me a greater appreciation of the human body and its potential.

The other area of exercise physiology that had a large amount of research at the time was the use of caffeine in endurance exercise. Even at that time (eek 10 years ago!!!) the consensus was that caffeine improved fat burning and increased length of endurance time, essentially being a performance enhancer.

One of my friends from McMaster is currently finishing med school out East (Becky!)and she recently emailed with a NY times article that reminded her of me and our times at MAC. Reading it reminded me of my supervisor and also the question I often get from my patients about drinking coffee before going for a run or exercising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26best.html

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