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Competition for Jolt/Dew/Coffee?
bl00d writes "Noticed this advertised in "Maxim"
magazine, then checked out their website. The caffiene this
stuff is made with is 2.5 times stronger than that in Coffee/Tea/Soft
drinks. Their "Model" is rather scary, but the drink
sounds like the stuff for coding marathons." The scariest
part is the name: The stuff is called
Bawls. I guess its easier
than disolving penguin mints in my morning expresso.
I'm neither a chemist nor a cook but it sounds like the difference between melting and burning. Carmel is burnt sugar.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
Had a penguin mint once. Tasted kinda funny, so I looked at the box. Nutrasweet. Spit it out, still had a headache the rest of the day. Half the people I know are violently allergic to Nutrasweet, and I'm just mildly so in comparison.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
> Any ginko users? Have you noticed any difference in your mental stimulation?
Definitely. That and Chromium Picolinate (sp?) was what I took to stay awake when I was a tape ape, mounting tapes all night long. Much less edg than caffiene, did not wear off nearly as quickly. But long term, it may have been just as bad for me, where I became very emotionally unstable, though severe depression did not help either.
Caffeine gives me a short boost in that hyperfocused attention span that I need when coding, but in the long run it's destructive. I've actually written better code when drunk, but that's not really well-accepted at work.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
That's scary ... that's how strychnine works too. So hey, all the hax0r d00dz who think caffeine is free energy may as well take strychnine.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
Yeah uh. oh you're an AC. not worth the time.
Rob, I think "coward" has lost its impact. How about Anonymous Waste Of Time?
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
I read a comparison chart of the caffeine in drinks. Coffee and tea were at the top, Jolt had about a third the caffeine of coffee, and Coke had half the caffeine of Jolt. So which one is this new guarana drink comparing itself to?
I remember when Jolt came out, there were mass predictions that coffee would become a thing of the past. Same when Red Bull came out (you do get that in the US, don't you?). I say now what I said then; nothing will replace coffee. Ever. It may have less caffeine that some of the funky drinks out there, and it may be trivial when compared to caffeine tablets, but coffee was, and always will be, the drink of choice. It's not just the drinking; it the wondering which machine to use; the cool-looking percolator, the fancy expresso maker, the baby expresso maker, the cafetiere... then there's the pouring into the huge Babylon 5 mug, the inhalation of that heady aroma, the first sip... pardon me, I'm getting aroused. Gotta go.
No, diuretic just means it'll make you piss more. Mix it with alcohol, which is also a "natural diuretic", and you're just asking for an amazing hangover. Note: Hangovers are caused by dehydrating your body. To avoid them. Don't passout. Stay awake until you start to sober up a little bit. Drink as much pure water as you can. Go to sleep. Wake up and make lots of noise for the benefit of your friends who didn't follow these instructions.
Maybe it's just my Englishness coming through, but I think coffee is pretty disgusting, and I don't really rate colas either. The only caffeinacious drink I touch is tea, and I drink that because I like it, not "to get wired". Like someone else above said: if I'm tired, I go to sleep. I'd rather not keep myself awake and alert artificially.
Guaranine (or Guanine, same thing) is caffeine. Gather round, and let me read from the xanthine book.
;). It can, however, be habit-forming, just like anything else. It's really a case of mind over matter - people are used to coffee, so they get headaches without it. I have never experienced withdrawal from any drug, and i've used caffeine, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine on a semi-chronic basis. Crashing, however, is another matter.
Xanthines are chemical structures related to uric acid. They are processed similarly (By the enzyme xanthine oxidase), so inhibitors of this enzyme are often used in the treatment of gout.
In any case, the xanthine we know and love, caffeine ((1,3,7)tri-methyl-xanthine), is an adenosine blocker. This is the inhibtory neurotransmitter we talked about earlier. It makes you tired. Blocking it makes you un-tired, but not necessarily stimulated. Caffeine is really an "anti-somnolent" rather than a true stimulant, but it can stimulate the release of adrenaline. Certain xanthines (theobromine, theophylline) are found in chocolate and tea, and as you pointed out, are less potent than caffeine. Dogs process xanthines much slower than humans - thus the chocolate toxicity (which sets in around 200-250 grams, it's quite a bit).
Cocaine works a little differently. It doesn't block receptors, it inhibits the reuptake of adrenaline and dopamine. By doing this, the brain is flooded with these "feel-good" monoamines. The addictive nature of cocaine lies in its dopaminergic quality.
So - caffeine isn't very addictive
Ever have a rum and coke?
or Jack Daniels and coke?
This is pretty true for me also. I was a heavy coffee drinker until I ended up in the hospital for 3 months and was completely cut-off from any caffeine. When I got out, I had a couple of cups of coffee and felt *terrible*. I quit. I don't even take asprin/tylenol with caffeine if I can help it and I've never felt better in my life.
Oh, that sounds great! Gotta stop by the liquor store and then 7-11 on my way home tonite!
erk, cough, gag, wheeze!
What a *horrible* concoction this is!
Yeech, rather drink battery-acid, I think!
...needs some "Bawls". That was the slowest page load I've suffered in a while. :)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
I've been into powerlifting for several years now. Caffeine and similar stimulants are very common in my sport. The research I've seen indicates that caffeine don't really give much of a strength increase, but it does help create the aggressive mental attitude that leads to good workouts and good lifts.
:)
I've tried various combinations of natural herbs. The most intense I've found is a combination of Kola Nut and Ma-Huang (sp?). It's usually marketed as an herbal weight-loss formula. Popular brands of this mix include Thermalift, Twinlabs Ripped Fuel, and Formula One. While this formula is "herbal", it's basically a mixture of caffeine and ephedrine.
Sidebar: At one time, ephedrine was commonly prescribed as an asthma treatment. I'm asthmatic and actually took some as a little kid. My mom says I road my tricycle in a circle on the back porch for an hour straight.
By accident, I've found that the OTC allergy medicine Sudafed, combined with caffeine, has similar effects (on me at least). Of course, the other nice side effect I've found with both ephedrine and Sudafed is that they open up your breathing.
The downside of these stimulants, as some others have pointed out, is that the stuff DOES burn your system out. I've learned to save it for when I really need it.
As far as alcohol, the most pleasant natural "buzz" I've felt was coffee and Bailey's Irish Creme. I felt alert but not jittery. Personally, though, I would never use or recommend any alcohol before or during training or competition.
I've just tried three weeks of St. John's Wort and didn't notice any real difference (grumpy S.O.B. is my usual state of mind anyway). There seemed to be a mild effect with Ginko, but it could have been a placebo effect. I might give it another try.
Just my 2-cent ramblings. Thanks.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
How about Corn Nuts' jingle? I was listening to the radio, and all of a sudden I hear these girls singing "Bust a nut! Bust a nut! Everybody loves to bust a nut!" Almost ran my car off the road laughing.
I don't consume caffeine (even Dr. Pepper gives me a migraine) and I'm a fine coder :) My code works and makes sense... Except for once when I had a project that needed finishing by the next day, I satyed up all night without sugar or caffeiene and kinda blacked out at bout 5:30 in the morning because I had been pushing weird hours all week.. I got woke up at about 7 or so and noticed that the project was working, I didn't understand how I did it, or when I did it, and I couldn't make heads or tails out of the code that mysteriously written while I could not rememeber anything, but it worked and I used it :)
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
According to a fabulous book called Buzz, which is about alchohol and cafeine, here's how caffeine works.
When your neurons fire, they excrete, seemingly as a by-product, a chemical which has an inhibitory neuro-transmitter effect. There are receptors on your neurons which uptake this by-product and it makes it less likely for the neuron to fire. Caffeine resembles this by-product enough for it to lodge in the receptors, but not enough for it to WORK as a signal. So the by-product is less likely to be a signal to inhibit the neuron, and thus the neurons keep firing longer, until the concentration of the by-product is high enough in relation to the caffeine to have the slowing effect. The more caffeine you drink, the more of the by-product you need before your brain stops cycling madly on conections.
But if you test performance (in some way) of non-caffeine drinking people before a dose of caffeine and after, then give them the same dose for two weeks, and test them again, you find that the second test of the second set is identical to the first test of the first set. That is, they've completely adjusted to the caffeine.
So after two weeks of constant dosage, you're not getting anything out of it. You're only suffering the effects of not getting it. So the way to get a buzz out of caffeine is to not drink it when you don't need it. OR DRINK A LOT WHEN YOU DO.
But guanine (the active ingredient in guarana) isn't caffeine. It resembles it a great deal, just as the caffeine-like substances in chocolate do (there's also honest-to-goodness caffeine in chocolate). One caffeine-like substance in chocolate is much less potent than caffeine (7 times less?) -- but that's made up for by the fact that there's many times more of it in chocolate than there is caffeine.
So here are a few questions I don't know the answer for: how potent is guanine compared to caffeine per miligram? Is bawls quoting by effect or weight?
And, since guanine is related to caffeine and cocaine (this is a general description I've seen) does it have an addictive quality?