Forgo the after-workout massage for a cup ’o Joe? Moderate doses of caffeine--the equivalent of two cups of coffee--can cut post-gym muscle pain, suggests a new but small study.
The findings have particular relevance for people new to exercise, since they tend to experience the most soreness, LiveScience.com reported.
“If you can use caffeine to reduce the pain, it may make it easier to transition from that first week into a much longer exercise program,“ said lead researcher Victor Maridakis of the University of Georgia.
Maridakis and his colleagues studied nine female college students who were not regular caffeine coffee drinkers and didn’t exercise on a regular basis. One and two days after an exercise session that caused moderate muscle soreness, the participants took either caffeine or a placebo. Then, they completed two thigh exercises, one requiring maximum muscle effort, and the other sub-maximal effort.
Those who consumed caffeine one-hour before the maximum force test had a 48 percent reduction in pain compared to the placebo group. Students who took caffeine before the near-maximum force test showed a 26 percent reduction in soreness.
Anyone who has needed a pick-me-up knows caffeine can increase alertness. Past studies have shown it also boosts endurance, and one experiment found caffeine reduces pain during moderate-intensity cycling.
The researchers suggest the caffeine likely works by blocking the body’s receptors for adenosine, a chemical released in response to inflammation.
You might not want to rush and pack a thermos of coffee in your gym bag, however. For one, for some people too much caffeine can cause jitteriness, heart palpitations and sleep disturbances. Also, the results might not apply to regular caffeine users, who might be less sensitive to caffeine’s effects. Plus, the researchers only studied women, and men could respond differently. To verify the results for the general population, the study will need to be replicated with more participants and also with men.
Still, the scientists said caffeine appears to give more relief than found with conventional pain and soreness relievers, such as naproxen (the active ingredient in Aleve), aspirin and ibuprofen.

A three-color image of the LHA 115-N 19 region in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Massive stars and their dead brethren are teaming up to build a colossal space bubble outside our Milky Way galaxy.
Expanding envelopes of gas and dust shed by massive stars and supernovas are in the act of merging in a peculiar region of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of two dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way, SPACE.com reported.
“We are witnessing the birth of a superbubble,“ said Rosa Williams, an astronomer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a statement.
The superbubble spied by Williams and her colleagues is coming together in a region of the Small Magellanic Cloud known as LHa115-N19 (N19), an area rich with ionized hydrogen gas and populated by massive stars blowing out their own dust and gas in stellar winds. Supernova remnants, vast gas shells belched out during a star’s explosive demise, also appear in the region, researchers said.
“In N19, we have not one star, but a number of massive stars blowing bubbles and we have several supernova remnants,“ Williams said, adding that the shells and cavities carved the objects may overlap. “Eventually, these bubbles could merge into one enormous cavity, called a superbubble.“
Williams led the superbubble study and presented her team’s findings this week at a Seattle meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The astronomers relied on X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, as well as optical and spectroscopic measurements to identify their superbubble-in-the-making.
“We caught this particular region of N19 at a neat moment in time,“ Williams said. “The stars are just dispersed enough that their stellar winds and supernova blasts are working together, but have not yet carved out a full cavity.“
The cosmic formation not only gives astronomers a deeper glimpse into the lifecycles of massive stars, but may also prove fruitful for planetary formation research. During their lifecycles, massive stars generate - and ultimately distribute via supernova - the heavy elements that are crucial for the formation of planets, researchers said.
“Our own solar system may have formed within the confines of a superbubble,“ Williams said.

More than 1,500 toddlers and babies wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period and three died because of bad reactions to cold or cough medicine, federal health officials reported Thursday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned parents not to give common over-the-counter cold remedies to children under 2 years old without consulting a doctor, AP reported.
The deaths of three infants 6 months or younger in 2005 led to an investigation that showed the children all had high levels of the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, up to 14 times the amount recommended for children ages 2 to 12. The study found 1,519 ER cases from 2004 and 2005 involving young children and cold medicine.
The CDC said it’s not known how much cold or cough medicine can cause illness or death in children under 2 years old, but there are no approved dosing recommendations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that age group.
The American Academy of Pediatrics first advised parents in 1997 about the risks of complications and overdose potential with certain cough suppressants. Last year the American College of Chest Physicians advised doctors not to recommend cough suppressants and over-the-counter cough medications to young children because of the risks.
Dr. Michael Shannon, chief of emergency medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, said it’s common, especially in the winter, to see emergency room cases of toddlers given cough or cold medicine.
“Pediatricians have for years, particularly for the last five years, been for the most part trying to dissuade parents from giving young children common cold preparations,“ Shannon said.
Dr. Michael Marcus, director of pediatric pulmonology, allergy and immunology at Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital in New York, said, “The best thing (parents) can do is support with fluids and lots of kisses and time, because lots of infections are viral and will pass in a few days. The medications have a greater potential for harm than the infections you are trying to treat.“

Nurse Dionna Jinkens works on a cardiac monitor at the Heart Hospital in central London, in this file photo from August 8, 2001.

British scientists have discovered a potential new way to identify people who have a higher risk of developing heart disease.
Telomeres, tiny strands of DNA at the ends of chromosomes which seem to contain secrets about aging, may also hold clues about who is more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease, Reuters reported.
The researchers, who measured telomere length in leukocytes, or white blood cells, in 1,500 men aged 45-64 years old, found short telomeres indicate a higher likelihood of developing heart disease.
“We have shown that leukocyte telomere length is associated with future coronary heart disease events in middle-aged, high-risk men,“ Professor Nilesh Samani, of the University of Leicester in England, said in a report in The Lancet medical journal on Friday.
Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes from fraying. They shorten each time a cell divides and the loss is associated with aging. As telomeres get smaller, the chromosomes can become unstable and at greater risk of mutation.
Earlier research had shown that people with heart disease have shorter telomeres but it was not clear until now if telomere length could be a predictive marker for the illness.
“They have shown that it is a predictor. It doesn’t say it is functionally linked to heart disease but it is certainly associated with it,“ Professor Jeremy Pearson, of the British Heart Foundation, said in an interview.
He said the findings are also important in understanding the disease process and in finding ways to prevent heart attacks.
The researchers, who compared the length of telomeres of 484 men who went on to develop heart disease and 1,058 healthy men, found shorter telomere length was linked to disease risk.
Heart disease is a leading killer in industrialized countries. Smoking, being overweight or obese, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, diabetes and raised cholesterol levels increase the odds of developing the illness.