Caffeine pills vs coffee/energy drinks

Hey docs,

im curious if taking a 200mg caffeine pill is inherently bad or ineffective as compared to coffee or energy drinks in terms of getting that boost needed to go about your day? They seem much cheaper than coffee or energy drinks and coffee makes me have to go to the bathroom a lot anyways. I know woth the pills you don’t get the vitamins and other properties that those drinks have but assuming I get that via diet I would guess there’s nothing wrong. In terms of pre workout it lacks the beta alanine creatine etc. but comparing it to a cup of coffee or a monster energy drink would it be just as “ok”?

There are a number of ways to administer caffeine such as liquid (e.g. coffee or energy drink), capsule, gum, nasal spray, and mouth rinse. Each type of caffeine possesses slightly different absorption characteristics that are described below and summarized in Figure 1.

Gum
The markedly faster rate of absorption with the gum is seen when examining the 200-mg dose, as a large increase in plasma caffeine concentration occurred between 5 and 15 minutes.

Capsules
The largest increases in caffeine concentration with the capsules were seen between 25-45 minutes.

Mouth Rinsing
Caffeine mouth rinsing is a relatively new form of caffeine supplementation that is administered as a “swish and spit” fashion over 5-20 seconds. Unfortunately, data looking at blood levels of caffeine levels reported no increase in blood caffeine concentration.

Energy Drinks
A number of studies have investigated the effects of commercially available energy drinks, e.g. Red Bull, that contains 160 mg caffeine, 2000 mg taurine, and 10.5 g glucose in 500cc. That said, the current data reports equivocal results for performance improvements in aerobic capacity, handgrip strength, jump performance or cognitive tests when compared to either placebo or caffeine-only. Interestingly, blood concentrations of caffeine appear to take rise more slowly and are overall lower when caffeine is obtained through energy drinks rather than warm coffee.

Nasal Spray
Caffeine administered twice via nasal spray for 20 seconds had no effect on a cognitive performance test (The Stroop task), Wingate sprint cycling performance, 30-minute cycling time trial, or blood concentrations of caffeine.

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Figure 1: *Caffeine content can vary by substance concentration, brewing technique, and volume.

Overall, oral caffeine is rapidly and completely absorbed , with 99 percent being absorbed within 45 minutes of ingestion provided it’s not taken via mouthwash or nasal rinse. Caffeine metabolism is increased by smoking, fasting, and vigorous exercise, whereas its metabolism is inhibited to a small (perhaps clinically insignificant) degree by grapefruit.

Hi Jordan,

Interesting data - I have some old bottles of caffeine pills that I no longer seem to get an energy boost out of. I bought a multipack from Amazon and even using a few a week, I was never going to get through hundreds of pills very quickly.

Do you happen to know anything about how caffeine breaks down in storage? I am not worried about the few bucks I’ll lose by getting a fresh bottle, just curious about the science.

Thanks,
J

I know it depends on the container, environment, formulation of the caffeine supplement’s contents and mfg process, and a number of other factors, but laying out all of the science is above my pay grade here.

That makes sense, thank you!