Tuesday, February 26, 2008

In the interest of science

This month's Nutrition Action Health Letter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest has an article about caffeine -- "The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe". They describe one study on how caffeine affects driver alertness as follows:
French researchers accompanied young males as they drove 125 miles on a highway between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. When the young men were given coffee with 200 mg of caffeine before getting behind the wheel, they inadvertently crossed into another lane an average of two times during their drive. When they were given decaf, they crossed over an average of six times.

I'm guessing that there was no IRB review of this study protocol.......

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

But what a great testimony to the tremendous benefit that those of us who live by coffee believe in. We reduce serious errors from six to two between 2AM and 3AM -- when I do my best work.