Research in Sport Medicine and Technology

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of different doses of caffeine chewing gum on stress hormones and shooting performance of military men. The subjects of the present research were 10 commanders of Valiasr Police Training Center in Tabriz with a mean and standard deviation of age of 31.52±2.78 years, weight of 75.32±3.91 kilograms, His height was 176.14 ± 4.84 cm. The levels of cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone and oxytocin in the blood as well as shooting performance were measured after consuming different doses of caffeine. In the first phase, the placebo was given 15 minutes before the shooting. In the second, third and fourth stages (the time interval between each stage is 5 days), all the subjects were given caffeine gum with doses of 150, 200 and 300 mg 15 minutes before the shooting. Gum and placebo were given to the participants in a double-blind manner. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance with repeated measures and Tukey's post hoc test were used to analyze the data(P≤0.05). The results of the present study showed that the consumption of caffeine gum in doses of 200 and 300 grams causes a significant decrease in all three stress hormones and also a significant increase in shooting performance, however, the consumption of a dose of 150 mg of caffeine don’t have an effect on the reduction of stress hormones and Shooting performance. According to these results, shooting athletes can be advised to use caffeine gum with doses of 200 and 300 mg before their training and competitions. However, more studies are needed to comment on the use of different doses of caffeine, especially in the form of chewing gum.