What We've All Been Waiting For: Zero-Calorie, 'Inhalable' Caffeine

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(Updated) Ever wish you could mainline your coffee? Well, here's the next best thing: AeroShot, a new product that delivers "inhalable" caffeinated puffs, and has got productivity-obsessed technophiles buzzing.

AeroShot's delivery system is a light, plastic inhaler that shoots lime-flavored puffs of powdered caffeine to the tongue, where it is instantly absorbed. Each inhaler contains three puffs, providing a total of 100 mg of caffeine — about as much as in a large cup of coffee.

The product also contains 100% of the recommended daily allowance of niacin, vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12. It's sweetened with stevia, an herbal sweetener that is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.

AeroShot was invented by Harvard biomedical engineering professor David Edwards, who also created a similar no-calorie inhalable chocolate product called Le Whif. "I have a background in developing inhaled drugs and vaccines and I was fascinated about bringing that idea to a new way of eating," says Edwards, "That's how it began."

MORE: No Taste, Not Filling

It took me a few tries to get the hang of using the inhaler (best to read the directions first and not use it upside down!), but soon I got a dose of seriously sweet lime flavor and found my heart rate and mood lifted in that familiar, caffeinated way — but faster than with coffee. The dosing seemed slightly inexact — sometimes, the inhaler doesn't load the powder quite right — but when it worked, the effect was rapid.

"Frequently, the first time people do it, they laugh," says Edwards. "There's something funny about the act, how it happens in your mouth."

Since caffeine is a legal substance in foods, as are the included B vitamins, AeroShot did not require FDA approval. It will be sold as an energy supplement. The label says it is "not intended for people under 12, sensitive to caffeine, allergic to ragweed, taking medications, who are pregnant or who have a serious medical condition." It also warns against using more than three AeroShots a day.

So, what's the best and safest way to use caffeine? And does it really improve performance?

A 2010 Cochrane review of multiple studies of caffeine's effect on shift workers found that it did indeed reduce the number of errors people made in tasks like driving or operating a flight simulator. It also improved memory, reasoning, perception and attention, compared with placebo. Sadly for us writers, however, caffeine did not seem to affect verbal functioning or language skills, at least in the studies included in the review.

Other research suggests that frequent dosing, with about 20 mg of caffeine an hour, is an efficient way to counter the effects of sleep deprivation and improve brain processing speed. If you're using coffee, adding sugar may also help: one study found that it boosted performance more than caffeine alone.

As for the overall health effects of caffeine and coffee, that's been debated for years. On balance, the research seems to find more benefits than harms associated with drinking coffee, including reduced risks of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and depression.

MORE: Coffee May Lower Women's Risk of Depression

Is caffeine addictive? Certainly, it produces tolerance and withdrawal symptoms if it is stopped abruptly. But even though it is the most widely used drug in the world, few caffeine users exhibit signs of serious addiction — namely, compulsive drug-related behaviors despite negative consequences. That could be in part because caffeine is legal and easily and cheaply obtained. Or, it could be because the effects of caffeine use — especially in a hyperefficient society — are generally positive.

So, while previous products, like inhalable aerosolized alcohol, led to bans in multiple states, AeroShot seems more likely to garner praise (especially from employers — and editors).

The new product will hit stores in New York City and Boston in January and will be available online in several weeks, according to Edwards. The retail price is expected to be $2.99 per inhaler — cheaper than a Starbucks latte.

MORE: Does Suffering From Withdrawal Really Mean You're Addicted?

Updated [2:20 p.m.]: AeroShot's price has been corrected; the company originally provided the wrong price information.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

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Still Waiting For That Healthy Oats And Barley Revival

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Enlarge Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images

Barley has fallen out of favor as horse feed, but beer brewers still need it.

Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images

Barley has fallen out of favor as horse feed, but beer brewers still need it.

A press release that landed on my desk recently got me thinking about what American agriculture used to look like. There was a time, seventy or so years ago, when oats and barley covered large swaths of Midwestern farmland — 50 million acres in all. Those grains, high in oil and fiber, were grown to feed the millions of horses that powered American farms.

Then when the tractor arrived, workhorses disappeared, and oats and barley almost went out the same exit. The number of acres devoted to these humble "small grains" is down at least 90 percent from its peak in the 1940s. Oats have been hardest hit, despite aggressive marketing campaigns in recent years by oatmeal makers.

Barley still hangs on, thanks to breweries. "Barley can always go into beer. And people don't want to give up their beer," says Jennifer Mitchell Fetch, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

But back to that press release: It announces that some Italian researchers have perfected pasta that's made from, yes, barley. If the pasta arrives in stores, it will carry a label saying that it "may reduce the risk of heart disease."

Apparently, America's farm horses were enjoying a very healthy diet way back then. Oats and barley are excellent sources of various substances, including soluble fiber, that scientists have linked to lowered cholesterol and lower risk of heart disease.

In fact, the FDA started allowing food manufacturers to advertise such claims for oat- and barley-containing foods several years ago. And some farmers, especially in Canada, where they grow more oats and barley than in the U.S., thought that the old-time crops might be coming back, thanks to the legal green light. Food researchers experimented with barley-containing tortillas, crepes, pancakes, and noodles.

But the demand they were expecting hasn't happened. The latest figures, in Canada and well as the U.S., show that farmers will harvest a record-low amount of these healthy crops this year.

"I've been working on barley for ten or twelve years, and I don't know why it's not in the stores," laments Nancy Ames, from the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, at the University of Manitoba.

Apparently, we still like our meat and potatoes better.

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Still Waiting For That Healthy Oats And Barley Revival

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Enlarge Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images

Barley has fallen out of favor as horse feed, but beer brewers still need it.

Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images

Barley has fallen out of favor as horse feed, but beer brewers still need it.

A press release that landed on my desk recently got me thinking about what American agriculture used to look like. There was a time, seventy or so years ago, when oats and barley covered large swaths of Midwestern farmland — 50 million acres in all. Those grains, high in oil and fiber, were grown to feed the millions of horses that powered American farms.

Then when the tractor arrived, workhorses disappeared, and oats and barley almost went out the same exit. The number of acres devoted to these humble "small grains" is down at least 90 percent from its peak in the 1940s. Oats have been hardest hit, despite aggressive marketing campaigns in recent years by oatmeal makers.

Barley still hangs on, thanks to breweries. "Barley can always go into beer. And people don't want to give up their beer," says Jennifer Mitchell Fetch, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

But back to that press release: It announces that some Italian researchers have perfected pasta that's made from, yes, barley. If the pasta arrives in stores, it will carry a label saying that it "may reduce the risk of heart disease."

Apparently, America's farm horses were enjoying a very healthy diet way back then. Oats and barley are excellent sources of various substances, including soluble fiber, that scientists have linked to lowered cholesterol and lower risk of heart disease.

In fact, the FDA started allowing food manufacturers to advertise such claims for oat- and barley-containing foods several years ago. And some farmers, especially in Canada, where they grow more oats and barley than in the U.S., thought that the old-time crops might be coming back, thanks to the legal green light. Food researchers experimented with barley-containing tortillas, crepes, pancakes, and noodles.

But the demand they were expecting hasn't happened. The latest figures, in Canada and well as the U.S., show that farmers will harvest a record-low amount of these healthy crops this year.

"I've been working on barley for ten or twelve years, and I don't know why it's not in the stores," laments Nancy Ames, from the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, at the University of Manitoba.

Apparently, we still like our meat and potatoes better.

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Education Information

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Long hospital waiting for up to one-third

15 September 2011 booth 10: 23 GMT by Nick Triggle health correspondent of the BBC News there is growing pressure on waiting times, wait the number of hospital patients in England on the 18-week guarantee has jumped to one-third in the last year figures show.

More than 28,000 outside of the official statistics showed objective - an increase of 34% from the same month last year, was waiting for had the 300,000 seen in July.

Those who more than six months waiting for rose 55% to more than 9,000.

But as a whole is the NHS still hits his target, to see how were 90.6% 90% of patients in 18 weeks.

The 10%-Spielraum is allowed, to take account of the fact that some patients can choose, wait longer to personal or medical reasons.

However, the increase in the number, the people, is further proof of the growing pressure on waiting times in health care to over 18 weeks.

Pressure

It reflects similar patterns seen in the last few months, meaning that the promises of the Government to ensure the 18-week is strictly to be tested in the autumn and winter when hospitals tend to get busier.

Some of the longest waiting times are seen in the busiest speciality in the NHS. Orthopaedic treatments need more than 18 weeks almost one in six patients as knee and hip replacement, waited in July.

But Health Minister Simon Burns said that health was still good.

"The vast majority of patients get treatment still in 18 weeks."

"We are committed to performance and the quality of care that provides the NHS, including low wait."

View the original article here

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