Caffeine has different affects on boys and girls post puberty

A new study by University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions has found that caffeine affected boys and girls differently after puberty.

The study by associate professor Jennifer Temple, PhD, showed that boys and girls experience different heart rate and their blood pressure changes after consuming. Girls also experience some differences in caffeine effect during their menstrual cycles.

Past studies have shown that caffeine increases blood pressure and decreases heart rate in children, teens and adults, including pre-adolescent boys and girls. The purpose here was to learn whether gender differences in cardiovascular responses to caffeine emerge after puberty and if those responses differ across phases of the menstrual cycle.

Temple said that an interaction between gender and caffeine dose was found, with boys having a greater response to caffeine than girls, as well as interactions between pubertal phase, gender and caffeine dose, with gender differences present in post-pubertal, but not in pre-pubertal, participants.

Finally, we found differences in responses to caffeine across the menstrual cycle in post-pubertal girls, with decreases in heart rate that were greater in the mid-luteal phase and blood pressure increases that were greater in the mid-follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, she added.

The study titled 'Cardiovascular Responses to Caffeine by Gender and Pubertal Stage' is published online in the journal Pediatrics.