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KILIMANJARO, Tanzania— It is estimated that each year between 35,000-50,000 people attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but only 60-70 per cent reach the Urhuru peak.

The decision to make the trek to Tanzania and climb Kilimanjaro could only be described as spontaneous. After reading an article about famed Jordanian mountaineer, Mustafa Salameh, I reached out to him through Facebook hoping just to ask him about his experience conquering the seven summits. Instead, I found myself receiving an invitation to join him on his next adventure to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and, though I did not know it yet, the beginning of the Rahhal Project.

Over the next three months my cousin and I prepared for the trip by gathering supplies and gear, getting the necessary vaccinations and training in Wasfi Al Tal Forest. By the day of our trip, January 9, 2017, we were ready to go, but a huge snowstorm in Amman threatened to completely derail our plans. Despite everything, we managed to catch a flight the following day at midnight, finally moving towards our destination. 

After a transit flight to Qatar and nine long hours from there to Tanzania I saw the mountain for the first time… The great peak rising up through the clouds with such a quiet and commanding majesty that all thoughts and plans in my head paused to take in the sight in awed silence. 

We began our decent from there to land and deplane on the runway leading to a tiny two-room building that made up the airport. The excitement of finally reaching our first destination grew greater on the one and a half hour bus ride to the city of Arusha, where our hotel and the true beginning of our journey awaited us. 

Upon arriving at the hotel, we immediately checked in and began to organise our packs for the trip the next morning to make sure they would not exceed the 15kg limit; with no time to have dinner, we retired early to rest for our trip. The next morning, we embarked with the people who would be our companions for the next eight days on a lively three-hour bus ride full of laughter, excitement and singing “Hakuna Matata…” to the base of Mt Kilimanjaro. 

When we reached the gate at the bottom of the mountain, each person registered their name and had a light lunch in the two hours before beginning the first of many treks. 

Our journey to the first camp was four hours of hiking through a thick forest of massive, ancient trees while enthusiastically chatting about the adventure ahead as we all got to know each other. I noticed myself becoming more open and welcoming to these people who, just hours before, were complete strangers. Once we reached the first camp, we settled in our tents and then sat down for one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life; crispy fried chicken seasoned with warm, aromatic spices and fresh, revitalising fruit. After dinner and a few rounds of Jenga, we finally retired to get some much-needed rest for the road ahead.

We began our morning at 6am, having breakfast and coffee before checking our packs and oxygen levels and by 8am we were on our way to the next camp. As we climbed higher, I marvelled at the ways the environment had begun to change; the trees became shorter and sparser, the temperature steadily began to decline, forcing us to wear more layers and to find the balance between staying warm enough and becoming overheated.

Each day for seven days, we would hike six to eight hours and cover between 10-12 kilometres to reach each new stopping point. As we progressed to higher altitudes, it became more and more vital to use the breathing technique we were taught; in through the nose and out through the mouth, to make sure we were getting oxygen efficiently. 

On the fourth day we arrived at a natural barrier known as the Barranco Wall, an obstacle made more challenging by the loose footing. After four long days, I had started to lose motivation, but upon reaching the other side of the wall, the view that waited was more than enough to renew my determination. I stood, surrounded by clouds and felt pride at the achievement of coming so far, with a renewed sense of purpose I pushed on. 

On the 6th day, we saw the summit for the first time…I remember thinking to myself that maybe I was crazy for taking this challenge on, but still, we continued. Soon we reached the high camp which sits at 4,600 metres. In the pitch black at 12am on the 8th day, we began the hardest trek of the trip — 35 kilometres to the summit in extreme cold, the wind tearing at us so ferociously that we hiked with our heads, unable to see or speak. 

At 5,400 metres it became clear that something was very wrong. My cousin could not see anything and began experiencing hallucinations, his oxygen level had dropped to a dangerous 65 per cent (the safest minimum level being 80 per cent); he was immediately carried down on the back of our guide, Mustafa Salameh, who ran the whole way back to high camp where my cousin would receive emergency medical attention. The absence of my cousin and our main guide hit me like a stone, but I felt determined that one of us should reach the summit. We carried on, the final 300 metres taking three hours to complete, through exhaustion and difficulty breathing in the high altitude. 

At 5:30am we arrived at the summit, freezing and tired at -15ºC, to see what we had climbed eight long days for. A view that made every obstacle we faced, every impossible element, worth it; 360 degrees around for kilometres that was indescribable. We stayed only long enough to take a few pictures before we began our decent back to the high camp. 

We returned to find my cousin well and recovering before we moved down to the next camp which sat at 3,200 metres. We stayed one final night on Kilimanjaro before an eight hour hike all the way down to the main gate the next day where we received certificates marking our achievement. 

What started as a spontaneous trip, turned out to be a journey to discover the limits of will and the unbreakable bonds between people who dare to take on extreme challenges. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro was the true beginning of what is now the Rahhal project and will forever remain one of most incredible experiences of my life.

The writer is a Palestinian traveller that plans to visit 140 countries. He contributed this article exclusively to The Jordan Times.

A slinky low-slung and wide grand touring 2+2 sports coupe, the Aston Martin DB11 V12 is a comfortable continent crunching personal luxury chariot that is just as adept through twisting roads.

Harking back to a more evocatively romanticised motoring milieu yet engineered with the benefit of modern high tech design, systems and solutions, the DB11 V12 is at once nostalgic and fresh and forward looking. Stylishly uncomplicated is design yet crisply contemporary in detail, the DB11’s hallmarks are its sophisticated leather and wood-lined cabin, seductive design, classically balanced front-mid engine layout and epic V12 engine.

Classic yet contemporary

Beautifully uncomplicated in its basic design, flowing lines, Coke bottle hips, optionally contrasting, arcing and seemingly floating roof outline from A- to C-pillar, the DB11 sits with a gracefully potent posture, and rides on staggered 255/40ZR20 front and 295/35ZR20 rear tyres for steering feel and rear grip. Elegantly designed, the DB11 incorporates subtle aerodynamic and airflow solutions, including a front splitter and a side strake vents which release high-pressure air from under the wheel-arches. At the rear, hidden intakes at the base of the C-pillars channel air through the bodywork and out through a slim rear deck duct to create a virtual spoiler.

Snouty and with a wide grille flanked by all-LED headlights, the DB11 V12’s jutting fascia is echoed at the rear, with futuristic slim boomerang LED lights. 

Meanwhile it is built on a light stiff bonded aluminium platform with its engine sitting low behind the front axle and gearbox mounted at the rear axle for near perfect — 51 per cent front biased — within wheelbase weighting, for stability, agility, adjustability and balance. Featuring a reverse-swinging clamshell bonnet that exposes parts of its double wishbone front suspension, its full one-piece design both allows the DB11 to well dissipate collision energy for pedestrians safety while maintaining taut and low design lines.

Abundant and indefatigable

Positioned below strut-tower mounted cross braces for cornering rigidity, the range-topping DB11 V12’s vast in-house engineered twin-turbocharged 5.2-ltre 12-cylinder power plant is an epic engine with vast reserves and consistent delivery. More charismatic and rewarding than the DB11 V8’s Mercedes-AMG sourced 4-litre, the V12 model in indefatigably abundant.

With huge torque and power and a seeming absence of any noticeable turbo lag, it spools up quickly and thrusts through to its 7,000rpm rev limit in a quick, long and sweeping arc, underwritten by a gut-wrenching 516lb/ft torque over a vast 1,500-5,000rpm mid-range plateau as power surges seamlessly towards its 600BHP maximum peak at 6,500rpm.

Digging deep and pulling hard from down low and building to a volcanic top-end to a soundtrack of languid bass-rich growls and intense high rev howling and wailing, the DB11’s multi-port injected V12 carries its 1,770kg mass with effortless thrust and response. Blasting through 0-100km/h in just 3.9-seconds and overtaking with seemingly disdainful ease, the DB11 V12 tops out at a 322km/h top speed.

Driving the rear wheels through a smooth, quick and responsive ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox with a broad ratio spread for response, flexibility, refinement, performance and efficiency, the DB11 V12 also features seamless cylinder bank deactivation, which yielded surprisingly moderate real world fuel consumption.

Reassuring yet engaging

A comfortably smooth, reassuringly settled and refined high speed long distance grand tourer, the DB11 V12 becomes a connected, intuitive and highly capable sports car through switchbacks. Focusing its sporting talents, the DB11’s adaptable driving modes offer escalating levels of gearbox and engine responses, and firmer adaptive damper settings to minimise roll for a flatter, tauter cornering.

Meanwhile in its default GT mode, with well-calibrated adaptive dampers and despite huge 20-inch alloy wheels and grippy low profile tyres, the DB11 well absorbs and adapts to road textures yet feels settled and buttoned down rebound, if somewhat firm over sudden jagged bumps and road cracks. 

An engaging drive where one feels at the centre of the action, hunkered down between its balanced chassis, the DB11 V12 is eager and crisp on turn-in, with plenty of front grip, quick 2.4-turn electric steering and torque vectoring selectively braking the inside wheel for tidier manoeuvrability.

Taut and well controlled through corners, it feels agile and adjustable should one wish to tighten a cornering line. Distribute power along the rear axle where needed courtesy of a limited-slip differentia, the DB11 is otherwise committed, grippy and well able to harness its enormous output, while vast six-piston front and four-piston rear brakes provide reassuring stopping power.

Warm and welcoming

Heavy on the ground and wide initially, one very quickly develops an instinct for the DB11’s visibility, width and long bonnet and placing it on the road soon becomes second nature. Seemingly shrinking around the driver and seeming lighter with time and as speed picks up slightly, the DB11’s suspension and steering become more nuanced, textured and fluent in road feel and subtle feedback.

Meanwhile its blindspot warning system, parking sensors and 360 degree bird’s eye view camera prove useful, practical and build confidence when manoeuvring in tight confines. Other features notably include standard brake assistance and brake-force distribution systems numerous airbags, and optional parking assistance.

A high-end personal luxury GT, the DB11’s cabin appointment surpasses the average “premium” coupe and is swathed with high-end leathers, metals, quality woods and soft textures. Driven with stitched deep red upholstery and dark wood tones it had a warm and welcoming ambiance. Well-equipped with creature comforts and a powerful standard or optional Bang & Olufsen sound system, the DB11 also features a 12-inch TFT instrument screen and familiar, functional and user-friendly Mercedes-Benz sourced infotainment system with 8-in screen.

Seating is comfortable, supportive and well-adjustable for an alert yet ergonomic driving position. Front space comfortably accommodates large adults while rear seat space and access is improved over its predecessor, but is more suitable for occasional or child use and features Isofix childseat latches. Meanwhile its use of a traditional boot rather than hatch limits offers less luggage compartment access and volume, but still easily accommodates weekend luggage for two.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.2-litre, twin-turbocharged V12-cylinders

Compression ratio: 9.2:1

Valve-train: 48-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: rear-mounted 8-speed automatic

Drive-line: Rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Final drive: 2.703:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 600 (608) [447] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 115.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 339BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @1,500-5,000rpm

Specific torque: 134.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 395.5Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 7,000rpm

0-100km/h: 3.9-seconds

Top speed: 322km/h

Fuel capacity: 78-litres

Length: 4,739mm

Width: 1,940mm

Height: 1,279mm

Wheelbase: 2,805mm

Dry weight: 1,770kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 51 per cent/49 per cent

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Steering ratio: 13:1

Lock-to-lock; 2.4-turns

Suspension: Double wishbones/multi-link, adaptive dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs 400 x 36mm/360 x 32mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston callipers

Tyres, F/R: 255/40ZR20/295/35ZR20

By Ayah Murad

Clinical Dietician

Most of us grew up eating meat and animal products practically every day so many of us cannot imagine a day without meat or poultry. But going meatless one to three days a week will benefit you nutritionally without having to deprive yourself of mansaf or the occasional shawerma!

We know that fruit and vegetables are a great source of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. These components have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties that are associated with many health benefits that can decrease the risk of major diseases. According to credible research, a regular consumption of more than 400 grammes of fruit and vegetables a day is associated with reduced cancer incidence by 20 per cent as well as lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts and some of the functional declines that are associated with ageing.

People who consume fruits and vegetables can manage their weight better than people who consume high-calorie foods with low nutritional density. Fruit and vegetables can protect us from excessive weight gain due to their low energy density — they stabilise blood sugar levels and offer a feeling of fullness. An adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables can protect against cardiovascular and other diseases and is important for weight gain prevention.

Why limit your intake of animal products

Even though animal-based foods are rich in protein and iron, B- vitamins, zinc, magnesium, calcium and selenium, studies show that people who regularly eat processed meat (particularly red meat) are at higher risk of developing illness, including cancer. Pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer have been linked to heavy meat consumption. Meat also contains a lot of saturated fats and cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease when consumed in high amounts. Meat may also contain high levels of hormones, which can trigger reproductive problems and early-onset puberty in children.

The one type of meat to cut out completely from our diet is processed meat, which includes most cold cuts and hot dogs. The combination of sodium, saturated fat and preservatives (nitrates) they contain raises our risk of getting heart disease or cancer. 

Key, as always, is moderation

You can be healthy and get all your nutrients by following a vegetarian-like diet three times a week. These “vegetarian days” can give your liver the time to detox (rid the body of toxins that are associated with high-protein diets).

The aim is to eat five to nine handfuls of different types of fruits and vegetables a day. Remember that it is not only the fibre in fruit and vegetables that matter but the essential phyto-molecules combined with vitamins and minerals that are hard to find in animal sources. 

Choose fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables whenever possible. I also recommend adding dried beans, peas and lentils to your dishes. Nuts and seeds are a heart-friendly type of fat and are high in protein and fibre as well. However, since they are high in calories, eat them in small amounts. 

Why not be full-time vegetarian?

There are different types of vegetarians. Some avoid all types of meat and animal products (vegans) while others eat dairy and eggs but avoid all types of meat (lacto-ovo vegetarians) and some eat animal products and avoid all types of meat except fish (pescatarians). 

Being vegetarian or vegan does not necessarily make you healthier. Cutting out animal products but loading up on high-carb foods like pasta and bread will harm your health and waistline.

Becoming a full-time vegetarian requires careful cooking methods and planning to ensure you are getting all the benefits and proper nutrients. Fruits and vegetables do not contain high amounts or even full form of protein.

Some full-time vegetarians are not aware that frying food (a falafel burger or fried vegetables in a Panini or just stir-fry vegetables in a wok) reduces nutritional value and packs on calories.

So being a full-time vegetarian, in my expert opinion, does not add value to your health. On the contrary, it depletes you of most vitamins and minerals, especially B vitamins, calcium, iron and protein. 

Remember to stick to a balanced diet and avoid extremes for a healthier you!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Babies who consume nothing but breast milk for their first three months of life may have healthier cholesterol levels by adolescence than infants who drink formula, a new study suggests. 

Paediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants until they’re at least six months old because it can bolster babies’ immune systems and reduce their risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, obesity and diabetes. Breast milk does contain more cholesterol than formula, however, and little is known about how this might impact cholesterol levels later in life, researchers note in Paediatrics. 

For the current study, researchers tracked 3,261 babies born in Hong Kong in 1997, until they reached an average age of 17.5 years. Overall, about 7.5 per cent of these infants were exclusively breastfed for the first three months of life; another 40 per cent consumed a combination of breast milk and formula and 52 per cent drank only formula. 

By their late teens, compared to kids who had some formula as babies, those who did not had lower total cholesterol levels as well as lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, the study found. 

“The differences we saw between breastfed and formula fed infants could be due to differences between the mothers who did and did not breastfeed,” senior study author Mary Schooling of the University of Hong Kong said by e-mail. “However, the adolescents in our study were born in Hong Kong in 1997 when breastfeeding was not so common and there were few differences between the mothers who did and did not breastfeed.” 

Only about 1 per cent of the teens in the study had high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the type that builds up in blood vessels and can lead to blood clots and heart attacks. 

LDL levels were similar for teens who only had formula as babies and teens who were fed a combination of formula and breast milk. 

But exclusively breastfed babies had lower LDL and total cholesterol, and lower levels of triglycerides, or fats, compared to babies only fed formula. 

Even so, the results add to the evidence that early nutritional exposures — even in the first weeks or months of life — may modify so-called cardiovascular risk factors like cholesterol levels, said Christopher Owen of the Population Health Research Institute at St George’s University of London. 

At the Edge of the Night
Friedo Lampe
Translated from the German by Simon Beattie
London: Hesperus Press, 2019
Pp. 123

Some novels rely on a fast-moving plot to capture and hold the reader’s attention, but this short book hardly has a unified plot. Instead, German author Friedo Lampe draws the reader into a world of his creation by evoking a mood, an atmosphere, a state of being, with his softly poetic prose and ability to create vivid mental pictures. 

Now close to a century after it was written, the first English edition of “At the Edge of the Night” transports the reader to Bremen, the author’s hometown, in northern Germany, to observe the behaviour of a number of seemingly random people, and the interaction between them. Some of the characters know each other, may even be neighbours or friends; others do not, but all are united by a warm September evening on the banks of the river that flows through the town.

Some of the action in the book is highly dramatic; at other times, it is quite subdued and commonplace. What is unusual about Lampe’s style is how he shifts abruptly from one scene or set of characters to another. In the translator’s introduction, Simon Beattie explains these abrupt shifts by noting Lampe’s “keen interest in the cinema” and his wish to replicate its techniques in literature; Lampe intended that everything be “only loosely connected, graphic, lyrical…” p. (ix)

That the story unfolds in such a short time span — an evening that slides into night — is also more typical of a film than a novel.

Despite getting only glimpses of the characters, each one is described in concrete detail. There are no general sketches here; every character is highly individualised. Though there are characters of all generations in the book, death and the loneliness of the elderly seem to predominate in the narrative. Even when children are the focus of a scene, there often seems to be something negative or even perverse. In the opening, children wait for a glimpse of rats at the pond, while the child who gets most attention is being exploited by his own father in a variety show. 

There are fleeting romantic encounters, while most marriages seem more routine than a source of joy. Characters who sympathise with more unfortunate ones are often berated by their friends, whether out of class snobbishness or a vague fear of being different. Meanwhile, a lone flute player continues his melody undisturbed by the fact that the man in the apartment below is dying. A number of characters seem to fit the description attached to the sons of a geography teacher, who are bored with his reading aloud to them — “weary and dream-befuddled”. (p. 26)

Similarly emblematic of the tone of the novel is an old man who sits alone reading, kept company only by the stuffed birds on the wall: “His favourites which had died. The birds, dead or alive, were the only things left for him. His wife was dead, and he had thrown his daughter out of the house.” (p. 36)

Was Lampe disturbed by humans’ unkindness and lack of unfeeling to each other, or by his perception of the looming prospect of fascism’s cruelty, or both? In any case, it is certain that he had great empathy for his fellow human beings in their dramatic or mundane misfortunes. 

The tone of the novel is nostalgic and haunting, rather than depressing, and the author even inserts a few dream passages, resembling magic realism, into an otherwise ordinary reality, without skipping a beat. 

As the translator asserts, “Lampe had spent a life in books — as reader, collector, librarian, editor and writer — but it was a life of struggles and setbacks that ultimately ended in tragedy”. (p. vii)

Many of his colleagues in the literary world were persecuted or fled when the Nazis took over, but he somehow managed to stay on, only to be killed tragically, ironically, almost accidently, a few days before World War II ended.

The original German edition of “At the Edge of the Night” was published in 1933, the same year the Nazis came to power, and they immediately banned it for its intimation of sexual attraction between men, and between a German woman and a black man. 

It was not republished in German until 1999, and this is the first English edition. Reading it today, one is captivated by its beautiful style, its haunting imagery, its insight into human frailties, and its recreation of a world that is no more.

AMMAN — Throngs of people huddled under a torrential rain, images blurred by streaks of water, dissipated, diluted colours are all images created by Khalid Khreis, on display now at Nabad Art Gallery.

His sober, nostalgic world, created by globes of dark colour punctuated by luminous splashes — as if light or sun were trying to break through the darkness of night or clouds — is, strangely, warm and enveloping like a safe shelter. 

The imagery, aptly exhibited under the title “Rain Memories”, must have bubbled for a while in the artist’s mind, waiting to be brought to life.

Indeed, he says: “For over two years, I have been in a state of meditation and mindfulness. Not wiling to touch a paint brush, it is as though I was anticipating something new.”

New, thus, are the images that, although dark, inspire tranquility and optimism, reflect a stage in Khreis’ creative life in which, behind the stillness, one senses restlessness. Of the existential type.

“Rain Memories is a new idea that has swept over me in a torrent, asking a question that still puzzles me: ‘Who is painting whom?’ Rain washes our spirits — a light drizzle, a torrential rain, a deluge that sweeps everything away, taps on the window of my soul and sometimes enters without permission. That is what I have experienced and experience still…. Yet the question persists… ‘Who is painting whom’?” Khreis thinks.

The preoccupation with, the question regarding what imitates what — art life or life art — may be difficult, some would say impossible, to answer, and Khreis does not make it any easier.

Many of his canvases look as if they had been left out on a rainy day for the water to finish the work of art. They are ingenious renditions of streaks of rain that blur the images the artist painted, creating a deluged world with all that it implies: end of the world, but also fertility, richness, vastness, purity and hope.

The light blue, turquoise, ochre and orange splashes of colour breaking through the predominant black could easily be seen as an expression of optimism and an expectation of brighter things to come.

Some images remind of an older period in Khreis’ artistic creation. As they should. 

Yet most are new expressions, reflections of a new stage in his life, better explained by the artist himself: “I am unaccustomed to repeating myself; it is merely my spirit that moves through my works from one station to the other; merely life with its fluctuations and circumstances, for each period of time has its own unique character where repetition is non-existent. I recall certain signs, symbols, colours and shapes, some of which remain, while others fade into nostalgia.”

This highly honoured artist — First Prize for the Joan Miro International Art Contest, Spain, National Award for Excellence in Art, Jordan, Medal of the Commander of the Order of Civil Merit, Spain — studied art in Egypt, Spain, Italy and Mexico and is the director general of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.

He curated several local and international exhibitions, held 18 solo exhibitions and participated in a large number of local and international group shows.

It is a privilege to be able to follow his artistic trajectory, which, he says, is “an informal journey towards a formal act; a chromatic journey that suggests but does not confirm”.

Indeed, rain and vague memories are suggested, but the underlining nostalgia can only be inferred, it is never really “confirmed”. If anything, it is rather disproved by the cheerfulness elicited by the ingenious placement of bright spots of colour that do not allow the overwhelming black lines to obliterate memories and darken the mood.

A deluge of feelings, both cleansing and exhilarating, sweeps over the viewer of Khreis’ works that are on display through April 25, coinciding with spring and renewal, and giving hope.

Taking caffeine before exercise could improve performance during a broad range of exercise tasks, according to a new review of past research. 

In particular, caffeine could help speed, power, strength and endurance, researchers wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

“Supplementation with caffeine is highly prevalent among athletes, with one study from 2011 indicating that around 75 per cent of urine samples from athletes competing in the Olympic Games contain measurable levels of caffeine,” said lead author Jozo Grgic of Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. 

In 2004, caffeine was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency list of substances banned during competitions. 

“Since then, the intake of caffeine among athletes has only increased with no signs of slowing down,” Grgic told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Grgic and colleagues conducted an “umbrella review” — meaning they looked at results of earlier reviews that analysed multiple studies of caffeine and exercise performance. 

The 21 earlier reviews, done between 2004 and 2018, analysed an average of 19 studies each. 

Grgic’s team found that caffeine helped muscle endurance, muscle strength, jumping performance, exercise speed, anaerobic power and aerobic endurance. 

Three reviews, involving an average of 13 studies each, supported the ergogenic, or enhancing, effect of caffeine on strength. Two reviews, which looked at a total of 39 studies, supported an effect on endurance. 

One review supported an effect of caffeine on vertical jump height, and one supported speed during running, cycling and rowing. 

In general, the effect of caffeine was greater for aerobic exercise than for anaerobic exercise. 

The “optimal” dose remains elusive, Grgic said. Although coffee is the most widely-used form of caffeine globally, it is not commonly studied as a pre-exercise performance enhancer. The caffeine dose depends on coffee bean type, preparation method, cup size, brand and additive flavours. 

“As a broad rule of thumb, two cups of coffee, consumed around 60 minutes before exercise, should exert an ergogenic effect in most individuals,” Grgic said. 

But “the response to caffeine ingestion varies from person to person”, Grgic cautioned. “Individuals interested in supplementing with caffeine should be careful with the dose of caffeine, as high doses may result in strong side-effects such as a headache, nausea, insomnia, and others.” 

One limitation of umbrella reviews is that they rely on the earlier teams of researchers to accurately compare different measurements, intervals, timeframes and study groups. In addition, most of the studies involved young men. Future studies should be conducted among more varied populations, Grgic said. 

“Athletes are always looking for competitive advantage, investing countless hours of training in their devotion towards improvement. They build their bodies, perfect their techniques, and fine-tune all their training and racing strategies, but do they know that the big performance boost they’re hoping for may simply come from their pantry?” said Joy Shen, a registered dietician and sports nutritionist in Boston. 

Shen, who was not involved with this study, has worked with Harvard University and Northeastern University researchers to study caffeine and endurance.

“As with any pre-race strategy, test out caffeine in training before the competition,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. “Become a scientist in your sport, studying yourself, because in competition, you’re the only athlete that matters.”

LONDON — Electrical brain stimulation using a non-invasive cap can help boost older people’s mental scores to those of people 20 to 30 years younger, according to a study published on Monday. 

The research, published in the journal Nature “Neuroscience”, found that age-related decline in working memory can be reversed by stimulating two key brain areas at a specific rhythm. 

The findings are early and only relate to healthy volunteers at this stage, but could point to new ways to boost brain function in people with age-related cognitive decline such as dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. 

Using a technique known as electroencephalography to monitor brain activity and a another called transcranial alternating-current stimulation, the scientists stimulated the brains of a group of young and old people and were able to modulate the brainwave interactions linked to their working memory. 

The study involved 42 younger adults aged 20 to 29 and 42 older adults aged 60 to 76, who were all assessed for their performance in a working-memory task. 

Working memory refers to information retained temporarily for use in immediate tasks such as reasoning and making decisions. 

Without brain stimulation, the older people were slower and less accurate than the younger ones. 

This was because the younger ones had higher levels of interaction and synchronisation of certain brain wave rhythms, the researchers said — suggesting that targeting these types of rhythms in the older people’s brains might help their function. 

While receiving active brain stimulation, older adults improved their working-memory test scores to the levels of the younger people. The effect lasted for at least 50 minutes after the stimulation was given, said Robert Reinhart, a researcher at Boston University in the United States who co-led the study. 

“By using this type of stimulation [we found] we can reconnect or resynchronise those circuits,” he told reporters in a telephone briefing. 

Reinhart said that the findings opened up new avenues for research but had no immediate implications for use in medicine: “Much more basic science has to be done first.” 

Neuroscientists agreed that the findings raised interesting questions about how working memory functions, and how it declines with age, but that it would need more research before being developed for clinical use.

WASHINGTON — Using a global network of telescopes to see “the unseeable”, an international scientific team on Wednesday announced a milestone in astrophysics — the first-ever photo of a black hole — in an achievement that validated a pillar of science put forward by Albert Einstein more than a century ago.

Black holes are monstrous celestial entities exerting gravitational fields so vicious that no matter or light can escape. The somewhat fuzzy photo of the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, or M87, a massive galaxy residing in the centre of the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster, shows a glowing ring of red, yellow and white surrounding a dark centre.

The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration involving about 200 scientists begun in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole. The announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.

The image was obtained using data collected in April 2017 from eight radio telescopes in six locations that essentially create a planet-sized observational dish.

The team’s observations strongly validated the theory of general relativity proposed in 1915 by Einstein, the famed theoretical physicist, to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces. 

“We have achieved something presumed to be impossible just a generation ago,” said astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, director of the EHT at the Centre for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard & Smithsonian.

Black holes, phenomenally dense and coming in various sizes, are extraordinarily difficult to observe by their very nature. A black hole’s event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything — stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation — gets swallowed into oblivion.

The M87 black hole observed by the scientific team resides about 54 million light-years from Earth and boasts an almost-unimaginable mass of 6.5 billion times that of the sun. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres.

“This is a huge day in astrophysics,” said US National Science Foundation Director France Cordova. “We’re seeing the unseeable.”

“It did bring tears to my eyes,” Cordova added.

The existence of black holes was first predicted in 1916. Most galaxies are thought to have a supermassive black hole at their centre.

The fact that black holes do not allow light to escape makes viewing them difficult. The scientists looked for a ring of light — super-heated disrupted matter and radiation circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon — around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole. This is known as the black hole’s shadow or silhouette.

The scientists said Einstein’s theory correctly predicted that the shape of the shadow would be almost a perfect circle. With M87, it deviated from perfect circularity by less than 10 per cent.

“We found literally the proverbial hole in the middle of this galaxy, and to me that is just stunning,” said astrophysicist Dimitrios Psaltis of the University of Arizona, the EHT project scientist.

Einstein’s theory also was validated by another major astrophysics achievement announced in 2016, the detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in spacetime, arising from two black holes that smashed together.

“Science fiction has become science fact,” University of Arizona astronomy professor Daniel Marrone said.

“The image has this exquisite beauty in its simplicity,” said CfA astrophysicist Michael Johnson, the project’s imaging coordinator. “It is just a fundamental statement about nature. It’s a really moving demonstration of just what humanity is capable of.”

The project has also targeted another black hole — Sagittarius A* — situated at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. Scientists expressed optimism about getting a picture of that one, perhaps within a year. Sagittarius A* possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located 26,000 light-years from Earth.

The project’s researchers obtained the data using radio telescopes in the US states of Arizona and Hawaii as well as in Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica. Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the global network.