Do you know what the most commonly used drug around the world is? It’s not cocaine nor marijuana, but surprisingly caffeine.
Caffeine is a chemical found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and various easy to get foods and drinks. Like all drugs, caffeine has its good and bad side. Caffeine’s categorized as a stimulant, meaning it temporarily increases alertness and energy. With this stated, you may ask yourself, what’s so bad about a little high associated with coffee or chocolate? I mean it’s practically harmless, right.
Not exactly, caffeine still a drug which means almost always comes with side effects. Notably caffeine seems to have the same high as cocaine, just to a lesser degree. Some evident effects of caffeine and related stimulants range
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Heavy consumption of boiled coffee elevates blood total and LDL cholesterol levels. Unfiltered coffee is a significant source of cafestol and kahweol, which are diterpenes responsible for cholesterol-raising effects of coffee. Diterpenes are extracted by hot water but are retained by a paper filter. This explains why filtered coffee does not affect cholesterol, whereas Scandinavian boiled, cafetiere, and Turkish coffees do.
As side from that, excess caffeine can also overstimulate the central nervous system, disrupting sleeping patterns. High amounts of caffeine produce negative effect on sleep onset and quality. However, there are large individual differences in the effects of caffeine on sleep. Many people consume coffee during the evening and have no problems falling asleep, while others find that the mild stimulation of caffeine consumed shortly before a bed time delays the time to fall asleep.
Lastly, a common side effect of coffee we all may have experienced is the staining of teeth and dehydration. After a while, without proper care coffee can permanently stain and damage your dental. Also the caffeine in coffee is a mild diuretic and can increase the volume of urine excreted. However, this effect can be easily counteracted by the drinking of an extra glass of
Caffeine raises your blood pressure when you drink/eat it, raising your blood pressure in general is not a good thing but imagine drinking and/or eating caffeine daily, and your blood pressure constantly rising. Another negative aspect is that caffeine can have a disruptive effect on your sleep. The most obvious effect of the caffeine is that it can make it hard for you to fall asleep. It can help you stay awake during the day but can also make you stay awake during the night when you are trying to fall asleep. You can also have withdraws from caffeine, going back to the story “Java Man” the author Malcolm Gladwell considered it a drug and remember you can get addicted to drugs (you can really get addicted to anything). There are plenty more negative ways caffeine can disrupt your lifestyle but you know what they say for every negative thing you can say there can be some
Caffeine is a mild stimulant that occurs naturally in at least 63 plant species. Caffeine can be found in the leaves, stems, seeds, and roots of these various plants. Caffeine is part of the methylxanthine family. It consists of a xanthine molecule with three methyl groups attached to it. Caffeine can be found in many products like sodas, tea, and coffee, but it also occurs in several other products such as prescription medications, diuretics, and pain relievers. Caffeine’s widespread use and popularity have caused many people to view the substance as an addictive drug. Thus making caffeine the most inexpensive and readily available drug known to man. Then on the other hand there are people who view caffeine as a helpful stimulant that increases the individual’s concentration and awareness as well as many other physical traits. The important thing to remember is that caffeine’s affects vary based on the person, the amount ingested, the frequency of consumption, and individual metabolism. (http://www.pp.okstate.edu/ehs/kopykit/caffeine.html)
Several people rely on caffeine to wake them up or give them a boost of energy when they feel down. Acting as a stimulant, caffeine not only improves concentration and focus, but also stops fatigue (Staff 1). Considered the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world, approximately 90 percent of adults consume it daily (“MedicineNet.com” 1). But do caffeine buyers really stop to evaluate the possinle harmful effects on their body? Health scares similar to this are not recent. In fact, they have been going on for over 100 years. In 1911, the US Government sued the Coca-Cola company for making their drinks hazardous to other’s health (Lovett 2). Although the Coca-Cola company won, it proves that people worry about what they put into their bodies, even if it does help them stay up to finish their homework. Not everybody will experience the same effects from caffeine. Some people seem more sensitive to caffeine than others (Staff 1). While some will express unwanted effects after only one cup of coffee or tea, others will not notice these same effects until after maybe four or five cups. Although caffeine does include benefits, many downfalls exemplify the stimulant as well. Drinking even small amounts of caffeine daily develops harmful effects on most people’s body and health.
Caffeine also increases dopamine levels in the same way that amphetamines do (heroine, and cocaine also manipulate dopamine levels by slowing down the rate of dopamine reuptake). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, in certain parts of the brain, activates the pleasure center. Caffeine’s effects are obviously much lower than heroin’s, but it is the same mechanism. The long term problem with caffeine is the effect it has on sleep. The half life of caffeine in your body is about 6 hours. That means that if you have a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00pm, by 9:00pm about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You will still be able to fall asleep but your body is going to miss out on the benefits of deep sleep. The next day you are probably going to feel worse, so to make yourself feel better, you will need caffeine as soon as you get up and out of bed. This cycle can start to continue day after day. This is why 90% of Americans consume caffeine everyday. Once you get in the cycle, you have to keep taking the drug (home.howstuffworks.com).
Does one drink caffeine? Caffeine is everywhere, it's in everything, it's apart of our daily lives. That’s what people doesn’t realizes; every soda drink, every cup of coffee, and every energy drink he or she gulps down before a thrilling game, all of that is caffeine. Caffeine is only completed when he or she get addicted. Caffeine can be an exceptional threat to the human body; energy drinks for example, it has enough caffeine to kill someone if he or she drinks enough. Energy drinks has been the number one drink high school students drink to stay awake in school; they even bring the drink in classrooms, and more than one energy drink. Soda has enough caffeine to destroy ones inner body. Soda is a everyday drink for some individuals, they
Caffeine is the most popular and most widely used stimulant in the world. In Canada, the average person drinks 2.6 cups of coffee a day; that is equivalent to 949 cups of coffee a year. (Van Houtte) Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that improves ones attention, focus, and fatigue. When caffeine is ingested it causes your neurons to move at a faster rate, increasing alertness. (Fit Day) Caffeine also binds to the neural receptors, which blocks the adenosine, which prolongs tiredness. Caffeine is a white odorless powder that is most commonly found in coffee, tea, energy drinks, and pops. Caffeine can also be considered and ergogenic aid. Ergogenic aids are external influences that enhance/ improves ones strength, endurance, reaction time and speed of recovery. (Healthline) The three theories that make caffeine an ergogenic aid during exercise is the effect it has on the central nervous system, skeletal muscles, and metabolic changes. (Sheila G. Dean) Caffeine also has a positive effect on an individual’s health, some positive effects include: reduces risk of developing liver cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s. (Chawala) Caffeine has been proven to have positive effects on an athlete’s performance, and ones overall health.
As mentioned earlier, relying on caffeine to wake you up and keep you that way reduces your body’s ability to do that itself. The problem, one might argue, is not necessarily the coffee, but the school giving the student so much work that they have to stay up late enough to rely on coffee to keep themselves awake, or the teen’s lack of self-regulation staying up late doing pointless activities such as playing video games. And that one would have a point, except that we aren’t here to argue for educational reform or about “darn kids” and their video games. Those things are the source of the problem, but caffeine is a symptom that perpetuates itself and many other problematic symptoms. Even without school or video games, the problems associated with caffeine still
By this definition, and after knowing the effects of caffeine upon the human body, I have come to the conclusion that drinking caffeine is a sign of a lack of respect for oneself, and of an unappreciative attitude toward the life that each of us has been blessed with. Furthermore, it shows of either our inability, or unwillingness to learn to think clearly.
Caffeine is a stimulant that has not been given the attention that some says it deserves. Caffeine is found in many everyday substances. It can be found in coffee, tea or sodas. Caffeine can be found on almost every street corner. There is a coffee place in just about every town. Sodas and coffee are found...
The media fails to project the negative effects of excessive caffeine intake. This literature review will illustrate how excessive caffeine consumption can be detrimental to one’s life, and how problematic caffeine use derives from conditioning by the caffeine industry. Caffeine is the single most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the United States (Einöther & Giesbrecht, 2013). According to Einöther and Giesbrecht (2013), 80% of the world’s population consumes caffeinated products every day, with coffee and tea being the primary sources. In the recent years, the demand for coffee has increased, causing the caffeine industry to create an expansion of coffee shops, new caffeinated beverages (Bailey, Saldanha, Gahche, & Dwyer, 2014), and mass-media advertising.
Coffee and tea are the most consumed beverages to start the day. Coffee and tea can be made as either a hot or cold beverages. Each of them originates from a form of plant. Coffee comes from the coffee bean. It is then roasted and eventually sent out for consumers across the world to purchase at their pleasure. Tea leaves are gathered and dried and are either packaged in individual bags or are sent out as dried fruit and leaves to be used in a tea infuser. Many people choose to drink either coffee or tea as a personal preference. Now the question becomes, who is actually benefitting from their consumption? While the average coffee lover drinks 23 gallons of coffee every year, a tea enthusiast would generally drink 10.3 gallons a year. With this amount being consumed each year, what effect does it have on the human body?
Preview: The potential effects are related to the main ingredient in coffee – caffeine. Caffeine is a drug that stimulates the central nervous system that increases alertness and energy, but it is also very addictive.
The problem is drinking coffee on an empty stomach stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid (HCI). In the same way eating too much sugar causes problems with insulin production, stimulating HCI but giving it nothing to digest interrupts normal activity. If your body is “forced” to make much HCI because of coffee, it may eventually have a hard time producing enough of it to actually digest a large meal.
It’s important to watch how much caffeine your body is receiving each day in the foods and drinks you consume. Caffeine is not a bad drug, but be careful to watch for symptoms of withdrawal and caffeine intoxication. It can be dangerous for your body if too much stress is put on it. Remember, there are always decaffeinated options and sometimes these are the best to keep your body healthy. Works Cited faculty.washington.edu/chudler/caff.html greenfacts.org/en/psychoactive-drugs wisegeek.com/what-is-caffeine.htm psych.umn.edu/courses/spring05/ / caffeine.
“You usually drink coffee when you are sleep-deprived, right? Well, that much-needed jolt not only keeps you awake, it makes you sharper. CNN reports that coffee allows your brain to work in a much more efficient and smarter way. TIME reporter, Michael Lemonick, says, “When you’re sleep-deprived and you take caffeine, pretty much anything you measure will improve: reaction time, vigilance, attention, logical reasoning — most of the complex functions you associate with intelligence.”(Michael Lemonick) (Jacques,