CAFFEINE

It’s the most widely used mood altering substance in the world. It’s very well researched but many people seem to be confused about its effects. Clients ask me all the time…’Is caffeine bad?’ Well, it’s hard to put it in a little box marked ‘good’ or ‘bad’… There are pros and cons to caffeine and each person should weigh the risk/benefit ratio for themselves. I’m a caffeine user (and I’ve been a caffeine abuser in the past) and I’ve spent hours researching the effects of caffeine. The following is a summary of the key points of what I’ve learned. I’ll break the effects of caffeine up into three categories: physical performance (including sports performance and mental clarity), body fat loss, and general health. For each category I will list some of the pros and cons (most of which are related to high doses, sleep disturbances, withdrawals, or pre-existing health conditions). At the end I will explain a bit more about how caffeine works and provide some recommendations (both for how to use it and how to get off it, whichever you decide).

The studies I read used varying dosages of caffeine. I consider 150mg-600mg a normal dosage (about 1-4 cups of coffee). The most desirable effects seem to peak at 3-4 cups. Studies show that many of the negative side effects arise when the dosage rises above 900mg (about 6 cups — varies depending on body weight).

Click the link to view the caffeine content of common foods, drugs, and beverages:

http://www.guarana.com/cafchart.html

Physical Performance:

Positive effects on performance:

· In endurance athletes, caffeine has been shown to significantly improve both duration and intensity of exercise. Some studies show improvements as high as 30%. The increased duration is probably due to its glucose sparing properties. More fat is metabolized during the first 15 minutes, which spares glucose and keeps your blood sugar up longer, thus increasing your stamina.

· The ‘perceived exertion’ during exercise is lower (exercise feels easier).

· Improved reaction time and alertness.

· Improved cognitive ability: greater focus, clarity, and memory (mostly because of increased blood to the brain and enhanced neurological function).

· Something that surprised me is that there are many studies that show that caffeine does not contribute to the dehydration. Acute urine output is marginally increased but because most people get their caffeine in the form of coffee, the fluid in the coffee seems to make up for the lost fluid.

(Note that caffeine has not been shown to improve performance in anaerobic activities such as sprinting or high weight/low repetition weight lifting.)

Negative effects on performance:

· Caffeine can mess with your sleep patterns and decreased sleep overtime can decrease your performance in many ways. Muscle recuperation takes place during REM sleep. Decreased sleep is linked to poor cognitive function, decreased memory, longer reaction time, muscle weakness and fatigue.

· It is hard to overdose on liquid caffeine (you would have to consume 80-100 cups to get a possibly lethal dose), but with the introduction of energy pills it is possible. Cases of death are rare but have occurred (usually in athletes) because of CNS overstimulation. Plus, because the perceived exertion is lower, athletes are more able to push themselves over the limit.

· Over time, excessive caffeine (combined with stress, lack of sleep, illness, etc.) may contribute to adrenal fatigue, which occurs when your adrenal glands get worn out because of producing excessive amounts of stress hormones. The result is that your hormones get all out of whack and you can end up feeling chronically fatigued.

· The withdrawals from caffeine after chronic use can have effects directly opposite to the positives I listed above, making you lethargic, prone to headaches, and unable to focus.

Body Fat Loss

Positive effects of caffeine for body fat reduction:

Caffeine increases the metabolism of free fatty acids and spares glucose (Especially during the first 15 minutes of exercise). Simply put, it helps you burn more fat and less sugar. Since glucose (sugar) is spared, your blood sugar levels stay higher for a longer period of time, helping to reduce hunger cravings. Studies on athletes show that caffeine enables them to work out significantly longer, and at a higher intensity during aerobic activities, leading to increased fat loss.

Caffeine promotes thermogenisis (calorie wasting).

Note: the acids in coffee can cause your bowels to empty and have a mild laxative effect. I guess that is ‘weight loss,’ but it is temporary and not true body fat loss.

Negative effects of caffeine for body fat loss:

Too much caffeine, drinking it too late in the day, or combining it with a stressful lifestyle or poor diet can lead to insomnia and adrenal fatigue. Both will cause your body to release more of the stress hormone cortisol, which causes fatigue and weight gain.

Some people are stress/anxiety eaters. Since caffeine can increase stress and anxiety, it may trigger overeating in these people.

If you are getting your caffeine in the form of a venti frappuccino or some other high calorie beverage, you may gain weight from the excess calories and sugar. Think about it, if you have 5 cups a day of coffee with cream and sugar, you could be drinking like 400 extra calories a day! Not to mention that sugar and cream have almost no nutritional value and are total trash in your system.

HEALTH

Caffeine and positive effects on health:

We hear a lot about the negative effects of caffeine on health, but it was interesting to see that there are a lot of studies documenting some long-term health benefits.

Here is some info I borrowed from “How Caffeine Works” (http://health.howstuffworks.com/caffeine5.htm)

There have been more than 19,000 studies on caffeine and coffee in the past 30 years in an attempt to determine its exact effects on the human body. One of the most thorough and exhaustive studies was done by Harvard University, in which they examined 126,000 people over an 18-year period. The findings indicate that people who drink one to three cups of coffee a day are up to 9 percent less likely to contract diabetes. What’s interesting is what happened to those who drank six or more cups of coffee per day – men slashed their chances of contracting diabetes by 54 percent, and women by 30 percent [source: Kirchheimer].

Other studies have shown similar results in many facets of human health:

• Regular coffee drinkers are 80 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

• Two cups a day gives you 20 percent less risk of colon cancer.

• Two cups a day causes an 80 percent drop in cirrhosis.

• Two cups a day prevents gallstone development by 50 percent.

• It has also shown to be beneficial in asthma, stopping headaches, boosting mood and even preventing cavities [source: Kirchheimer].

Also:

Caffeine may reduce risk of obesity.

Some studies have shown that caffeine decreases the occurrence/progression of Alzheimer’s.

Negative effects of caffeine on health:

Some health problems may be worsened by caffeine, including:

Type 2 diabetes — although caffeine decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, taking caffeine once you already have it can cause unstable insulin levels.

High BP — caffeine may raise BP in some people.

Certain psych disorders — including panic disorder, anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Digestive problems – the acids in caffeine can aggravate some digestive problems.

Your body adapts to higher levels of caffeine leaving it less effective over time.

Possible acute negative side effects:

nervousness, headache, stomach upset, restlessness, muscle twitching, and anxiety.

Possible long term side effects:

adrenal fatigue, insomnia, dependence, withdrawal.

More about how caffeine works, tolerance, addiction, and withdrawal (borrowed again from “How Caffeine Works” http://health.howstuffworks.com/caffeine3.htm):

Caffeine and adenosine

Why do so many people consume so much caffeine? Why does caffeine wake you up? By understanding the drug’s actions inside the body you can see why people use it so much.

In the HowStuffWorks article How Sleep Works, the action of adenosine is discussed in detail. While it sounds like advanced science, it’s really pretty simple. As adenosine is created in the brain, it binds to adenosine receptors. The binding of adenosine causes drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity. In the brain, adenosine binding also causes blood vessels to dilate, most likely to let more oxygen in during sleep.

To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine therefore binds to the adenosine receptor. However, it doesn’t slow down the cell’s activity like adenosine would. As a result, the cell can no longer identify adenosine because caffeine is taking up all the receptors that adenosine would normally bind to. Instead of slowing down because of the adenosine’s effect, the nerve cells speed up. Caffeine also causes the brain’s blood vessels to constrict, because it blocks adenosine’s ability to open them up. This effect is why some headache medicines like Anacin contain caffeine — if you have a vascular headache, the caffeine will close down the blood vessels and relieve it.

So, now you have increased neuron firing in the brain. The pituitary gland sees all of this activity and thinks some sort of emergency must be occurring, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (epinephrine). Adrenaline is the “fight or flight” hormone, and it has a number of effects on your body:

• Your pupils dilate.

• Your breathing tubes open up (this is why people suffering from severe asthma attacks are sometimes injected with epinephrine).

• Your heart beats faster.

• Blood vessels on the surface constrict to slow blood flow from cuts and also to increase blood flow to muscles.

• Blood pressure rises.

• Blood flow to the stomach slows.

• The liver releases sugar into the bloodstream for extra energy.

• Muscles tighten up, ready for action.

This explains why, after consuming a big cup of coffee, your hands get cold, your muscles tense up, you feel excited and you can feel your heart beat increasing.

Caffeine and Dopamine

Caffeine also increases dopamine levels in the same way that amphetamines do. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that activates pleasure centers in certain parts of the brain. Heroin and cocaine also manipulate dopamine levels by slowing down the rate of dopamine reabsorption. Obviously, caffeine’s effect is much lower than heroin’s, but it is the same mechanism. It is suspected that the dopamine connection contributes to caffeine addiction.

You can see why your body might like caffeine in the short term, especially if you are low on sleep and need to remain active. Caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates dopamine production to make you feel good.

The problem with caffeine is the longer-term effects, which tend to spiral. For example, once the adrenaline wears off, you face fatigue and depression. So what are you going to do? You consume more caffeine to get the adrenaline going again. As you might imagine, having your body in a state of emergency all day long isn’t very healthy, and it also makes you jumpy and irritable.

The most important long-term problem is the effect that caffeine has on sleep. Adenosine reception is important to sleep, and especially to deep sleep. The half-life of caffeine in your body is about six hours. That means that if you consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00 p.m., by 9:00 p.m. about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but your body will probably miss out on the benefits of deep sleep. That deficit adds up fast. The next day you feel worse, so you need caffeine as soon as you get out of bed. The cycle continues day after day.

This is why 90 percent of Americans consume caffeine every day. Once you get in the cycle, you have to keep consuming the drug. Even worse, if you try to stop consuming caffeine, you get very tired and depressed, and you get a terrible, splitting headache as blood vessels in the brain dilate. These negative effects force you to run back to caffeine even if you want to stop.

So adenosine is the stuff that makes you feel tired. When you drink caffeine your body is basically fighting the effects of the caffeine by becoming more sensitive to adenosine. So now if you stop, you’re really going to feel tired.

Like I said in the beginning, I’m not going to put caffeine in an all good or all bad category. I want to supply you with information so you can make a good decision on your own. Try to think of caffeine like an energy credit card. You are borrowing immediate energy but eventually you are going to have to ‘pay’ that energy back (at least some of it). And if you max out your energy credit card too much, you’re really going to dig yourself into a hole.

If you decide to quit caffeine, here are some suggestions:

Reduce your intake by about 25% every week.

For example, if you are drinking 3 cups a day, the first week you can continue drinking 3 cups, but make 75% regular and 25% decaf.

Continue reducing the ratio and after week 4 you’ll be on all decaf.

At that point you can start swaping out the decaf for another beverage. Caffeine free tea is a good choice. If your having 3 cups of decaf, the first week you can do 2 decafs and 1 tea. Keep decreasing the ratio until your caffeine free.

If you want to capitalize on the increased mental and physical energy of caffeine and minimize the long-term consequences, here are some suggestions:

Only have caffeine in the morning.

Never exceed 4-6 cups a day. It’s better to try and stay below 4 cups.

Try taking some days off from caffeine. Have some days during the week, preferably a day when you are resting, where you take in no caffeine or much less caffeine. This will help keep you from becoming more sensitive to adenosine and will make the caffeine you take in feel more potent so you don’t have to keep drinking more and more to feel the effects. 3 days on caffeine, one day off, is a good reduction schedule.

If you are an athlete taking caffeine for sports performance try to only take the high doses on competition days. Lower your caffeine when you’re not in competition season.

These recommendations may seem simplistic, but the negative effects of caffeine (dependence, withdrawal, sleeplessness, and adrenal fatigue) can seriously interfere with your life. Keep your caffeine use in check.

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