Here, what I wanted to blog on earlier. Caffeine. I'm a coffee addict to start with. However I'm not sure if I'm a caffeine addict...

These materials were from my lecturer, Giorgia Pastorin. Nice name ya? She's an Italian fyi.

Caffeine is a stimulant, and is known as the most frequently consumed psychoactive drug in the world. It's found in many beverages I supposed you all know, coke/pepsi and of cos COFFEE! Humph, found in some medicine too - analgesics and diuretics. Argh... this part's boring for me, shall skip.

Oh, here's an interesting one. Bet some of you have heard of decaffeinated coffee yea? Think it means caffeine free? That's where you're wrong, it just means very low in caffeine content but still it contains this stimulant. So coffee addicts, don't try changing your coffee-ing habits to those decaffeinated ones then try to lie to yourself that you're caffeine free! Anyway, I wonder if those decaffeinated still taste like original coffee even without it's main component inside.

Well, I've read many articles on whether coffee can treat cancer. There's no conclusion. But here it says that some research has shown caffeine relating with cancers of ovaries, colon and kidneys. If you want, take tea (containing caffeine) instead, might protect you against cancer.

Blablabla... skipping all the mechanisms. If you wanna know ask me personally cos I dun wanna bore my readers to death. haha..

EFFECTS:

Enhances alertness/ causes arousal/ diminishes fatigue, those are the reasons why most of us drink coffee for. Especially near exam periods when some wanna burn midnight oil, and during days packed with lectures from 8am till 8pm! I would recommend icy-cold Nescafe original! But think again, causes arousal means increasing heartbeat rate and B.P. Hmmm... my sister can't take coffee cos she keeps complaining her heart beats very fast after that. Now I understand.

OK, here comes the adverse effects so please take note.

Isomnia, increase in tension, anxiety, and initiation of muscle twitches. Over 5 cups will lead to panic sensations, nausea(I do get this sometimes even below 5), clumsiness(oh my! now I do have an excuse for breaking things in lab) Here's something I'm more concerned with: cardiovascular effects. For low doses, the heart activity might go up or down or do nothing. OK, I didn't attend this class neither did I pay very good attention to the webcast. Does "heart activity do nothing" means will not increase or decrease OR it literally means DO NOTHING as in STOPS BEATING? this is freaky... hopefully it's the latter.

This is not common but for EXTREME HIGH doses like 50 to 100 cups (who in the right mind will flood themselves with that?) seizures, respiratory failure and DEATH!

Worse still, caffeine relates to pregnancy. Experiments on pregnant mice show that large doses of caffeine can produce skeletal abnormalities. AND more than 300 mg of caffeine per day for a woman can reduce her chances of geting pregnant and increase that of spontaneous abortion and slow the rate of fetus growth! FYI, one cup of coffee contains between 35 to 164 mg of caffeine.

One thing to note is that caffeine effects vary for every individual. Hence, some may have a higher tolerance to them and see only minor effects. Because of this, some needs to drink a lot more inorder to get the desired effect.

Hmmm... now caffeine dependence... Dependence can be viewed from two aspects. Positive and Negative. Simply, why caffeine takers keep going back for more. Like an addiction. Can be due to positive reinforcement whereby the addicted wants to have the pleasant feeling/effects after drinking. He/She is enjoying it, the taste, the aroma, the feeling... and is drinking cos he/she wants to. Negative reinforcement means the addicted does not want to lose the drug effects once caffeine is gone. Somewhat like preventing the withdrawal effects that one can get from not having caffeine suddenly, after a long period of constant intake. Withdrawal effects like fatigue or restlessness.

The above theory applies to drug abusers you may find. Yup, it does.

In conclusion, excessive use of caffeine causes restlessness, nervousness, excitement, flushed face, diuresis, rambling thoughts and speech, stomach complaints not mentioning DEATH. How scary can caffeine be no? I would recommend no more than 3 cups for my friends ok.

Signing off,

The Caffeine Addict