Coffee, soft drinks, headache pills... you'd be stunned if you realized how much caffeine ends up in your body over the course of a year.
What is this potent legal drug that so many people rely on to wake them up in the morning as well as to keep them awake during the rest of the day?
Well, from Wikipedia, we learn...
Caffeine... is a xanthine alkaloid found naturally in such foods as coffee beans, tea, kola nuts, Yerba mate, guarana berries, and (in small amounts) cacao beans.Does this sound like a substance you want to put in your body on a regular basis?
For the plant, caffeine acts as a natural pesticide since it paralyzes and kills some of the insects that attempt to feed on the plant.
Caffeine's main pharmacological properties include a stimulant action on the central nervous system with psychotropic effects and stimulation of respiration, a stimulation of the heart rate, and a mild diuretic effect.
It it does, please think again.
According to Stephen Chernisek, author of Caffeine Blues, caffeine in the human body...
- Raises blood sugar levels and disrupts sugar-regulating effect of insulin
- Raises fatty acid levels in the blood
- Raises homocysteine levels, which greatly increases the diabetic's risk for cardiovascular disease
- Causes vascular resistance (circulation is reduced)
- And caffeine raises stress hormone levels which is a primary risk factor for diabetes
Caffeinism is poisoning resulting from excessive intake of caffeine, whether via coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, over-the-counter medications, or other caffeine-containing products.Personally, I overcame my caffeine addiction back in 1993 when I got serious about my health. At the time, I lived in New Orleans and on most work days drank up to seven cups of black coffee with chicory, a rabid concoction that wired me up so tight with phony "caffeine energy" that I'd often experience body tremors and shaking hands by the time I knocked off from work.
Its symptoms are both physiological and psychological. The amount of caffeine needed to generate caffeinism depends on individual sensitivity.
It is commonly assumed that only a small proportion of people exposed to caffeine develop symptoms of caffeinism. However, because it mimics recognized psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and psychosis, a growing number of medical professionals believe caffeinism victims are routinely misdiagnosed and unnecessarily medicated.
A study in the British Journal of Addiction declared that "although infrequently diagnosed, caffeinism is thought to afflict as many as one person in ten of the population." (JE James and KP Stirling, 1983).
Shannon et al (1998) point out that: "Caffeine-induced psychosis, whether it be delirium, manic depression, schizophrenia, or merely an anxiety syndrome, in most cases will be hard to differentiate from other organic or non-organic psychoses... The treatment for caffeine-induced psychosis is to withhold further caffeine."
The fact that caffeine is known to exacerbate organic mental illnesses (Hughes et al, 1998) can make accurate diagnosis difficult.
When I started studying natural health and learned about caffeine addiction, I decided to get that monkey off my back for good.
I won't go into the nasty details because my experience getting off caffeine was awful, but I will say it took me three days of pounding headaches, night and day sweats, upset stomach, and a number of other unpleasant withdrawal symptoms and behaviors (talk about grouchy) before I was free of my caffeine addiction.
Seriously, one of the best things you can do for your health is to decrease or, even better, totally remove, caffeine from your life.
Once you get past the withdrawal problems, you'll be amazed at how much better you feel physically and mentally.
Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am admittedly a coffee addict, and I have quit many times! I used to get those awful symptoms, until I decided to just half my intake everyday. Well on the first day of "quitting" , I have 1/2 cup black, no sugar or cream. On the 2nd, 1/4 cup. On the 3rd, 2 Tbsp, etc. It doesn't take long to be down to nothing, and ever since I've done it this way, I avoid that incapacitating splitting headache! I guess the drawback is that I don't regret starting up again, cuz I know it's not such a big deal to stop drinking it anymore! But I recommend it for anyone who can't take a 3 day "vacation" from their life to quit caffiene.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to share my finding about coffee... I don't consider myself addicted to coffee although I do have my cuppa every other day or even at times one a day for 3 or 4 days... and especially when being hit by a shoulder-neck pain that turns to an excruciating headache - that double-double cuppa from Timmy will bring relief within a half hour.
I am 71 - not medicated at all...
Keep up the good work, I enjoy reading your newsletter.
I am fortunate, in that, I never have been a coffee drinker. I saw my parents drink coffee every morning, and it was just a total turn off for me.
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Caffeine Pills -Effects, Withdrawal and Addiction
ReplyDeleteCaffeine pills are used worldwide as weight loss remedies and as stimulant drugs. Caffeine pills are the latest rage in the health and fitness industry as well, and they are used extensively as they are known to improve alertness and boost energy in human beings.
Caffeine pills also have side effects, just like any other type of medication, such as increased heart palpitations, headaches, restlessness, insomnia, psychomotor agitation, depression, irritability, disorientation, lack of judgement, peptic ulcers, loss of social inhibition, respiratory alkalosis, hallucinations, erosive esophagitis, etc.
If you ignore the headaches, a major symptom of caffeine withdrawal, that will just make you more tempted to return to the full-caffeine routine, so I recommend you to use pain relievers instead. Just be aware that some pain relievers, like Excedrin, contain caffeine, so you must include that when figuring out your daily caffeine intake! Reducing your consumption of caffeine gradually will also minimize the risk of suffering caffeine withdrawal.
Some people don´t even think about the word “addiction” when they refer to caffeine. As a matter of fact, caffeine is an addictive drug and Caffeine Addiction is a reality in our world that must be treated just like any other addiction.
Some other people frequently say they are "addicted" to caffeine in much the same way they say they are "addicted" to shopping, working or television, and the term "addiction" actually refers to a strong dependence on a drug characterised by severe withdrawal symptoms, tolerance to a given dose and the loss of control or the need to consume more and more of the substance at any cost.
You can find more info at: http://yourcaffeineaddiction.com/
Drug addiction is the obsessive dependence on a legal or illegal drug. Drugs can include prescription medications, illegal drugs, and alcohol. While an addict may use more than one drug, he usually has a “drug of choice” -- his strongest addiction to break.
ReplyDeleteAddiction therapy to caffeine addicts? Is there something like that? Maybe if there is, then help is what they need as early as possible.
ReplyDelete