Caffeine Blues_ Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America's #1 Drug ( PDFDrive )

by Неизвестный

  To those who claim that caffeine is harmless, I say look at the facts—and, more important, look at your life. Your health is your most valuable possession, and life is short. I am convinced that to enjoy life to its fullest we must maintain

  and life is short. I am convinced that to enjoy life to its fullest we must maintain health on three levels: physical, mental, and emotional. At each one of these three levels, caffeine is an adversary.

  Caffeine versus Physical Vitality

  On the physical level, we need a steady source of energy to accomplish our goals. Nothing is more frustrating than to be motivated, to have a great plan, but no energy to carry it out. When I ask patients about their reasons for drinking coffee, the most common response is: “I need the energy.” The irony, as you will see in Chapter 3, is that caffeine is a major cause of fatigue. Depending on caffeine to get you through the day might work for a while, but in the long run it will make your dreams harder and harder to achieve.

  To see what I mean, try this experiment. Clench your fist tightly. Hold it closed and very tight for thirty seconds. What happens to your arm and hand?

  They get tired. This exercise illustrates what happens to your body when you ingest caffeine. First you feel strong, but soon afterwards you feel weak. That’s because caffeine doesn’t give you energy—it creates tension, and the ultimate result of tension is always fatigue. You felt the result of squeezing your fist, which only involves a few muscles. Imagine the energy drain created by muscle tension throughout your body after ingesting caffeine.

  Caffeine versus Mental Vitality

  On the mental level, we need to be consistently alert and aware to function effectively in our daily lives. As you will see in Chapter 4, caffeine puts you on a roller-coaster ride where mental clarity alternates with periods of confusion, depression, and lethargy. You’ll also learn that caffeine does nothing to enhance learning, but actually impairs memory and cognition.

  When patients relate their coffee stories to me, a common pattern usually emerges. They started drinking coffee occasionally, either as a morning “wakeup” or to stay up late. Gradually, they found themselves reaching for coffee or cola beverages throughout the day just to stay alert. In time, the habit became an addiction, with their only dependable mental energy coming from the coffeepot.

  This is sad, because the coffee habit has a steep downside. We pay dearly for those “borrowed” periods of clarity by sacrificing our true mental vitality.

  “There is no doubt that the excitation of the central nervous system produced by large amounts of caffeine is followed by depression”.

  Source: J. Murdoch Ritchie in The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Goodman and Gilman eds.

  Vitality Is Our Birthright

  What we must remember is that vitality is not something that disappears in adulthood. We throw it away by becoming sedentary and damaging our bodies and minds with caffeine. We set ourselves up for a life of ups and downs, when each of us is capable of maintaining a high level of physical and mental vitality well into our advanced years. A healthy child doesn’t require caffeine to get out of bed in the morning, and there is no reason why you can’t experience the same boundless energy of your youth!

  But first you must stop punishing your body and mind with caffeine. Is it worth it? The answer is an unqualified yes. Patients who have followed the Off the Bean program outlined in Chapter 10 have found their bodies healthier and minds sharper at fifty-five than they were at twenty-five.

  Of course, total health also requires emotional stability, peace of mind, and an optimistic attitude. The effects of caffeine diminish these qualities.

  Relationships with friends, partners, and co-workers depend on harmony, which is destroyed by anxiety, irritability, and tension. Caffeine not only intensifies the stress in our lives, but makes us less able to cope.

  If I had a magic wand, I would instantly remove the stress from my clients’

  lives. Until that magic wand appears, I will do everything I can to help them control their caffeine intake. For some, regaining mental vitality after caffeine means learning a relaxation technique such as those described in Chapter 10. For others, psychological counseling is recommended. But everyone needs to start by taking a close look at their caffeine intake.

  Caffeine and Anxiety

  For five years, I worked in a team practice with physicians and psychotherapists. Often, the psychological evaluation would include one or more anxiety syndromes and the recommendation was for counseling. I would point out that the person was consuming excessive amounts of caffeine and request a trial month off caffeine prior to therapy sessions. In about 50 percent of cases, the anxiety syndrome would resolve with caffeine withdrawal alone.

  Of course, I recognize that counseling can play a vital role in restoring wholeness and peace of mind. It’s just that counseling a patient for anxiety who is drinking coffee is like trying to fill a leaky bucket.

  Caffeine and Alcohol: Psychoactive Cousins

  The undeniable fact is that caffeine is a psychoactive drug, affecting mind, mood, and behavior. While the effects of caffeine are obvious but not always recognized, the effects of alcohol, another psychoactive substance, are easy to spot. We all know how intoxicated individuals behave. When they are involved in automobile accidents, their blood alcohol is measured and they may face criminal charges. No one would think of measuring blood caffeine levels after an accident because there is no data to suggest that caffeine impairs performance.

  I would like to suggest, however, that the biochemical and behavioral changes brought about by caffeine may very well contribute to auto accidents. In the following chapters, I will present clear evidence that caffeine disturbs normal decision-making processes. Is it far-fetched to assert that ill-advised lane changes, tailgating, speeding, rage, and stress contribute to auto accidents?

  Watch your driving the next time you’re “wired” on caffeine and tell me I’m wrong.

  There Is Life after Caffeine

  Life after caffeine does not have to be dull. In fact, there are delicious and very satisfying alternatives, and I’m not talking about pallid teas, decaf, and instant coffee “substitutes.” You’ll learn about rich, robust, and healthful beverages that brew like coffee but contain no caffeine. Likewise, life after coffee does not

  brew like coffee but contain no caffeine. Likewise, life after coffee does not have to be lethargic. Breakthrough research in human metabolism and brain biochemistry has made it possible for you to enjoy greater energy and alertness without coffee than you ever experienced when you were “on the drug”.

  You’ll read about natural alternatives to caffeine that actually enhance metabolic energy production while decreasing the tension in your body. The difference, once you make the switch, is astounding. You’ll also learn how to repair your nervous system, manage stress, and improve your energy production naturally. Finally, you’ll learn how to obtain the quantity and quality of energy you need for the rest of your long, healthy life. You’ll discover that life without caffeine has the potential to be better than you ever dreamed possible!

  CHAPTER 3

  Caffeine and Your Body

  If five million people do a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

  —Ancient Chinese proverb

  Ageless Wisdom Is Sometimes Unwise

  Today nearly 90 percent of American adults drink caffeinated beverages. This includes the scientists who explore caffeine’s effects and the journalists who report the scientists’ findings. The result is that Americans are misinformed because no one is willing to say, “This is a foolish thing.“ In this chapter, we are going to look at the science of caffeine. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that no scientific study has ever shown that coffee is good for you. The discussion only concerns the degree to which it will harm you.

  The scientific method is an extraordinary systematic process for discovering what is real. In other areas of human endeavor, exactly the oppo
site is true. Take advertising, for example. Here is an entire system of communication designed not to reveal the truth, but to manipulate behavior. Sometimes it’s absurd. A cigarette brand, for example, is advertised as being “alive with pleasure” even though everyone knows that cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable death.

  Isn’t it interesting, then, to learn that most people are influenced far more by advertising than they are by science? In other words, we tend to make decisions that affect our lives and the lives of our children based not upon what is real, but upon habit, or upon what other people want us to think. When it comes to coffee, the most common reaction I hear is, “How can it be bad for you? People have been drinking coffee for centuries.”

  To a scientist, this observation is meaningless. History is filled with cases where millions of people made serious mistakes. There are herbs in China, for example, that have been used medicinally for thousands of years, and are still being used to treat sinus congestion. But repeated use of these herbs over time can cause cancer of the nose and throat. Epidemiologists (scientists studying the distribution of disease in populations) have estimated that this habit has caused premature and painful death for millions of Chinese people. Clearly, great numbers of people can be wrong, especially when they don’t know the facts.

  Facing Reality

  Today, nearly 100 million American adults drink three or more cups of coffee each day.1 So what is reality? Is coffee “good to the last drop,” or is it a powerful drug with dangerous side effects that needs to be used with caution and moderation? To discover the truth you need science, and you need to be willing to dismiss the advertising and hype surrounding the beverage. Forget the schmaltzy pictures of two female friends sharing a special moment over coffee.

  Those two women are increasing their risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, anemia, PMS, panic attacks, and fibrocystic breast disease.

  You should also question the sanity of common statements that we hear from friends, celebrities, and co-workers. In the movie Shadow of a Doubt , Joseph Cotten’s famous line was, “I can’t face the world in the morning. I must have coffee before I can speak.” Now, substitute for the word coffee any other drug, say amphetamines. If a person said he or she can’t face the world without amphetamines, we’d call him or her an addict. We’d whisk the person off to rehab and maybe even throw him in jail. But because coffee is a drug we consume ourselves, we wink and nod and say, “Yeah, ain’t it the truth!”

  Biochemical Individuality

  When it comes to nailing down the precise effects of a drug, scientists always run up against the fact that people are different. Because of what is termed “biochemical individuality,” the appropriate dose of a drug for one person may be an overdose for someone else. Physicians need to make educated guesses when prescribing many of their medications, taking into account the patient’s size and age in order to arrive at the optimal dose. Often, further adjustments are made during treatment.

  This is especially true with caffeine. We know that a single 100-milligram dose (about six ounces of regular coffee) can cause palpitations and ringing in the ears in one person, while another may experience only a pleasant boost in alertness. This is because caffeine, like all drugs, has to be detoxified by the body, and the organs responsible for that feat perform their jobs at varying rates of speed and efficiency. We know that caffeine is rapidly and completely absorbed by everyone. Getting rid of the toxin, however, is another story.

  Caffeine’s Cumulative Effect

  Scientists measure the rate of which a drug is eliminated or broken down by its “half-life”: the time it takes the body to remove one-half of the dose. With caffeine, this varies widely from person to person, depending on age, sex, general health, weight, metabolic rate, and current medications. Genetic factors also affect the rate at which the body eliminates caffeine.2 Thus, the half-life of a single dose of caffeine can range from three to twelve hours. Obviously, then, in real life, there is a very important cumulative effect, since most coffee drinkers have additional cups before the first dose wears off.

  This cumulative phenomenon is overlooked by most researchers. They take a group of people, give them a quantity of caffeine, and administer various tests.

  When the people don’t have heart attacks, they make the absurd statement that coffee is safe. Or they report various side effects, but conclude that coffee in “moderation” is safe. In reality, no one —not a scientist, your doctor, or your psychic aunt —can tell you how much coffee is safe for you .Nor can you rely on symptoms like sweaty palms and rapid heartbeat. These symptoms tend to go away as the body adjusts to the drug. What does not go away, however, is the

  damage being done to your adrenals, blood vessels, breasts, brain, gastrointestinal tract, DNA, immune system, and bones. And all of that is silent.

  In the remainder of this chapter we take a close look at twelve critical points —organs, glands, and processes in the body where the cumulative effects of caffeine become most evident over time.

  Critical Point #1: Your Liver

  The liver performs an enormous range of tasks. On physiology exams, it was a common joke among my colleagues that for any question, you could simply write “the liver” and be correct most of the time. The liver is in charge of collecting and distributing nearly every nutrient from every bite of food you will ever eat. It’s also primarily responsible for removing anything from the bloodstream that you don’t want. Sometimes that takes real ingenuity. Faced with a substance it cannot chemically reduce or eliminate (like DDT), the liver breaks up the dangerous material into tiny fragments and distributes it to remote areas of the body in order to decrease the concentration of the poison in any one site.

  Fortunately, the caffeine we consume is also distributed throughout the body and, unlike DDT, the liver does have the machinery to break it down. When we drink a cup of coffee, however, an enormous amount of the toxin is dumped in the bloodstream all at once. Caffeine is rapidly absorbed by every organ and tissue in the body and diffuses into body fluids, including saliva, semen, breast milk, and amniotic fluid. Caffeine goes everywhere and easily crosses the bloodbrain barrier. Only then does the liver begin the task of reducing this troublesome toxin, and it’s not easy.

  Usually, drug detoxification is a job shared by the liver and kidneys. The kidneys remove what they can and excrete it in the urine. Not so with caffeine.

  The kidneys try to get rid of the molecule, but it is reabsorbed into the bloodstream before it reaches the urinary tract. Thus, the burden falls entirely on the liver.

  Remember that coffee contains a host of chemicals, not just caffeine, among them a group of extremely toxic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). You might remember them as the cancer-causing agents isolated from barbecued meat. The liver also has to deal with all the aldehydes, alcohols, and sulfides found in coffee. Caffeine alone is broken down into more than twenty-five byproducts or metabolites, the primary ones being paraxanthine, theobromine, and theophylline. Interestingly, each of these

  paraxanthine, theobromine, and theophylline. Interestingly, each of these metabolites has its own biochemistry and effect on the body.

  A DEADLY DUO: CAFFEINE AND YOUR MEDICINE CABINET

  At any one time, more than 36 percent of American adults are using some prescription or OTC (over-the-counter) medication. Among the elderly, that percentage is much higher. Hundreds of these drugs contain caffeine but, more important, many of them, like birth control pills and cimetidine (brand name Tagamet), interfere with the liver’s ability to detoxify the chemicals found in coffee.3 Common antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (brand name Cipro) also inhibit the detoxification of caffeine,4 and researchers warn that ingestion of caffeine while taking such drugs can increase risk for liver disease, cardiac arrhythmias, and even epilepsy.5

  Other pharmaceutical drugs have been shown to increase blood levels of caffeine by more than 600 percent.6 Later in this chapter you will learn just h
ow dangerous and damaging this can be to the body. In turn, coffee can drastically affect the metabolism, blood level, and.detoxification of pharmaceutical drugs, including a laundry list of commonly consumed medications.7–8, 9 When your doctor prescribes a drug for any condition, it is important to ask about possible interactions with caffeine.

  What’s more, even moderate liver disease can remarkably reduce caffeine clearance. Individuals with disorders involving the liver (e.g., alcoholic cirrhosis, hepatitis) can have elevated blood levels of caffeine for two to six days from a single cup of coffee.10

  For cigarette smokers, on the other hand, caffeine clearance is accelerated.

  Apparently, in a heroic effort to rid the body of the potent carcinogens delivered by tobacco smoke, the liver produces more enzymes capable of detoxifying caffeine. This interaction of powerful toxins has two important results. First, smokers will tend to drink more coffee than nonsmokers in an effort to achieve the same level of stimulation. And second, smokers who drink coffee have the deck stacked against them when they try to quit. That’s because without the cigarette stimulation, their caffeine detox system slows down, resulting in enormous increases in blood caffeine levels (up to 200 percent)11 As you can imagine, this produces severe anxiety, nervousness, irritability, and insomnia.

  Added to the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, it’s enough to send even a

  highly motivated person running back to Marlboro country.

  The takehome message here is: If you’re going to quit smoking (the most positive step you can take to improve your health), it is highly advisable that you decrease your caffeine intake at the same time. In fact, I recommend that you quit coffee altogether (see Chapter 10, “Off the Bean’) because studies show that removing caffeine will greatly increase your chance of quitting cigarettes for good.