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How bad is caffeine withdrawal? People who have a caffeine habit may empathize with a scene of the 1931 production of Frankenstein, in which the mad scientist exults over the animation of his monster, exclaiming “It’s alive! It’s a alive, it’s alive!” I know I get animated in the morning after drinking my first cup of the ichor we call coffee.
Caffeinated products are wildly popular worldwide, used by as much as 90 percent of the adult population. An estimated 80 percent of American adults take caffeine in one product or another, and it’s estimated half of those people are prone to headaches for one reason or another. If you are among the caffeine users who get caffeine withdrawal headaches from coffee, tea or energy drinks, there are a few things you can do to minimize the pain.
Studies of caffeine show that it does not increase the risk of death, but it causes a habit or possibly a dependence that the American Psychiatric Association now lists in its diagnosis manual as a disorder that warrants more study.
Scientists study caffeine and its use by humans a lot, some say more than any other psychoactive substance in the world. Caffeine is the most widely used drug, and more scientists are saying now there should be yet more studies into dependence and other aspects of caffeine consumption.
What is the chemistry of coffee? Caffeine is the most famous chemical compound in coffee, but roasted coffee beans contain more than 1,000 other compounds. Some of these chemicals are noxious but still are not unhealthy because they are present in such low amounts.
You never hear anybody wake up and say, “I need a big dose of putrescine and dimethyl disulfide in my morning cup.”
Anhydrous caffeine is derived from coffee beans, guarana berries and tea leaves and other natural plant sources. It is prepared in a lab and is reduced to white crystals. Anhydrous caffeine dissolves in water and mixes easily with other substances. But this powder is powerful in minute doses. It is best to allow experts who make approved products, guided by people who know the chemistry and how much to administer in, say, a caffeine pill or mint.
There are many articles and blogs on the World Wide Web touting caffeine as a supplement for enhancing athletic performance and increasing gain from weightlifting and other types of workouts
Is it true caffeine makes you smarter? Sort of, it seems, at least indirectly. Researchers have studied this question a lot, and two groups of researchers did meta-studies (studies of studies) to determine just exactly what, if any, the conclusions of the scientific literature are.
If the title sounds like we’re hedging our bets, we are.
Whether caffeine makes you smarter is one question. Whether it makes you feel good is another. Test subjects in studies report they’re in a better mood after taking caffeine, they’re more alert and less fatigued.
Sublingual Viter Energy Mints deliver a quick kick to the bloodstream. One of the fastest ways to get a drug, vitamin or caffeine into the body is through sublingual administration—that is, under the tongue, where the substance dissolves and quickly gets absorbed into the body.
That is how Viter Energy Mints, our product, delivers a load of invigorating caffeine and B vitamins into the bloodstream quickly.
Balancing sleep, caffeine and alcohol can be like walking the high wire. The National Sleep Foundation calls caffeine and alcohol “sleep stealers.” But studies show they are beneficial in moderate amounts.
6:38 a.m. That hour comes all too early, especially if people were drinking the night before. It’s the time when the average American awakens after an average night of 7 hours and 36 minutes of sleep. And the first thing most people do in the morning is brew a pot of coffee.
How much sleep should you get? It turns out 7 and a half hours of sleep per night are OK for a lot of people. You can fine-tune your consumption of caffeine in the day and alcohol at night to be sure you get enough high-quality sleep.
A 2015 study of more than 1.2 million people found that folks who drink 3 to 5 cups of black coffee a day have fewer heart problems than those who drink none. People who drink 5 or more cups don’t have any more problems than anyone else.
Two other studies, meta-analyses that collated data from 11 other research articles, found that drinking 2 to 6 cups a day results in a lower risk of stroke disease. One of those meta-studies included data from more than 500,000 participants.
Coffee can help you live longer.
We have good news for lovers of America’s two favorite mood-altering substances, caffeine and marijuana: Caffeine may enhance a pot smoker’s high.
The downside is that caffeine can also increase the chance of becoming addicted to cannabis.
The writer, Dan Charles, bought a 4-ounce bag of caffeine and said it had as much caffeine as 1,000 tall Starbucks lattes. He said this caffeine was created in coffee beans on a hillside in the tropics. “Slowly and quietly, driven by the energy of sunlight, it formed inside coffee beans hanging on thousands of trees, most likely in Brazil or Vietnam,” Charles wrote.
“Those beans were harvested, loaded on ships bound for the port of Houston, Texas, and ended up at a factory within sight of downtown Houston: Atlantic Coffee Solutions. It’s owned by one of the world’s largest coffee traders, ECOM Agroindustrial Corp., which is based in Switzerland.”
Study after study has found recently that moderate amounts of caffeine are not harmful. So healthy adults need not deny themselves coffee, tea or other products unless the caffeine interferes with sleep.
Sages and philosophers from various world traditions have counseled “Everything in moderation,” and, stated another way, “Nothing in excess.” These aphorisms apply to caffeine, too, because too much of this otherwise beneficial chemical can cause insomnia, nervousness, muscle tremors and stomach upset.
When people talk about having “a cup of coffee,” they don’t necessarily mean 8 ounces (236 milliliters). For example, many people go for the large size of coffee at McDonald’s restaurants and Starbucks, at 20 ounces (591 milliliters). Or at home, they may have a 12- to 16-ounce mug.
So when you read guides online that say an 8-ounce cup of drip java has about 163 mg of caffeine, you can more than double the amount of the stimulating chemical for a 20-ounce size. Drip coffee is the kind that drips through a filter to produce that cup or mug of the elixir that so many people say they can’t start their day without.
