The harmful effects of caffeine are many. Among the harmful effects of caffeine are forgetfulness, nervousness, and addiction.
Caffeine is a psychoactive substance naturally found in coffee, tea, kola nuts, and in lesser amount, in cocoa. It is also found in beans, leaves, and fruits of some plants that acts as a natural pesticide to ward off insects.
Caffeine is a common ingredient in soft drinks, such as cola which was originally prepared from kola nuts. Soft drinks usually contain about 10 to 50 milligrams, and energy drinks, 80 milligrams of caffeine per servings. Guarana, a prime ingredient of energy drinks, contains large amounts of caffeine with small amounts of theobromine and theophylline. It is also found in tea, and in chocolates, in the form of cocoa, in small amount.
Caffeine is an excitotoxin that harms the brain. It stimulates the body in similar manner as cocaine and heroin, and its addiction is gradual and subtle. Like most excitotoxins, caffeine causes brain malfunctions. This substance, like alcohol and nicotine, can easily penetrate the blood-brain barrier and can over excite the brain neurons to death.
Busy people who want to extend their working hours drink more coffee in order to stay awake all day. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in the central nervous system of our brain, and brings a temporary feeling of alertness and wakefulness. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in the control of the sleep-wake cycle. It promotes drowsiness and sleep after long hours of work or mental activity.
Caffeine molecule is structurally similar to adenosine. It easily binds to adenosine receptors on the cell surface without activating them, thus blocking and inhibiting their functions. Cells that are normally slowed down by adenosine are speeded up by caffeine. Sensing that the cells are not slowed down, and suspecting that an emergency has happened, the hypothalamus reacts by releasing a neuro-hormone called dopamine into the bloodstream which triggers the adrenal glands to start pumping. Dopamine increases heart rate and blood pressure, thus the feeling of wakefulness and alertness when drinking coffee.
The temporary sensation of high energy and alertness after drinking coffee, soft drinks, and energy drinks could be due to the the effects of caffeine’s three by-products during its metabolism. Paraxanthine increases the lipolysis process, which releases glycerol and fatty acids into the blood as a source of fuel for the muscles. Theobromine dilates the blood vessels to increase the amount of oxygen and the flow of nutrients to the brain and muscles. Theophylline relaxes the smooth muscle of the bronchioles; changes the time of heart rate, and alters the force of muscle contractions in the heart.
Caffeine is an excitetotoxin that destroys the brain. Its excitatory effects not only weaken the neurons in the brain but can even over excite them to death. Caffeine, by counteracting adenosine, has inhibitory effects on brain activity. It adversely affects the healthy functioning of the brain, and other learning skills. Long-term consumption of caffeine even in small doses affects learning and memory by inhibiting the creation of neurons in the hippocampus of the brain.
Other harmful effects of caffeine are the following:
- it causes nervousness, trembling, and abnormal muscle contractions
- it causes dizziness and headaches
- it causes indigestion
- it slows down reaction to auditory and visual stimuli
- it causes forgetfulness and tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
- it increases the risk of myocardial infarction
- it increases heart rate
- it causes heart palpitation
- it increases the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women
- it causes lethargy, and irritability
- it causes confusion and inability to focus
- it causes visual hallucinations
- it intensifies and prolongs the effects of psychostimulant drugs such as amphetamine, methamphetamine, and dextroamphetamine
- it causes increased gastric acid secretion in the cells
- it decreases broad-range thinking abilities
Some studies showed that caffeine is good for the heart, and increases mental performance related to focused thought. This may be true as in other contradicting results from studies done on the effects of caffeine. But these are all temporary and transitory. When the stimulating effects are gone, the harmful effects of caffeine appear in the form of illnesses and diseases.
Caffeine is a nerve irritant that does not nourish the system in any way. Its temporary effects of high energy, alertness, wakefulness, increased strength, vivid imagination, and mental arousal are only nervous excitements produce before caffeine is ever digested and assimilated by the body. When the effects of this stimulant are gone, these unnatural euphoric conditions disappear, and only results to debility and langor.
