Caffeine Addiction

Caffeine addiction is arguably the most widespread drug addiction in America, and perhaps the world. Although often used to add flavor and taste to drinks, caffeine is also commonly consumed for its stimulant properties. It’s this latter widespread usage which has created a caffeine addicted nation where the proverbial “morning joe” is a typical American ritual.

And it only takes a small amount to start the addiction. Consuming as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine per day (about a half cup of coffee) can result in a physical dependence that results in withdrawal symptoms—the hallmark of physically addictive products—if discontinued.

So why such a strong need for caffeine?

To begin with, caffeine is nearly unavoidable. Whenever you eat out, the availability of non-caffeinated drinks is slim. Secondly, because of its widespread use we are exposed to it at a very young age when we are given our first taste of cola or a myriad of many other popular drinks that contain caffeine. The prevalence of caffeine combined with exposure at a young age has resulted in rampant caffeine addiction.

Caffeine’s Addictive Hooks

Like any drug addiction, the majority of the addicted tend to experience withdrawals after refraining from consumption of the drug. Withdrawal symptoms often include headaches, insomnia, nervousness, increased stress, and exhaustion just to name a few.

And as we grow older, our dependence grows. Faced with decreasing energy as we age, caffeine rich substances, such as coffee and tea, come to be a regular inclusion in our morning rituals. While the stimulant properties of caffeine do give us a temporary boost to get us going, the reality is we are feeding an addiction that actually takes energy away from us in the long run.

While we blame this decreasing energy on our age, thus justifying the necessity of caffeine, in truth caffeine increases the stress levels on our bodies. Because we put out bodies into a near-continuous state of stress without giving it a chance to rest, exhaustion consumes us, thus creating the perception that caffeine is required to keep us going when in reality we are feeding the very thing that is the true cause of the exhaustion.

Caffeine also acts as a diuretic, which contributes to dehydration, thus exacerbating the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. The fact that many people get their caffeine fixes from sodas—where the carbonated water is an additional diuretic—adds to the problem. Because continued consumption of caffeine essentially multiplies the withdrawal symptoms, addicts are placed in a vicious cycle where they believe the only resolution is to consume more of the drug. Proverbially, addicts are trying to put out a fire by adding more fuel to it and are left to wonder why the fire keeps getting bigger.

The Physiological Effects of Caffeine

The main ingredient in coffee that gives us that jolt is caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant. caffeine is found naturally in coffee beans, tea leaves, and chocolate, and is a popular added ingredient in carbonated beverages and some over-the-counter medications such as cold remedies, diuretics, aspirin, and weight control aids. It is estimated that in the U.S., 75% of caffeine intake comes from coffee.

Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system by blocking adenosine, a neurotransmitter that normally causes a calming effect in the body. The resulting neural stimulation due to this blockage causes the adrenal glands to release adrenaline, the “fight or flight” hormone. Your heart rate increases, your pupils dilate, your muscles tighten up, and glucose is released into your blood stream for extra energy.

Caffeine also increases dopamine. Dopamine activates the pleasure in parts of the brain. It has been suspected that this also contributes to caffeine addiction. Physiologically, caffeine makes us you feel alert, pumps adrenaline to give you energy and changes dopamine production to make you feel good.

The Downside of Caffeine

Despite coffee/caffeine’s positive effects on psychological states and performance, there are numerous documented risks that must considered when consuming caffeine, whether for performance-enhancing effects or simply as a part of daily dietary consumption.

Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and can produce restlessness, headaches, and irritability. caffeine also elevates your heart rate and blood pressure. Over the long-term as your body gets used to caffeine, it requires higher amounts to get the same effects. Certainly, having your body in a state of hormonal emergency all day long isn’t very healthy.

Caffeine is also a diuretic and causes a loss of fluid, which then leads to a dehydrating effect. This is obviously not conducive to fitness activities such as resistance training, as fluid is needed for the transfer of nutrients to facilitate muscular growth. It is also important when considering the further loss of fluid while exercising in hot environments.

Perhaps the most important long-term problem is the effect of caffeine on sleep. The half-life of caffeine in the body is about 6 hours. If you drink a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine at 4PM, at 10PM you still have about 100mg in your body. By 4AM, you still have 50mg floating in your system. Even though you may be able to sleep, you may not be able to obtain the restful benefits of deep sleep. What’s worse, the cycle continues as you may use more and more caffeine in hopes of counteracting this deficit.

Caffeine’s Addictive Hooks

Caffeine Withdrawal

Negative symptoms experienced after drug use are known as withdrawals. What is happening, in essence, is your body is crying out for you to take more of the drug. And if you listen to your body and take the drug again, the withdrawal symptoms go away.

Withdrawals are the result of a physical dependence on a drug. This physical dependence is the hallmark of addiction. According to a John Hopkins Medicine study conducted in the mid-90s, it takes as little as little as a half cup of coffee a day to cause caffeine withdrawals.

Caffeine withdrawal is beginning to be recognized by the medical community as a physical disorder. It is expected that the World Health Organization will update their ICD (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Heath Problems), a kind of mental-disorder bible for the medical field, to include a diagnosis for caffeine withdrawal. The diagnosis should also appear in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Caffeine’s Withdrawal Symptoms

Caffeine withdrawal can include:

Headache
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating
Drowsiness

The number of symptoms and level of intensity will vary according to the amount of caffeine a person normally consumes each day. However, in more extreme cases caffeine withdrawal has been known to include nausea, muscle pain, and even vomiting. A person might even confuse their caffeine withdrawal with the flu, and end up staying home from work or school as a result.

Studies show that headache is the most common caffeine withdrawal symptom, with about half the participants experiencing it. Thirteen percent had symptoms so severe that it caused significant distress or functional impairment.

Typically, onset of withdrawal symptoms occurred within 24 hours. However, peak intensity did not occur for between one and two days. Although the severity of symptoms generally increased along caffeine consumption levels, caffeine withdrawal occurred after abstaining from doses as little as 100 milligrams equivalent to a small cup of coffee or 20 oz. of Mountain Dew.

Between 80 and 90 percent of adults in the U.S. consume caffeine on a daily basis, and the average adult consumes 280 milligrams of caffeine per day, nearly triple the amount required to cause physical dependence. These numbers show that caffeine is the most widely used addictive drug in the world.

Surveys also show that avoidance of caffeine withdrawal symptoms was a major motivating factor in further caffeine consumption. That is, fear of the caffeine headache results in a person continuing their caffeine addiction.

Caffeine Withdrawal Headaches

The caffeine withdrawal headache. Anybody who consumes caffeine on a regular basis knows about it. And considering that caffeine is the most consumed drug in the world, a lot of people know about the caffeine headache.

The so-called caffeine headache is the most common withdrawal symptoms experienced when a person abstains from or attempts to break their addiction to caffeine. A John Hopkins Medicine study showed that 50% of people who consume caffeine on a daily basis experience a headache within 24 hours of abstaining from it.

Since between 80% and 90% of all Americans consume an average of 280 milligrams of caffeine per day, there are a lot of caffeine headaches happening across the nation at any given moment.

Furthermore, the seemingly simple caffeine withdrawal headache is cited as a major reason for continuing caffeine consumption. This strongly suggests that the caffeine headache is much more than just an annoyance, but is actually a major cause for caffeine addiction.

The cruel irony of caffeine addiction is that the more you consume, the more your body adapts to it, thereby requiring more of it to obtain the same result. Essentially, the longer you consume caffeine, the more of it you’ll have to take to stave off caffeine withdrawal.

In other words, with each passing day you’ll have to increase the amount of caffeine consumption just to stave off a headache. And as time goes by, the worse your caffeine headache will become, due to gradually increasing caffeine consumption, once you abstain from the drug.

Caffeine tolerance can develop very quickly. Excessive use (1,200 milligrams per day) can result in complete tolerance of caffeine’s sleep depravation effect in as little as one week. Long term use in lower amounts, about 900 milligrams per day, will result in total tolerance of all of caffeine’s effects within 2-3 weeks. Just imagine the headache you’ll experience after that!

Caffeine’s diuretic properties don’t happen to help the caffeine headache either. In fact, the dehydration caused by excessive caffeine consumption actually adds to the intensity of a caffeine headache. This, of course, leads to the perception that even more caffeine must be taken to stave off the headache, despite the fact that simply drinking more water might actually reduce the headache enough so as to make breaking the caffeine habit more tolerable.

For those that suffer sever headaches, especially migraines, caffeine is a common trigger. For these people, a caffeine headache is something that is caused from the consumption of caffeine rather than the abstaining from it.

However, caffeine does have positive properties if used responsibly. The most prominent use of caffeine for medical purposes is to increase the effectiveness of pain killers. Ironically, the most popular headache medicine uses caffeine as a booster for the pain killer.