Ever have one of those weeks when you have to, say, drop everything and run to Boston? And then find yourself scrambling to catch up on everything you were supposed to be doing, not getting enough sleep and trying to squeeze three days of work into a day and a half? If you’re like most people, that kind of week is probably marked by a spike in your caffeine consumption. Whether the buzz comes from coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, pills or those freaky five-hour energy things, just about everyone seems to need it at least some of the time. Humans are a caffeinated species. Consumption of coffee and tea goes back hundreds and even thousands of years. While coffee and tea are relative newcomers in Western culture, the speed of their adoption implies that in the long history of European culture, some niche had been left unfilled. Considering that prior to the mass adoption of these boiled-water beverages, the only way of making drinking water safe was to make alcohol with it, it’s really not surprising that coffee and tea spread as rapidly as they did! Similarly, the recent proliferation of energy drinks may say something about the increasing number of hours worked on average in the developed world.
Regardless of the means of ingestion, all this caffeine works in the same way. Caffeine is an organic molecule belonging to the xanthine class. Xanthines comprise an array of stimulant purines (biologically active compounds found in everything from coffee to DNA), and are processed by the body via a really complicated chemical pathway. Let’s not get into the specifics of that pathway, as just looking at it makes me feel the need for another cup of tea. Here’s the more general story. You consume the caffeine. It moves rapidly throughout the body, evenly spreading through all tissues. Caffeine is then metabolized by the aforementioned complex pathway. The important part is that the resulting metabolites inhibit the production and activity of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase. Why is this important? Well, phosphodiesterase degrades another enzyme, called adenosine monophosphotase (AMP). AMP is involved in the production of energy at the cellular level. A lack of AMP in the cell results in muscular weakness and low energy throughout the organism. You can imagine what an artificially high level of AMP in the cell will do. Well, actually, you don’t have to imagine. Drink a cup of coffee, and feel the levels of AMP in your cells rise! In addition to increasing the amount of AMP in the cells, caffeine metabolites alter the behavior of AMP receptors, possibly making AMP even more effective than usual.
All of this has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system. Too much stimulation, and you will, of course, be subject to the dread caffeine jitters. All right, then, can the body get used to this level of stimulation? Unfortunately, it looks like the answer is yes. Caffeine withdrawal is a real thing, although the symptoms are mild, as withdrawals go. It won’t kill you, but you will be cranky. Studies tying caffeine to anything more malignant have been inconclusive.
It’s probably not good to be dependent on any substance, caffeine included. That being said, sleep deprivation is rampant in modern life, and it seems, sadly, more reasonable to hope for responsible use of stimulants than to hope for a sudden sea change in society that allots everyone worldwide a good 8-9 hours of sleep. And given that we’re entering the age of competitive neuroenhancement, a simple caffeine dependency seems almost quaint. So, use, but with caution. If possible, sleep instead. Don’t give babies coffee (seriously). And make sure that, whatever you do, you don’t top these guys.
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