Caffeine Health Effects
The effects of caffeine on human health are very interesting to research. Caffeine does not have a very positive effect on long term health. In the short term, caffeine does pep up metabolism and seems to improve alertness. Why else do a lot of students gulp down caffeinated coffee to stay awake studying all night?
- Caffeine and CNS: Caffeine affects the central nervous system by acting as a stimulant. 200-500 mg caffeine (approximately 2-5 cups coffee) may produce nervousness, headache, tremors, and irritability. 10 grams or 10,000 mg or more caffeine can induce convulsions.
- Caffeinism Syndrome: Caffeinism syndrome is associated with excessive caffeine intake. 1000 mg caffeine (about 10 cups of coffee) may produce these symptoms of caffeinism: anxiety attack, nervousness, irritability, muscle twitching, jitteriness and insomnia.
- Insomnia: Non-coffee drinkers were reported to have increased sensitivity to caffeine than coffee drinkers. They were noted to have disturbed sleep patterns, particularly delayed onset of sleep. Heavy coffee drinkers are relatively insensitive to sleeplessness.
- Increase in heart palpitations: Caffeine stimulates the cardiac muscle which increases force of contraction, heart rate and cardiac output. Large doses of caffeine (more than 250 mg or approximately 2 ¼ cups coffee) may induce heart irregularities.
- Increased blood fats: It has been reported that individuals who consumed nine or more cups of coffee per day had about 14% higher blood cholesterol levels than did those who consumed less than one cup per day. This degree of cholesterol elevation suggests at least a two-fold increase in the risk of heart disease.
- Increased gastric acid secretions: Caffeine intake results in increased gastric acid secretions; hence, caffeine is contraindicated in gastric ulcer patients.
- High blood pressure: Those who consumed caffeine regularly were noted to have high blood pressure than those who did not.
- Increased blood sugar: Two cups coffee may significantly raise the blood sugar. Perhaps that is the reason there is more functional hypoglycemia among coffee drinkers, and that caffeine aggravates diabetes.
- Caffeine is addictive: Giving up coffee suddenly, even for a day or two, can cause lethargy, irritability and painful throbbing headaches particularly to those having migraine headaches. However, after discontinuing coffee for a few days, these headaches usually disappear.
- Caffeine and Bone health: Excess caffeine is adversely associated with bone health. Intake of caffeine increases calcium excretion, thus having a possible role in compromised bone health. However, studies do demonstrate that in moderate coffee drinkers when adequate calcium and vitamin D are consumed along with weight bearing physical exercise especially during adolescence, you can be safest when it comes to healthy and strong bones.
Other Possible Ill Effects of Caffeine
- Risk of birth defects
- The FDA has shown that the caffeine equivalent of just two cups of coffee per day caused delayed skeletal development in fetal rats; and the equivalent of 12 to 24 cups per day caused a high percentage of rat offspring without toes on front and rear feet. Caffeine has also caused cleft palate, skull malformation and other abnormalities in laboratory animals.
- One Belgian study showed a correlation between heavy coffee drinking (eight or more cups a day) during pregnancy and an increased risk of birth defects.
- The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy group in Washington, has already identified several babies whose birth defects may be linked to their mother’s coffee intake.
2. Caffeine may cause benign breast lumps
- Research by John Minton, MD, a surgeon at Ohio State University studied 47 fibrocystic patients for three years. These fibrocystic lumps are not cancerous, but women with them have four times the normal risk of developing breast cancer. This has led many physicians to conclude that one common cause of fibrocystic breast disease (benign breast lumps) may be caffeine. Chemicals in chocolate, cocoa, cola, coffee are responsible for many, if not most, cases of fibrocystic disease of the breast, a group of chemicals called methyl xanthines are the cuprits.
The caffeine in coffee, tea, and colas; the theophylline in tea and the theobromine in chocolate, cocoa and colas, are all members of the methyl xanthine group. These chemicals cause sensitive tissues in the breasts to grow beyond their limits by blocking certain hormonal messengers. When a patient with fibrocystic disease of the breast is weaned off chocolates, colas, coffee and tea, in 80% of the cases, their condition improves ranging from decrease in the size of the lumps to total remission. Giving Vitamin E increases the rate at which the lumps shrink, and the number of women who experience improvement. Dose needs to be determined by your physician.
References for Other Possible Ill Effects of Caffeine:
1. Jacobson, M.F. The Caffeine Catch. Family Health, 13 (4):1981
2. Caffeine. Report from the Institute of Nutrition, The University of Carolina, June 1982.
3. Beverages (pamphlet). Seventh day Adventist Dietetic Association
4. Caffeine implicated in heart disease. Diet and Nutrition Letter, Tufts University, 1(6):August 1983.
In conclusion, according to IFIC (International Food Information Council), scientific evidence supports the safety of caffeine when it is consumed in moderation of 1-2 cups per day. Thus, 300 mgs or less of caffeine per day is considered safe.
