April 27, 2013

"As with all drugs, there is such a thing as too much caffeine."

"According to a 2001 Institute of Medicine report, 600 mg of caffeine (or six cups of coffee) will bring on negative cognitive effects, otherwise known as the jitters, in most people — including Kramer from Seinfeld. And some people are so sensitive to caffeine that one cup will bring on nervousness and irritability, rather than the alertness that most of us feel. 'We also know that caffeine is bad for people with anxiety — for them, it's likely to hurt productivity... But for people on the more depressive end, caffeine would improve productivity. The effect of the drug really depends on the brain into which it's being infused.'"

28 comments:

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The effect of the drug really depends on the brain into which it's being infused.

well no shit Sherlock. How much did the government spend to reach that conclusion?

edutcher said...

Some people can hold their alcohol.

Some can hold their caffeine.

PS If caffeine is so good, everybody should switch to the programmer's elixir, Jolt cola.

traditionalguy said...

Dosage level, dosage level, and dosage level are the three important thing with every drug.

Deb said...

I really love that java jive.

Strelnikov said...

Nonsense. At most the Kramer experience indicates that excessive caffeine will only strengthen the Kavorka.

Captain Curt said...

My wife was given a coffee mug that shows the "caffeine curve", an upside-down U that is a function of the number of cups of coffee. It peaks at 3 or 4 cups, with the note "seeing God". It ends at 7 or 8 cups, with the note "homicidal maniac".

Captain Curt said...

In the tech industry, the joke is that "a programmer is a device for turning caffeine into code".

Captain Curt said...

My wife was given a coffee mug that shows the "caffeine curve", an upside-down U that is a function of the number of cups of coffee. It peaks at 3 or 4 cups, with the note "seeing God". It ends at 7 or 8 cups, with the note "homicidal maniac".

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The jitters. I knew a guy who referred to it as "the yips."

ricpic said...

Need it in the morning. After that, meh.

ndspinelli said...

My old man was hyper senstive to caffeine. If he had just a half cup of coffee he would become anxious and sweaty. We surmise he may have had this problem because his mother was a huge coffee drinker. She would drink many BOWLS of coffee a day. The bowl was those nice, heavy, bowls ubiquitous over 50 years ago. The coffee was STRONG Italian coffee, just a step below espresso. This woman had the calmest demeanor of anyone I've ever known. Of course, in 1917, the year my old man was born, women drank coffee when pregnant. My old man drank Sanka. Too bad he didn't live until the gourmet decaf came along. Sanka was instant shit.

ndspinelli said...

That was one of the many, great Seinfeld episodes.

AllenS said...

I'm having coffee at this very moment. Beer usually gets rid of the jitters.

rhhardin said...

If you use only instant coffee, you can mix caf and decaf in peronsalized doses appropriate to the time of day.

Michael K said...

"
PS If caffeine is so good, everybody should switch to the programmer's elixir, Jolt cola."

I used to have an occasional cardiac rhythm problem called supraventricular tachycardia. It would come on with exercise and gradually got worse until I had it cured with a new catheter procedure.

Anyway, when I had only intermittent trouble with it, I was testifying in a court case one time (I used to do a lot of expert witness stuff) when the attorney wanted to meet over lunch in the courthouse. We sent out for sandwiches and the only thing they had to drink was Jolt Cola. It has twice the caffeine and twice the sugar. After lunch, I had an attack of tachycardia that almost prevented me from testifying. After this, I was driving home with my heart rate about 200 and had to stop and eat something and wait for it to slow down.

Since I had the abnormal pathway zapped, caffeine doesn't bother me.

Big Mike said...

"As with all drugs, there is such a thing as too much caffeine."

Not on a morning like this one.

8-(

n.n said...

Really? As with everything, there is such a thing as too much water, oxygen, etc. Everything is toxic in sufficient quantity and concentration. Sometimes it is an outcome of the environment, while more often it is an outcome of liberal behavior. Even recreational sex can be toxic, and is a leading cause of childhood mortality.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I was turned down for that study earlier, because it was concluded that years of coffee had ruined my.... contributions.

ndspinelli said...

AllenS, A shot and beer is even more effective.

Bruce Hayden said...

My coffee consumption started in college and probably peaked the first time my senior year. Was playing bridge every afternoon at the fraternity house, and dummy got coffee. Also drank with meals, etc. So, probably a dozen cups a day. Then peaked again as a software engineer. Had a pot fairly close to the desk for awhile... Quit coffee, tobacco, and red meat in early 1983. Red meat only lasted a year or two, but haven't drunk coffee since then. Unfortunately, tea slowly took over, first Celestial Seasonings non-fruity herb teas, fist caffeine free, then Morning Thunder for law school, and followed by black tea within ten years. Love unsweetened ice tea, but unfortunately love diet colas even more. Unfortunately Aspartame doesn't like me, so I try to limit myself to colas with Splenda, etc., but outside of RC, it is a fad that seems to go in and out of availability.

Sometimes miss the convenience in our culture of coffee, but would likely have to reacquire the taste. I get my caffeine in tea and colas. Have always enjoyed the pickup of the drug. Found out that I love the adrenalin rush from having to push my mind as fast as I can, and I think that caffeine maybe replaces this a bit.

I do worry that if I had been born 30-40 years later, I might have become a tweaker, hooked on meth. Both are stimulants, and I find that I prefer such to depressants by a large margin. I do not have depression, but have seen the ravages of meth enough over the last decade or so to see that there very much could be a connection between that drug and depression. So, maybe there could be a connection with caffeine too.

traditionalguy said...

Are NoDoz pills still sold? The truckers not using amphetamines took handfuls of them.

Cola drinks are caffeine with sugar. So Mormons won't drink them any more than tea or coffee drinks. That probably lost the last election or the GOP as Romney relaxed to soon.

But today the Red Bull and 5 Hour Energy canned drinks are cornering the caffeine market.

Many of today's drugged school children get a required Rx for amphetamine. So the are a hooked generation on stimulants.

Chip S. said...

You can tell how serious a school is by the strength of the coffee on campus.

traditionalguy said...

At college some of us studied in the cafeteria after lunch over by the windows, but we bought just 1 cup that we refilled 10 times.

In probable self defense the management made the refills very bitter.

FleetUSA said...

Whiskey Galore. What a wonderful movie

FleetUSA said...

Whiskey Galore. What a wonderful movie

stlcdr said...

Okay, okay. Let's just get to the bottom line, here. Is caffeine good for you are bad for you? Who's got time for this blathering about this and that, that and this, well maybe if something...get to the point, already! Make up my mind!

sabeth.chu said...

COFFEE IS GOOD FOR YOU

sabeth.chu said...

Perhaps sooner or later (sooner, I guess) somebody will sue Starbucks because his/her heart attack was the result of too much caffeine intake.
That will be fun.