I listen to my friends, including some doctors, who happily explain they need their morning coffee to get going. They cannot wake up, do what they have to do, even think, before that first cup. Get the caffeine jolt right away, or might as well stay in bed.
People love their caffeine. “Let’s meet for coffee.” “I’m addicted to it, but I only have it in the morning.” “No big deal.”
It’s part of human culture. Many people live for their morning caffeine fix. They look forward to it. It makes them feel good. Well, of course it does: they’re physiologically and psychologically addicted to it.
Many substances are addicting. Some of the most commonly used habit forming drugs include alcohol, nicotine, opium byproducts, and caffeine.
The nature of addiction is that the chemical in question alters functions throughout the body. It is not just being stimulating, mind-enhancing, pain relieving, or sedating. These may be the rewards sought by using the drug, but all cells and organ-systems are affected.
Caffeine wakes people up and energizes their minds. A chronic user of caffeine needs it to get going in the morning, perk up later in the day, and perform their necessary tasks.
Many caffeine users proclaim their need with a broad smile and a sense of pride and accomplishment. It seems like people are exercising their bragging rights that this chemical solves the problem of the morning blahs. By the way, many of these folks are adamantly against using mind-altering drugs, like marijuana.
What is so wonderful about requiring caffeine?
Caffeine is a highly addictive drug. The need for this chemical is brought on because their blood and brain levels are dropping. They cannot function until the drug enters the bloodstream and begins to work its magic.
The problem that caffeine resolves is caused by habitual use of caffeine. To put it in perspective, the same is true for alcohol and other addicting drugs. A reliable treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndromes – from mild symptoms to delirium tremens – is drinking alcohol! Caffeine is needed to counteract the effects of withdrawal from this drug. Both are addicting chemicals that require replacement to treat decreasing blood and brain levels.
So what is the problem with being addicted to caffeine. It is, after all, qualitatively different from alcohol addiction. Alcohol is a much more harmful drug.
But caffeine causes a lot of its own type of injuries. Allow me to explain:
In life, you must use it or lose it. So many skills of youth are lost because the obligations of adulthood take the time away from earlier passions. For example, a child may gain proficiency playing piano, but this skill atrophies if not reinforced because the priorities of practicing the instrument become supplanted by the commitments that accompany getting older.
If you replace it, then you waste it. If someone always relies upon the internet to remember stuff, then memory functions atrophy. If a motor vehicle does the job of walking, then strength, endurance, and lung vitality suffer.
Chronic caffeine intake impairs native capabilities, which deteriorate from disuse, leading to some loss. The human body is capable of energy stimulation by its own devices. If caffeine is used to energize, the inherent mechanisms lose their power. They become ineffective. The body’s capacity to energize itself is diminished. Replacing normal functions with caffeine [or any drug] allows the decline of inherent powers, which go to waste.
Another illustration: Depending on a hand-held calculator for computing erodes arithmetic thinking aptitude. This goes beyond multiplication and division proficiency. A mind that can perform arithmetic calculations is sharper and more dynamic.
When ingested, caffeine spreads around the body, affecting every cell throughout the organism (you). Cellular functions are altered. No organ operates as intended. Some abnormalities are obvious: It is well known scientifically that caffeine affects the upper gastrointestinal tract, causing acid reflux and its attendant annoyances and miseries.
Chronic caffeine usage affects other bodily systems. The harm is not immediately evident. It can be challenging to identify and often impossible to prove.
Addicting drugs – like alcohol, heroin, and caffeine – cause many insidious collateral reactions and abnormalities. Many of these are too subtle to be measured experimentally.
Some examples:
High blood pressure is a little more difficult to control in a chronic caffeine user. Cardiac arrhythmias are mildly less responsive to cardiac medicines in the presence of caffeine addiction. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is slightly more refractory to treatment in the caffeine user. Caffeine aggravates anxiety in those susceptible to this problem. Sleep disorders are worse and require more medicines. Muscle and nervous system malfunctions can be more pronounced. And the list goes on.
Caffeine may not cause these problems, but it certainly can influence their complexity. People who chronically drink caffeinated beverages are often bothered by symptoms or physiological malfunctions. These maladies may have antedated the use of caffeine, making the person doubt that the caffeine is adversely affecting them. But problems aggravated by chronic ingestion of caffeine become more entrenched and unmanageable. There is no objective test to prove caffeine is a culprit in their discomfort.
Hundreds of scientific medical studies covering a wide range of illnesses mention caffeine at the end of the article. They cite evidence that high doses of caffeine probably aggravate the illness being studied. Instead of advising caffeine abstinence, “limiting caffeine intake” is the common recommendation. Medical studies pertaining to the conditions listed above, as well as others, often include this qualification. And then it is left to the physician or patient to decide the importance of caffeine for themselves.
This is haphazard medical advising.
So why not just conclude by recommending “no caffeine,” a more definitive recognition of the harm this chemical can do to the body? If caffeine is a problem, then it should be avoided, not just limited. The recovering alcoholic does not limit alcohol. As part of the Alcoholic Anonymous program, this drug has to be totally eliminated.
Oh, and incidentally, doctors, scientists, and statisticians are part of the majority in the world who just love their coffee. Ritual morning coffee is almost a religion to many.
Caffeine contributes to increased morbidity. It is a factor in draining healthcare resources and increasing the cost. These effects, though tough to prove by their limited nature, become significant because of the numbers of individuals who must have their daily injection of caffeine.
Caffeine is a powerful drug with sometimes horrific withdrawal symptoms. Yet societies accept that using this addictive drug is not only okay, but necessary and beneficial. Many people may decide that the negatives are outweighed by the positives. I would not argue with that attitude. But there is a piper to be paid. And there is not a clear line from using caffeine to dyshealth. (Notably, the same is true for many unhealthy practices.)
As we age, medical problems develop. Years of habitual caffeine ingestion is a factor in the appearance, severity, and refractory nature of many of these maldaies.
Yes, there are some health benefits from coffee, probably related to the antioxidant chemicals in the coffee bean. The problem is that these beneficial substances in coffee are always going to be associated with a harmful drug: caffeine. A drug which people gleefully acknowledge they need for physical and mental functioning. Helpful antioxidant substances can be obtained through nutritional supplementation. And this without the caffeine.
Caffeine is physically addictive and associated with a potentially serious withdrawal syndrome. From my perspective as a doctor, any drug like this should not be used at all. There is subtle and insidious harm done to the body by these types of chemical substances. Just the fact that caffeine is physically, psychologically, and emotionally addicting should make its use questioned much more than it is.
Health and Spirit by Dr. Jack Zoldan 