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Your weekly dose of drug facts while dispelling fiction
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on Public Radio. KUNV 91.5.
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Welcome to another episode of The Chemical Collective.
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The Chemical Collective offers you your weekly dose of drug facts while dispelling fiction. Today we're talking about coffee, its psychoactive component caffeine, and some of their effects
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on the brain and society.
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I am Dr. Dustin Hines.
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I am April Gonteras.
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And I'm Kendra McLaughlin. This is going to be an interesting episode because coffee is consumed daily all over the world. But where does coffee come from? And when did humans start consuming it? Coffee is among the most popular beverages which contain substantial amounts of caffeine. It's estimated that 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide. And it comes from a genus of flowering plants and the rubyaceae family, which are native to tropical climates in Africa and Asia.
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Can you tell me a little bit more
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about coffee's origin story?
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Yeah, so one of the things I want to tell you about origin stories is I have two young boys and they're always telling me about the Avengers and their origin stories. And they always have a different idea of what the origin stories look like. Coffee is kind of the same way. So one of the most popular legends is Ethiopia and there's some mythical goat hoarder named Kaldi who looks at his goats and they're extra happy. They're frolicking, they're jumping, they're doing all kinds of things. And when he investigates, he sees that they're eating this red fruit off of a shrub thinking, well, that's kind of magical. He tries the fruit himself, experiences similar action where he feels this energization, more clarity, etc. There's other legends too that say that there's some monks that witnessed this, then they took the fruit back to the monastery, and then they consumed it, and then that night they couldn't fall asleep, they stayed up all late, and were more alert and able to get through their prayers better. So these are some of the origin stories, but it looks like in kind of, you know, the Middle East, Northern Africa is the geography of this story.
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So what was this red fruit?
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This red fruit actually comes from a coffee shrub or plant, and it's actually commonly called a berry, referred to as a coffee cherry. And these berries contain two seeds inside, which are the actual coffee beans that you might think of. And if you were to pluck a coffee cherry off a coffee plant, it would have a distinct sweet taste and it is the seeds themselves which actually contain the large amount of the psychoactive stimulant caffeine.
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Is there just one type of coffee plant? Right now there's many different types of coffee plant, but they can roughly be divided into two groups. There are two main types. One is the Arabica and the other is the Robusta. What's the
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difference between these two? Coffee Arabica is generally considered to produce a higher quality of coffee and it's more commonly grown in specialty coffee regions. It has what's considered more of a delicate flavor profile with notes of like fruit and acid and it's often described as having a more refined or smoother taste. Coffee robusta on the other hand is considered more hearty and disease resistant than the other strain which makes it a bit easier and cheaper to grow. It also has a stronger more bitter taste with notes of chocolate or nutty flavors and robusta is often used in commercial coffee blends and instant coffee. And these two major categories actually have a variety of different plants with unique coffee beans. Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't realize that coffee beans came from fruit. How has it been turned into like the coffee brew or drink as we know it?
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Well, making coffee as we know it now is a multi-step process. It first involves harvesting the fruit, then processing it, roasting it, grinding it, and brewing it. The harvesting itself is where you kind of gather those red berries that we're talking about a second ago when they're fully ripe. This is a big thing that alters the quality that people talk about, you know, the hand-picked coffee. You're hand picking it to get it at its ultimate ripeness. It's also quite commonly picked by machine. Then the berries are processed by taking off the outer layers to reveal that, you know, what we see is the coffee bean that's inside the fruit. There are two main methods of processing this. One is wet and one is dry. For that wet method the berries are washed, the outer layers are removed and then the beans are separated from the pulp. They're fermented. This is a common thing with most alkaloids. We'll talk about it probably when we get into the tea. Fermenting them allows for chain reactions of the molecules inside, the alkali molecules. And then this method produces a cleaner, brighter tasting coffee. The opposite of this method obviously is the dry method, the berries are dried in the sun and then they're removed typically mechanically. This is simpler but the coffee gets a complex earthier flavor. We also then have roasting and there's many many many different ways to roast. This is probably where most people think of the differences in coffee, most people don't think about that, Arabica or the Robusta. The roasting has all kinds of techniques and methods to release flavors and it depends on your desired flavor. So again some people like a really dark toast in the morning and some people like a very light toast. Kind of the same things are provided with this. Then we have the grinding. The grinding gets it into kind of a fine powder. The size of the grind varies greatly on your brewing method. So if you're doing something like an espresso, you're going to have a super, super fine grind. And then if you have something like an old school percolator, which in my opinion is the worst way to make coffee, right, you're going to have these big chunks.
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When did people start consuming coffee as we know it today as a beverage?
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People began consuming coffee as a beverage around the 15th century, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula. And as we discussed, the coffee plant is considered in some ways native to Ethiopia, but it's believed that the practice of roasting and brewing coffee beans as a beverage originated there and in other places. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears to be in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. And then from Yemen, coffee spread to Egypt, North Africa, eventually the Ottoman Empire, where it started to become more popular. And the first coffee houses themselves opened in Istanbul in the mid 16th century. And from there, the beverage began to spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Okay, can we talk a little bit more about how coffee is prepared around the world? Can you guys give me maybe like an example or two of like how this happens?
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Yeah, so first of all, let's just say coffee is prepared in many different ways in many different countries, but there are some types of brewing that are associated with cultures and countries. The first one is Turkish coffee. In Turkey, the main method in the Middle East is it's brewed in a special little pot called the seveza, probably said that wrong, and it's served in small cups. And the coffee is brewed from a finely, finely ground bean, lots and lots of heaping teaspoons of sugar added water, and then it's boiled on low heat and served in a glass of clean water to kind of cleanse your palate. The other thing that I was thinking there and stumbling on is it's kind of a new process they do this to get the heat just right. They typically have these sand ovens and they have a little metal brass pot that they're moving around and bubbling up getting that beautiful crema. You can tell that I like coffee a lot. Another very common way comes from Italy which is espresso. Espresso is very popular all over the world. It's made from forcing pressurized hot water through finely ground beans resulting kind of in a concentrated shot of coffee. Again, typically served in little small cups. If you think about your bike tire, you're at about, you know, 30-40 pounds per square inch. That's quite a bit of pressure. This goes anywhere from 15 to 100, so people really play with that pressure to get different flavors. In Mexico, we have the café de ola. It's often prepared with cinnamon and other things like unrefined cane sugar and little clay pots. These pots are called the Ola. And the coffee is then brewed with that cinnamon to give a very rich, robust flavor. One of my favorite dessert coffees is Vietnamese iced coffee. And in Vietnam, during the war, there was all kinds of problems getting fresh milk. So people came up with condensed milk to serve over ice and brew into drip filters. And even in the lack of condensed milk, Vietnamese coffee sometimes is made with egg yolks. So it's like a rich, frothy type coffee.
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The fact that coffee is prepared in so many different places, it makes me wonder, like, are there any traditional customs or ceremonies associated with consuming coffee? Coffee is not only a beverage that provides a boost of energy and a pleasant taste, but it's also an important part of many cultural practices and traditions around the world. These include socialization, ritual and tradition, relaxation and meditation, productivity and work. And, to socialize, coffee is often consumed in social settings like cafes or coffee shops, where you'll meet up with a friend or others to gather and spend some time together.
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Or research labs.
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Research labs probably should be number one on the list. For example, in Ethiopia, coffee ceremonies involve roasting and grinding coffee beans together and serving the coffee to guests in a really traditional manner. What is your coffee ritual? First thing in the morning, a special cup. And following to relax and meditate. Some cultures actually consume coffee to help relax and unwind. For example, in Japan, some coffee shops are especially quiet and tranquil spaces where people can take a break from their busy day and enjoy a peaceful moment with their cup of coffee. And in many other cultures, drinking coffee really is a way to take a moment for yourself and enjoy a few moments of contemplation. And the monks that we mentioned earlier actually use coffee and caffeine to focus and maintain and reach a high spiritual state. And lastly, probably something that many of us associate coffee drinking with is productivity and work. So for many people, coffee is a big part of your work day, providing your much needed energy boost and increased focus. Many people drink coffee as a way to stay alert and productive throughout the day. And it's often seen as an essential part of like the modern westernized work culture.
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Yeah.
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Can you guys speak to when we first identified caffeine as the stimulant drug in coffee?
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Yeah, that mechanism by which, you know, many people knew beforehand to make goats frolic and people jump up and down, largely has been a credit to a German chemist named Friedland Friedmann Rundge. And this is about 1819, where he was trying to, you know, develop all types of extractions and understand the different ingredients from plants and he named that alkaloid or the chief alkaloid that came out that caused this kind of stimulant effect caffeine and that's with a K which we've now come to know as caffeine with a C. This discovery enabled the research on the physiological effects of caffeine and has really allowed us to understand many of the primary psychoactive stimulants in the world. So I'm not saying that caffeine was the first stimulant that was really discovered and formalized, just saying that it really allowed for our understanding of extraction of other alkaloids that became stimulants. Today caffeine is probably widely recognized as a psychoactive stimulant and this is found in many different beverages and foods including coffee, tea, I think we're gonna have a show on tea probably so that we can get into our big lab debate of coffee and tea, which is better
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Coffee, that's the answer. It's for surely coffee
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I was curious though, like you mentioned a couple of different beverages Can you tell me how like coffee compares as far as caffeine is concerned? In comparison, I guess. Yeah, so as for the amount of caffeine per cup We'll start with some low dose or amount of caffeine. That'll be your decaffeinated coffee.
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Also known as a why bother.
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Yeah, there's no point. That actually has three milligrams of caffeine. It's really negligible, right? Next up, hot chocolate actually has 19 milligrams of caffeine. Remember, the chocolate itself can have caffeine. Next, green tea, only 20 milligrams of caffeine, followed by your shot of espresso, which has 27 milligrams. That's why that's the best. And then after that, we've got your can of Coca-Cola. Can you guess how many milligrams of caffeine are in that? I'm actually dying to know, what is it? 40 milligrams of caffeine. And there are Coca-Cola products now that have enhanced caffeine.
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So this is just your average Coke classic, I guess you would call it.
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Alright, next up is black tea. That's at 45 milligrams of caffeine followed by something that's probably pretty popular on college campuses, the Red Bull energy drink. That's at 80 milligrams of caffeine, so twice your standard Coca-Cola can. After that, instant coffee, that's at 82 milligrams, with brewed coffee having the most milligrams
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of caffeine.
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I feel like we need a drum roll. Yeah, 95 milligrams.
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Yeah, and just remember, we talked about there's different beans and different roasts. A lot of people think that all drip coffee is 95 milligrams, but it's not. look at your very well-known company out of Seattle that has a green logo, you know, their venti is about 150 milligrams with the blonde roast having even more. So the lighter the roast, the more caffeine it typically has. People think the opposite, dark roast, darker, stronger coffee, but it's not true. Okay, now I'm
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dying to know, how does the caffeine in coffee, how does it work in the brain? The caffeine found in coffee works in the brain by blocking the action of a neurotransmitter or brain chemical called adenosine. And adenosine is a chemical that builds up in the brain over the course of your day to signal to your body that it's, you know, about time to start getting ready to sleep. The molecular structure of caffeine is similar to that of adenosine, which is what allows caffeine to bind to adenosine receptors. And when adenosine is blocked, it inhibits its effects. So it prevents sleepiness and boosts your energy. And studies have shown that the accumulation of adenosine in the brain is what causes this.
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Yeah, and we always talk about these different type of receptors. Again, we're working with one of these G protein couple receptors and a specific type. So it's really thought to be the A2A and there are both adenosine receptors that are really activated here. There's also other receptors like purinergic receptors, these are receptors like the P2Y's, they're really important for ATP and energy. This is important to tell you because it's not just a stimulant coffee, it's also something that affects mood and so it's this adenosine and these energy receptors working together that really give you that boost.
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So how much caffeine is needed to stop adenosine buildup?
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Well, in me, in you, in who, that's the question. So Kendra, you're not a coffee drinker, so it'll probably be very little. I'm up to my four cups a day. So typically, usually you see a moderate dose being that 40, that can of Coke that we said, all the way up to 300. 300 is a pretty big dose, even for somebody like me who's used it a lot. Caffeine can antagonize the effects of adenosine receptors and reduce fatigue even as low as 50 milligrams. So it really depends on you, and we always say this on the show, the devil is in the dose.
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Does blocking adenosine have an effect on any other neurotransmitters? Yeah, Kendra.
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Blocking adenosine receptors with caffeine can indirectly affect other neurotransmitters in the brain like dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. And when adenosine is blocked by caffeine, it actually can increase activity at dopaminergic receptors and those receptors which accept norepinephrine. And dopamine is a neurotransmitter which actually is associated with pleasure, motivation, and reward, which is why you might start to feel really good after you're taking your cup of coffee in the morning.
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Second cup.
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Second cup, for sure, yeah. Depends on how big the cup is. So like a cup for me is probably, I'm at my second cup. A bucket.
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Yeah.
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And norepinephrine is actually associated with arousal, attention, and concentration. So those effects of alertness are probably involved in activation of these receptors. And so the combination of both dopamine and norepinephrine activity is what's leading to these accumulation of feelings of pleasure, increased motivation, and improved cognitive performance. Okay. So I find that cognitive performance increases really interesting. Can you speak more to whether caffeine improves things like memory consolidation?
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There have been many, many, many studies looking at caffeine and memory consolidation. Just to back up a little, memory consolidation is that act where we put all the little proteins where they need to be and all the little receptors and synapses so that you can remember whatever you're trying to remember in the future. We call that long-term memory consolidation. So studies have found that caffeine can enhance memory consolidation largely by increasing certain types of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters that are really important for this are things like acetylcholine, which is really important in your cortex, the part of your brain where you plan and process, and these are really important for things such as movement also. It's also involved in learning, memory, and attention. Caffeine can increase acetylcholine and other brain areas that are really important for cognitive performance and the consolidation of the memory. However, it's really important to note that caffeine on memory and its consolidation really depends on the individual and timing and consumption. So again, if it's 2 o'clock in the morning and your test is tomorrow at 6, it's probably not a good idea to take an overdose of stimulants.
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Okay, so I think that my next question is how does this caffeine and coffee affect the
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body?
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Caffeine affects multiple systems in the body. It can constrict your blood vessels, which increases your blood pressure and heart rate. This effect can be beneficial in some cases, like if you have low blood pressure and you need to increase it a bit, but it can have negative consequences with higher doses. Again, it promotes the release of adrenaline. It stimulates the release of adrenaline, a hormone that triggers your fight or flight response. This can lead to increased energy, focus, and alertness, but also cause feelings of anxiety or jitteriness. It also enhances lipolysis. This is the breakdown of stored fats in the body, which can increase energy levels and help with weight loss. Sometimes people take pills with caffeine to help with this. It has a diuretic effect, so it increases your urine output and cause dehydration if consumed in large quantities. And all of these effects really depend on the individual's tolerance, the amount you're used to consuming, and other factors such as your age, sex, and overall health. And in moderation, caffeine can have beneficial effects on your cognitive function and mood, but excessive consumption can lead to negative consequences like insomnia, anxiety, and dehydration.
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Yes, I know we're always a broken record, but the devil's in the dose, and moderation is key. And when it comes to any drug, probably zero is always the best number to be hitting.
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Gotcha. Would you guys say that coffee is harmful to the heart?
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Yeah, that's a really tricky question. So let's break that down. Coffee is different than caffeine. So there definitely have been deaths, especially in young kids associated with taking like wake up pills. And in this level, you know, we're talking about grams, not even milligrams and we're taking a lot. So, is coffee harmful to the heart? The average coffee drinker, it looks like no, there's not a lot of evidence. In high levels or excessive coffee consumption, it looks like that it can cause heart palpitations, increase your heart rate, increase the rate of heart attacks. It definitely can increase your blood pressure and if you're at risk of heart disease, that is not a good thing. Moderate coffee consumption, you know, which I think is going to be that sub five cups a day is really considered safe for most people. But again, some people have heart problems, some people have problems with those ATOA receptors. So we need more studies and we need to understand the risk of this, especially for heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular conditions.
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Okay. Now you kind of alluded to it, but is there a recommended daily intake of coffee?
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I think the answer to that is always none. It's a dangerous drug, right? But you know, there's an upper limit that everyone agrees that's just way too much. So anything more really than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day which is that four or five cup limit is probably getting to be excessive. Again, that's really going to vary with age. If you're five years old, that is not a good amount of coffee to be having for sure. And the older you get, like I can speak to myself, it's not even just tolerance, my metabolism is different. 100 milligrams doesn't do a lot for me.
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Got it.
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Is there any evidence to suggest that coffee is addictive? Yeah, there is evidence to support that caffeine can be addictive because I definitely need to have my cup of coffee every single day or I'm starting to feel some effects that are associated with withdrawal. I get irritable. My mood kind of changes. I'm probably not the best person to be around. And this is related to dopaminergic release, that neurotransmitter we talked about earlier that's associated with feelings of pleasure. And there are studies that show that this dopamine can be released in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is really important for developing addiction.
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One of the things that's highly debated here, and this is one of the biggest debates in our family, me and the other Dr. Ryan Stutz say, is what is the definition of addiction. So there's a lot of compounds right now under the guise of what is addiction. Coffee with caffeine would definitely be one of them, and it really depends on what your definition of addiction is and cannabis is another one that people are highly debating and I think it's going to come down to the mechanism. I'm obviously firmly on the side of being a coffee drinker. It is addictive mostly because when I stop drinking, as April said, I can get a headache. I can feel really terrible quickly, which is a sign of withdrawal to me, which is one of the hallmarks of addiction.
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Okay.
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So besides getting a headache, are there any other symptoms of caffeine withdrawal? Yeah, some common symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are fatigue, you feel tired, and irritability. So your mood is changing, you're kind of reacting to things a little bit more sourly than you're used to. You can even have difficulty concentrating and your mood is probably one of the bigger variables that changes. How long does it take for caffeine to take effect?
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The effect of caffeine's effect depends on many, many factors. Going all the way back to how it was roasted, how it was brewed, method of consumption. Generally, it really seems to take about 10 to 30 minutes after consumption for the peak to happen. And then usually within 30 to 2 hours after ingestion, you're at the height of that peak. How long does it last? You know, there's something we call half-life, approximately five to six hours. You know, I probably, for me personally, move that up to about eight hours because I know I have a firm cut off at noon. If I have a coffee past noon, there's no chance I'm going to bed at my early bedtime of nine or ten every night. So, yeah, so about 10 minutes to 30 minutes and then that peak half-life at about five to six hours.
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That's interesting. Can we speak more to like how coffee consumption
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interferes with sleep?
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Yeah, because caffeine promotes wakefulness and reduces fatigue, consuming caffeine too close to your bedtime can make it difficult to actually fall asleep and even stay asleep. So if you're able to sleep, you're gonna end up having more fractured sleep and your sleep quality is not gonna be as good. But again, this depends on the individual. Some people may be able to consume coffee later in the day without experiencing significant disruptions, while others, you know, they need to avoid calfing altogether in order to get a really good night's rest.
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People often talk about coffee making them feel bursts of energy and jittery,
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but can coffee also cause anxiety? Again, there's a huge individual difference in this, but the answer is absolutely. There's something called caffeinism, and this is where people can almost start crying and feeling really upset. And so high doses of caffeine are going to go back to that cardiovascular stimulation. You're going to make your heart pound, you're going to stimulate your nervous system, and this kind of feels like anxiety, or is anxiety, right? There's other factors that can really preclude this, like if you have anxiety already, if you have stress, if you have underlying medical conditions, but for surely coffee can cause anxiety.
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Would you guys say that coffee consumption is safe to do so while pregnant? Well, there's no simple answer to this question again, because the devil's in the details and the dose and your individual differences. The safety of consuming pregnancy depends on various factors.
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And like all drugs, we always have these caveats. The best dose for anyone is zero. But again, there's not a lot of evidence one way or the other right now.
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Okay.
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Can coffee improve things like athletic performance? Yeah, coffee consumption has been shown to improve endurance and reduce fatigue during exercise, and this can lead to improved athletic performance. However, the extent to which it improves performance may really vary depending on individual factors and the type of exercise or sport being performed. Okay, I kind of want to switch gears and ask you guys a little bit more about the scheduling
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of caffeine. Can you speak to that? Yeah, so as we said already, caffeine is pretty addictive. Caffeine is a drug that can cause some problems and it's one another one of those drugs that is not scheduled at all. So there's currently no DA scheduling for it. Caffeine is administered under the controlled substance status, the CSA, and the DA only really schedules drugs that have potential for abuse, dependence, and apparently coffee does not meet that criteria.
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We just discussed how caffeine acts on dopamine, which is related to addiction and that people feel changes in their mood if they don't have any coffee. Why does it not meet like DEA and CSA's criteria for potential or abuse and dependency?
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Well, I guess the reason is that it has low abuse potential. So this is in comparison to other things like opioids, cocaine, and amphetamines. Doesn't mean that there's not low abuse potential. It just means that if you are up and working and going a million miles an hour, it's not causing as much problems as if you're sedated.
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OK. Well, we did have one more question that I was curious about. Why is it that caffeine
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is considered the lowest category or classification of danger?
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Well coffee is is scheduled in the lowest category because it's schedule 4. Schedule 4 substances are defined as having a low potential because there's no real abuse and there's no other preparations or limited quantities or other narcotics that are kind of similar to it that cause problems. These are usually things in schedule 4 that, you know, can increase or decrease pain. Examples of these are things like Robitussin.
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Okay. Wow. Time really flew by. Thank you guys so much for a great discussion as usual.
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Yeah, and thanks to those listening for coming to The Chemical Collective to get your weekly Yeah, and thanks to those listening for coming to The Chemical Collective to get your weekly
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dose of drug facts while dispelling fiction.