In medical salons across the country, coffee mugs are as ubiquitous as white coats. However, like many other drugs, caffeine has adverse effects
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A 2015 BMJ study examined the coffee drinking habits of 766 Swiss doctors from various specialties. Among them, 84% bought coffee at work, totaling almost 71,000 cups of coffee in a single year.
The researchers found that orthopedic surgeons drank more coffee at work and anesthesiologists drank less.
Is this troublesome?
While coffee has documented health benefits, including a recent review that highlighted its effects on depression. Most regular coffee drinkers are familiar with the precipitous energy crash that follows the initial caffeine buzz.
It begins with adenosine, a neuromodulator of the central nervous system (CNS) with specific receptors in the CNS. In caffeine-free circumstances, adenosine follows a natural ebb and flow, binding to receptors as our day ends.
Which makes us feel drowsy and dilates the blood vessels and promotes the flow of oxygen while we sleep.
Coffee disrupts this natural cycle and is a one-two hit. The caffeine that accompanies the trip is an adenosine receptor antagonist. It binds to adenosine receptors, preventing adenosine from making us feel drowsy.
The forceful kick is a side effect
With the adenosine receptors occupied by sweet caffeine molecules, the pituitary gland tells the adrenal glands to add a little adrenaline to the mix. So you feel less tired and full of the fight or flight energy of adrenaline.
A headlong crash
An update of StatPearls 2021 offers some ideas. Regular caffeine users appear to have more adenosine receptors in the CNS. Which makes them more sensitive to the drowsy-inducing effects of adenosine.
In other words, after coffee connoisseurs’ bodies metabolize the caffeine from their morning coffee pitchers. Adenosine has a better chance of doing its thing.
This differs from drugs like cocaine or amphetamines in one key way: while cocaine and caffeine are dopaminergic, in the former, dopaminergic activity occurs in the nucleus accumbens and in the latter, it occurs in the cortex. prefrontal.
In other words, we can have a coffee crash and that drop is part of a negative dopaminergic feedback loop that keeps us looking for another cup, and another, and another …
This is where we start to waver in the realm of caffeine addiction, a disorder recognized by the DSM.
What can you do about it?
Why are you drinking so much coffee in the first place? Lack of sleep may have something to do with it. And unfortunately, coffee may be compounding your mental health problems.
Have you heard of the coffee cycle? It’s not the quick-brew setting on your coffeemaker, but a common cycle of feeling tired, drinking excess caffeine, and disrupting your sleeping pattern as a result.
We know, for example, that consuming caffeine less than 6 hours before bed can disrupt sleep significantly, compared to placebo. We also know that caffeine can disrupt sleep cycles, change rapid eye movement earlier in the night, and push deeper sleep stages later in the night, which is a problem during a shorter sleep period. .
Taking all of that into consideration, it would seem that: a) prioritizing sleep and b) ending caffeine intake earlier in the day are wise tactics to lessen the negative impact.
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