10 Important Caffeine Side Effects That People Do Not Think About
Caffeine testing is one way that some people take up in order to measure the amount of caffeine they consume in a day. They either buy caffeine testing products or make use of online daily caffeine intake calculators.
After all, one cannot have too much caffeine without feeling its side effects at least two hours after the intake. It is common knowledge that drinking too much coffee can lead to experiencing the jitters, as well as insomnia. But these two are not the only side effects that you can encounter when having too much caffeine in your system.
Five Negative Side Effects of Caffeine
Caffeine is good because it gives you a popping burst of energy and can keep you on your toes – at least for a couple of hours. That is because caffeine blocks adenosine, which is a chemical in the body that tells it to shut down when tired.
However, keeping the adenosine in the body continuously blocked is not something to be desired. After the initial caffeine high, the bad things that caffeine is known for sets in.
Some of the negative side effects that caffeine has, which you may not be aware of, are:
1. Panic attacks. Caffeine keeps us up because it triggers the fight-or-flight mechanism in our bodies. But after heavy doses of caffeine and after many hours of it being in our system, the fight-or-flight instinct gets reduced to panic attacks. Your hands become shaky, your skin sweaty, and you always expect bad things to happen to you.
2. Addiction. Caffeine is addictive. Once we get into the habit of getting our caffeine fix, our body begins to crave the boost that we get from it. If we fail to get the dose of caffeine that our body has adapted to, we become irritable, tired, and even depressed.
3. Dehydration. One would think that since coffee is liquid, it can hydrate you. Actually, the caffeine in coffee and any other foodstuffs that has it is linked with dehydration. That is mainly because of caffeine’s diuretic properties.
4. PMS. Women who drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of chocolates tend to experience pre-menstrual syndrome more acutely than women who do not. The headaches, the bloated feeling and the belly cramps become keener with the added consumption of caffeine.
5. Emotional fatigue. Caffeine wakes up the body, but what it fails to do is to tell the body when to stop moving and simply rest. The body needs rest and when the body does not get it, it can lead not just to physical tiredness but also emotional fatigue.
But Caffeine Is Not Totally Bad
Caffeine Testing Kit
So far we have talked about the bad side effects that you can get from caffeine. But caffeine is not that bad at all. We can also gain some good side effects from caffeine, too.
1. Alertness. Caffeine keeps our minds alert, even for just an hour or two. Regular consumption of caffeine can keep our minds more active and increase our brain power.
2. Parkinson’s disease. Studies have shown that it is highly possible for caffeine to prevent the occurrence of Parkinson’s disease. The purported reason is that caffeine keeps the dopamine in the system active. Dopamine is the chemical that activates the pleasure centers in the brain.
3. Heart disease. Caffeine is said to prevent heart disease – as long as you do not already have it in the first place. That is because caffeine is an antioxidant, and antioxidants prevent heart ailments and some forms of cancer.
4. Diabetes. Caffeine triggers the production of adrenaline and cortisol – two substances associated with the body’s fight-or-flight response. When these chemicals are released into the system, they cause the liver to burn up more sugar. However, this works only with the caffeinated foodstuffs that are not sweetened.
5. Stamina. Again, this has something to do with the fight-or-flight response. Consuming caffeine before workout or doing any athletic activity slows down the adenosine that causes muscle fatigue. This makes you move faster and endure more.
Caffeine is good for the body, but it is also bad if the intake is too much. Too much is defined as more than 300mg of caffeine every day. In order to measure and monitor the amount of caffeine you are taking in daily and to reduce the negative side effects of caffeine, do some caffeine testing with your food.
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October 16th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I know someone, who when he drinks a caffinated beverage, such as Pepsi, or coffee but especially Pepsi it immediately makes him drowsy. I never heard of caffeine making one sleepy. His job is driving for a living and seems to be addicted to pepsi, about 50 lbs overweight, and kind of sedentary. He is only 44 but family history of diabetes and leukemia on fathers side and alzheimers and parkinsons on mothers side. I am worried about him and his love of the wrong kind of food but I am really interested in the effect caffeine has in making him sleepy.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
he is not drowsy becasue of the caffeine in pepsi but the fatty acids and sugars in pepsi.
Pepsi has more sugars then caffeine so this effect is common
October 26th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
[...] Drinking too much caffeine intake can cause you to display the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde side effect. This means that while the caffeine in your system has begun to kick in, you will find yourself being energetic, assertive, enthusiastic, jumpy and even noisy. But when that caffeine high starts to ebb, you may find yourself feeling tired, irritable and even depressed. [...]
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I have been researching for a report and I learned that caffeine blocks these glands in your brain that when chemicals produced by your cells enter tell the brain to be tired… but when the caffeine wheres off, the chemicals that have been built up(which depending on how long you’ve been under the effect of caffeine could be a lot) come rushing into the gland and then you crash.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Dear Judith Suto, Your friend should try the new Xe drink from Xocai. It’s an energy drink with no caffeine! It has cold pressed chocolate, acai, ginseng, and fruit jucies.
Instead of caffeine it has theobromine, which is found naturally in chocolate and is a longer lasting stimulant with none of the side effects of caffeine and no crash when it wears off. And because the chocolate is not heated it is high in antioxidants which have many health benefits.
Please contact me for more information at: dave.farmer@yahoo.com
December 15th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I am 72 years old and it picks me up like nothing else. I take 1/2 or 100mg pill, to a full 200mg pill a day. I understand that 200mg is in one cup of coffee.
It’s great!
December 21st, 2009 at 9:13 am
MOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
December 29th, 2009 at 2:23 am
im 16 and before i play a basketball game i take four energy pills which have 200mg of caffeine each. the only negative side effect i get is staying up late (hence the reason its being posted at 5:20am). are there any other negative side effects taking place on my body that i just dont know about?
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:21 pm
im 16 and i drink a lot of soda. in a normal day i drink close to 250-300 oz. i havent seen negative effects yet(iv been drinking it like this since i was 9). im not over weight from the sugar or anything but im a little worried what might happen in the future.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:49 am
My friend drinks coffee all day long. Never drinks water. At times she has stomach problems like nausea and diarrhea when eating highly seasoned food. Can long term caffeine use have an effect on her stomach? She oftens complains about foods not tasting right. She does have trouble sleeping which I attribute to the caffeine.
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
To the 72 year, there is not 200mg in a cup of coffee.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Recently, I have been keeping mental notes about caffeine side effects.
Here are some results based only on experience:
POSitive> drinking coffee between 10am and 12pm changes my whole day. I am more alert, positive, and productive than ever.
NEGitive> drinking coffee at the wrong time can make you very tired while not allowing you to sleep
NEG> I have no fear to spend money on things I later regret. In fact, I feel that I really need them at the time
NEG> I tend to think that the way I feel is my own new enlightenment and outlook of life. I don’t realize that I am just high for the moment
NEG> caffeine makes me talk way too much; interrupting people, talk-hoging conversations, and commiting to things that I later dred to follow through with
HELPFUL HINTS: Caffeine has a much stronger effect when you are hungary
If your mind and body are fatigued you will be much better off taking a twenty minute nap than drinking coffee.
plan ahead: if you usually have a coffeine crash at three pm, plan your lunch for then(if you can), and take a nap
Don’t ever make new decisions inspired by caffeine (or you will learn the hard way); write them down and decide later.
CAFFEINE AND SPORTS> I played four years of college basketball, and I wish I knew then about the outstanding positive responses the body and mind have to the right amount of caffein
HERE IS my advice on making sure you have a fight reaction and not a flight (or lathargic) reaction.
GET TO KNOW YOUR OWN BODY.
If you already have sufficient energy, don’t drink caffinated beverages just because it worked last time; it may decrease your energy level.
THE key is CRAVING. Try to drink a caffinated beverage that you crave about 20 minutes before your workout or game. you only need about 3/4 a cup of coffee worth (of course this is my experience as a basketball player who plays the whole game). If you drink more than this you may be up till about three in the morning.
Hope these comments were helpful.
March 11th, 2010 at 7:37 am
My husband drinks 8 to 10 diet mountain dew
a day. He suffers from headaches and at time
they are very severe. I know withdrawal will
cause headaches, but this is not his case.Can
anybody give me a website or have any information on this problem? Thanks
March 13th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
My friend drank a lot of rc pop and mountain lightning and she was crazy all night at my sleepover. She was super energetic and jumpy. Why was she like this? Then a few minites later she crashed and like passed out. Again why did this happen?
May 26th, 2010 at 9:30 am
My best reason is that caffeine could increase your heart rate Elevates your blood pressure and may have a risk of heart attack Many people experience a burning sensation in their stomach after drinking coffee because coffee increases the secretion of hydrochloric acid leading to an increased risk for ulcers Coffee is an irritant to the urinary tract and bladder Caffeine forces the liver to release glycogen into the blood stream.caffiene could cause many harm to the body such as High cholesterol, liver disease and gall bladder problems such as gallstones etc. Caffeine is a substance that exists naturally in certain plants but mainly in the leaves.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Caffeine is AWESOME!!!
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
[...] by Lena Butler, the author of Home Testing Kits a longer version of this article is located at 10 Important Caffeine Side Effects That People Do Not Think About, and resources from other home health and wellness testing articles are used such as Caffeine [...]
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 pm
[...] by Lena Butler, the author of Home Testing Kits a longer version of this article is located at 10 Important Caffeine Side Effects That People Do Not Think About, and resources from other home health and wellness testing articles are used such as Caffeine [...]
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:36 am
[...] by Lena Butler, the author of Home Testing Kits a longer version of this article is located at 10 Important Caffeine Side Effects That People Do Not Think About, and resources from other home health and wellness testing articles are used such as Caffeine [...]
June 15th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I take MRI labs black powder which has 200mg of caffeine and that’s my only caffeine intake for the whole day no soda or chocolate or candy. However while I’m in the gym I get shaky,nervous about what is happening to
me and over all scared is this normal since I don’t have a normal caffeine intake except for the gym and should I see a doctor about it????
June 21st, 2010 at 9:04 am
[...] On the other hand, individuals who already have high blood pressure or are at a risk of heart disease, should first consult their doctor before deciding the amounts of caffeine they consume, and should beware of excessive intake, as it can lead to several health problems that may occur as a result of high blood pressure. Find additional information about the effects of caffeine on: Caffeine Side Effects [...]
June 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
This article is incredibly misleading. You should NEVER use caffeine to prepare for working out or playing sports; it’s a very unhealthy way to gain energy. If you’re looking to boost your energy beforehand, think ahead and eat foods which will naturally prepare your system for high physical activity. The jolt-of-caffeine approach is terrible for your body, as well as (given the other side effects associated with caffeine) likely to result in some immediate negative effects (like trouble concentrating).
Seriously, who writes this stuff?
July 14th, 2010 at 6:23 am
[...] coffee buzz may just be breaking even Caffeine addiction is such a downer that regular coffee drinkers may get no real pick-me-up from their morning cup, [...]
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:05 am
My husband and I drink about 2 cups filter coffee (Coffee shop coffee, not home coffee) about 3 times a week. What would 300mg of coffee amount to, as this is the maximum safe dose per day that you reccommend.
Thanks a lot
Lyn