Caffeine. The good, the bad, and the worse.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you can’t function without your morning cup of coffee? Do you get headaches, feel dizzy or agitated? [1] These feelings are all symptoms of having a lack of a chemical called caffeine in your body.  Caffeine has four nitrogen groups arranged in ring structure, making it an alkaloid structure. [2] The purpose of caffeine is to act as a vasodilator, meaning it increases the blood flow by making one’s arteries larger. [3] When blood flow increases, it brings oxygen all over you body making you feel better. [3] Another way caffeine works is by increasing alertness through a brain chemical called adenosine. [4] Caffeine acts like adenosine and blocks adenosine from doing its job. Because it blocks adenosine, more action is able to happen in your nervous system making you feel more awake. [4]

If caffeine is addictive, where does caffeine come form and why is it legal? Well caffeine is a natural plant product that comes from cocoa beans and herbal leaves. [4] Caffeine can be extracted from these plants through tones of machinery, then put in coffee, pops, and teas. [4]

This leaves the question how is it legal? Caffeine is compared to other drugs such as MDMA and cocaine because of stimulant effect is has. [5] On the other hand, Caffeine has a high toxicity tolerance and it would take 80-100 cups of coffees in order to kill someone. [5] Since it takes an insanely amount for someone to overdose on caffeine, people to are able enjoy it every day without any harmful effects, therefore its legal but still addictive.

If you are tired of feeling groggy in the morning and want to get over being dependent on caffeine there are other ways to feel like you have energy, such as vitamin B12 shots, or having ginseng. [6]

Bibliography

1.                  Caffeine: MedlinePlus. https://medlineplus.gov/caffeine.html (accessed Nov 12, 2016).

2.                 Caffeine. https://www.britannica.com/science/caffeine (accessed Nov 12, 2016). 

3.                 Echeverri, D.; Montes, F.; Cabrera, M.; Galán, A.; Prieto, A. Caffeine's Vascular Mechanisms of Action. International Journal of Vascular Medicine. [online] https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijvm/2010/834060/ (accessed Nov 12, 2016).

4.               Caffeine -- History, Chemical and Physical Properties and Effects http://www.scienceofcooking.com/caffeine.htm (accessed Nov 12, 2016).

5.               Caffeine. https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Caffeine (accessed Nov 12, 2016).

6.               Natural Alternatives to Caffeine. http://www.livestrong.com/article/138624-natural-alternatives-caffeine/ (accessed Nov 13, 2016).