Coffee is a common beverage that many people like to drink. It is one of the three major beverages popular around the world, along with cocoa and tea. But if you ask what caffeine is, most people's first reaction is probably that it is an ingredient in coffee!

Just from the literal meaning, you can guess that caffeine is related to coffee. It is indeed one of the ingredients in coffee, but it is not just coffee that contains caffeine. It is also found in some chocolates, and even some functional drinks, medicines, and foods.

What exactly is caffeine?

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that affects the brain, spinal cord, and metabolism, which is why it has a refreshing effect. Caffeine usually peaks in the blood within 1 hour after ingestion, and the residual event is 4-6 hours, and it will be excreted in the urine.

Chemically speaking, caffeine is an organic compound found in plants, a xanthine alkaloid compound, also known as "caffeine". It is very light, flexible and shiny, a needle-shaped crystal, sometimes in the form of white powder, with no odor and a slightly bitter taste.

In medicine, caffeine can relax smooth muscles, act as a diuretic, and dilate blood vessels. It is a drug that can treat symptoms of neurasthenia and rescue comatose patients.

In daily life, caffeine is present in many beverages and foods, such as cola, Red Bull, and coffee that many young people love to drink, tea that elderly people love to drink for health preservation, and chocolate that children and people who love sweets love to eat. However, the caffeine in these foods is within the reasonable range controlled by the country for food additives. As long as they are not consumed excessively every day, there is basically no addiction and no harm.

How did caffeine become a drug?

Coffee is a beverage that many people like to drink. It helps to refresh yourself, but if you observe carefully, you will find that those who particularly like to drink coffee are actually addicted. The reason is that coffee contains caffeine, and the reason for addiction is the effect of this substance.

Researchers think caffeine acts on the brain's neurotransmitters to block signals that communicate fatigue and sleepiness, which is why caffeine's main effect is to make you feel more alert for a while, but it can also cause problems.

Purified caffeine

Because caffeine can directly affect the human brain and spinal cord and has potential dependence and tolerance, caffeine is classified as a Class II psychotropic drug in our country. Purified caffeine preparations must be prescribed by doctors with prescription rights and cannot be purchased at pharmacies.

This type of psychotropic drug that can cause addiction and has certain harmful effects meets the country's definition of drugs, and caffeine is obviously a drug.

The dangers of caffeine

Caffeine has a strong stimulating and refreshing effect, but its side effects are also obvious. The user's mind is always kept highly focused on the touch of the surrounding environment, which makes people anxious, nervous, over-excited, and in severe cases, they may have unwarranted phobias and insomnia.

In fact, the excitement and refreshing feeling of caffeine is also an illusion. It does not eliminate the physical fatigue of the user. It only blocks the feeling of sleepiness after entering the nerves. By deceiving the brain, the brain does not receive the "need to rest" message sent by the nerves, so that the energy of the person remains active. The fatigue of the next day will be several times that of the previous one, making people more drowsy and weak, and dazed.

At this time, the pituitary gland in the brain will stimulate the kidneys to secrete adrenaline. Adrenaline will make people more excited, increase their heart rate, blood pressure, muscle contraction, etc. Therefore, people who take caffeine will also feel their limbs become cold, dizzy, palpitations and other symptoms.

Since caffeine can stay in the human body for a long time, this state can last for several hours. Caffeine will be completely absorbed by the stomach and small intestine within 45 minutes after being ingested by the human body, and then distributed to all organs of the body. Caffeine that enters the stomach is irritating to the gastric mucosa, which increases the secretion of gastric acid and increases the risk of gastric diseases.

After caffeine enters the intestines, it will affect the body's absorption of beneficial elements such as calcium, iron, and zinc, so it can easily lead to calcium deficiency and cause calcium to be excreted from the body through urine metabolism. The loss of calcium will cause various adverse reactions such as osteoporosis, cramps, back pain, etc.

If caffeine is taken for a long time and in large doses, it can lead to poisoning, and the user will experience a series of physical and psychological symptoms. The user's mood will become easily upset, aggressive, psychologically sensitive, easily angry, and the memory of things will be confused and memory will decline. The body will experience redness, numbness around the mouth, increased body temperature, increased pulse rate, tinnitus, muscle tremors and convulsions, gastrointestinal disorders, increased urine, etc.

In serious cases, people may suffer from mental disorders, reduced clarity of consciousness, confusion, incoherent speech, and a large number of hallucinations, such as seeing wild animals, ghosts, etc. The body may be paralyzed due to breathing, heart failure, shock or death.

Like other drugs, once you become addicted to caffeine, you will experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking it, such as stiffness of the smooth muscles in the body, depression, lack of motivation to do anything, and headaches and dizziness.

In addition, caffeine is a diuretic, and its main symptom is dehydration. It will cause the water in the human body to sweat or urinate faster through the skin. This is also the reason why caffeine addicts have more urine.

Since caffeine is potentially addictive, many people take it for a long time to stay awake for study and work, which will lead to serious physical and psychological dependence on caffeine. Generally speaking, if a person consumes 600 mg of caffeine per day, he will become physically addicted within a week or two, and emotional changes will also occur within a day, with an unhappy and depressed feeling, which will obviously affect his mood and disrupt his normal work and study life.

Safety Tips

Beverages, medicines and foods containing caffeine are all within safe dosages and there is no need to worry about addiction. The main risk of addiction is the abuse of caffeine alone.

It is best for healthy people to not take more than 250 mg of caffeine per day. People with heart and stomach diseases, pregnant women, children, etc. should avoid foods containing caffeine. For all things, we should have a sense of proportion, not panicking too much, nor overdoing it.