Al WAHDA PRIVATE SCHOOL

SHARJAH EDUCATIONAL ZONE

Your mom says not to drink soda at night because the caffeine will keep you awake. And she says
she "needs her caffeine" in the morning when she's reaching for her cup of coffee. So what is
caffeine, anyway?

What is caffeine?
It is a potent and quick-acting drug which produces an effect similar to the stress
response in our bodies. Caffeine affects each person differently, depending on individual
circumstances such as weight, build, etc. It has an almost instant effect on your mind-
body which will continue to influence your state for 6-8 hours afterwards.

Caffeine Is a Common Chemical

Caffeine (say: ka-feen) is a natural chemical found in tea leaves, coffee beans, cacao (the stuff
used to make chocolate), and cola nuts (the plant that gives cola soda its flavor). Caffeine has been
in foods that humans eat and drink for hundreds of years. Today, caffeine is found in many
common foods and drinks, such as coffee, tea, hot cocoa, soda, chocolate, and some medicines.

When humans drink or eat caffeine, it acts as a stimulant (say: stim-yuh-lunt). Stimulants may
make us feel more awake and alert. Many people drink liquids with caffeine because they think it
helps them to wake up and feel sharper. But no one needs caffeinated (say: ka-fuh-nay-ted)
drinks, especially kids. The best drinks for kids are water and milk, which don't contain caffeine.

People who drink caffeine every day may start to depend on it. If regular caffeine users don't get
their regular daily dose, look out! People who are used to caffeine and don't get it can develop
headaches, stomachaches, and feel sleepy or grumpy all day long.

What Does Caffeine Do to Your Body?

Caffeine can cause your heart to pump faster and your breathing to quicken. You also may notice
that caffeine makes you feel hyper and makes it harder to concentrate in school. Caffeine can
boost a person's energy temporarily, but a lot of caffeine can also cause other, not-so-great
effects:

If you drink too much caffeine at one time, it can make you feel nervous or jumpy. Your hands may
shake. Too much caffeine will make it hard to fall asleep, which might mean you won't be able to
pay attention in school the next day.

And too much caffeine can give you a stomachache, headache, or a racing heartbeat. In fact, kids
with heart problems should not drink caffeine because it's known to affect heart rates and force
the heart to work harder.
Do You Need Caffeine?

Caffeine isn't a nutrient, like calcium, so you don't need a certain amount to be healthy. The
United States doesn't have guidelines about caffeine, but Canada does.

That country recommends that kids who are 10 to 12 should get no more than 85 milligrams per
day, equal to 22 ounces of caffeinated soda. (But that doesn't mean drinking that much soda is a
good idea. Stick with milk and water most often.)

Caffeine Chart

Drink/Food Amount of Amount of

Drink/Food Caffeine

Mountain Dew 12 ounces 55.0 mg

Coca-Cola 12 ounces 34.0 mg

Diet Coke 12 ounces 45.0 mg

Pepsi 12 ounces 38.0 mg

7-Up 12 ounces 0 mg

Brewed coffee (drip 5 ounces 115 mg*

method)

Iced tea 12 ounces 70 mg*

Dark chocolate 1 ounce 20 mg*

Milk chocolate 1 ounce 6 mg*

Cocoa beverage 5 ounces 4 mg*

Chocolate milk 8 ounces 5 mg*

beverage

Cold relief 1 tablet 30 mg*

medication

*This is an average amount of caffeine. That means some of these products may contain a little
more caffeine; some may contain a little less.
Sources: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Soft Drink Association
Cutting the Caffeine

If you'd like to cut down on caffeine, talk with your parents. They can help you understand how
much you're getting and help you cut down gradually.

If you like soda once in a while, try to choose one that doesn't contain caffeine. Clear lemon-lime
sodas usually don't, but it can be confusing, so check the ingredient list on the label. If you don't,
you might find yourself tossing and turning instead of snoozing and snoring!

How Does Caffeine Affect The Human Body?

Caffeine is a mildly bitter-tasting chemical substance that possesses some of the qualities of a mild
stimulant. It goes to works immediately on the body's central nervous system and skeletal
muscles. As such, it has been known to and can in many cases increase heart rate, blood
circulation, urine production and stomachic secretions. It has also been known to reduce the
body's glucose metabolism. Caffeine today is most commonly associated with tea and coffee, but
can also be found in numerous plants.

Caffeine addictive effects are much milder than those of other drugs. Caffeine increases the body's
levels of intropin (a pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitter). Caffeine affects memory keeping - not
learning or ability' to process information. Caffeine is a chemical, not a macro nutrient. However,
it works as a mild stimulant and thus may cause an individual to comprehend less fatigue.

Caffeine has been proven to intensify the level of brain activity, which typically results in quicker
response times and better short-run memory (by increasing acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that
improves your short term memory) but not long-run memory. Decaffeinated coffee has been show
to contain up to a mere 3% of caffeine.

The effect caffeine has on an individual has proven to be more pronounced in non-users than it is
in people who take caffeine on a daily or regular basis's. The evidence which associates caffeine
with coronary thrombosis heart disease is very weak, as is the research that creates a connection
between caffeine and high blood pressure, both conclusions are mixed.

Most health and well-being experts would advocate no more than two cups of coffee per day, and
advise stamping it out completely, if possible. Caffeine itself does not trigger the forming of breast
cancer. Most studies have shown that caffeine ingestion is not a risk factor for osteoporosis,
especially in women who intake sufficient calcium.

Evidence suggests that high caffeine ingestion can improve your body's endurance performance;
However, I think this effect is suited primarily for professional affects and as such should not be
attempted without the counsel and supervision of a qualified professional.
Evidence has shown that for those of you who are keen on using caffeine for body fat loss because
of its perceived effects, you are simply better off using the ordinary gymnasium, those of you are
much better off concentrating on daily aerobic exercise, resistance training and utilising basic
nutrition strategies and tackle weight loss issues in order to help the bodies energy balance levels.

Just tell me what to take

Caffeine can be found in coffee, tea, cola, cocoa, chocolate and many other sources. It is
even in some medications.
Drink plenty of water!! How much, read the article Our Need for Water

What are the problems?

Dehydration:

Though caffeinated beverages do contain water, it causes the body to excrete more
water than it actually takes in. The result is a less fluid then you had to begin with,
which over time, can lead to a variety of health problems including dry skin,
constipation and bladder infections. It can also lead to washing out key nutrients out of
the body. Water is very important to your health. See article Our Need for Water.

Release of hormones:
Caffeine stimulates and weakens the adrenal glands and liver and also irritates the
gallbladder. It increases cortisol which can put fat into and around the abdominal
organs.

Caffeine intake results in increased nerve firing in the brain. The pituitary gland,
located at the bottom of the brain, sees all of the activity and thinks some sort of
emergency must be occurring, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to
produce adrenaline.. Adrenaline is the "fight or flight" hormone. It's function is to tell
the body when there is an emergency situation, and it has a number of effects on your
body:

Your pupils dilate

Your breathing tubes open up (this is why people suffering from severe asthma attacks
are sometimes injected with epinephrine)

Your heart beats faster

Blood vessels on the surface of your body constrict to slow blood flow from cuts and
also to increase blood flow to muscles. Blood pressure rises.

Blood flow to the stomach slows

The liver releases sugar into the bloodstream for extra energy

Muscles tighten up ready for action

This explains why, after consuming a big cup of coffee, your hands get cold, your
muscles tense up, you feel excited and you can feel your heart beat increasing.
We can see why these reactions created by adrenaline in an dangerous situation would
be beneficial, but it is not good for the body as an normal operating condition.

Calcium deficiency:

Caffeine leeches calcium from the body. It creates acidity in the body

Keeping awake and the effects on sleep

Caffeine has been known to be the drug of choice in keeping alert when you are short on
sleep.

How does it effect wakefulness and sleep?

An organic compound, adenosine, when secreted reflects brain cell activity. Rising
concentrations of this chemical may be how the brain gauges that it has been burning
up its energy reserves and needs to shut down for a while or go to sleep. Adenosine
levels in the brain rise during wakefulness and decline during sleep slowing down nerve
cell activity. In the brain, adenosine binding also causes blood vessels to dilate
(presumably to let more oxygen in during sleep).
However,

To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine therefore binds to the adenosine
receptor in the brain. However, it doesn't slow down the cell's activity like adenosine
would. So the cell cannot "see" adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the
receptors adenosine binds to. So instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level,
the cells speed up. You can see that caffeine also causes the brain's blood vessels to
constrict, because it blocks adenosine's ability to open them up. This effect is why some
headache medicines like Anacin contain caffeine - if you have a vascular headache, the
caffeine will close down the blood vessels and relieve it.
Adenosine reception is important to sleep, and especially to deep sleep. The half-life (of
how long the caffeine stays in your body) is about 6 hours. That means that if you
consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00 PM, then by 9:00 PM
about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but
your body probably will miss out on the benefits of deep sleep. That deficit adds up fast.
The next day you feel worse, so you need caffeine as soon as you get out of bed. The
cycle continues day after day.
Why caffeine is pleasant?

Caffeine increases dopamine levels in the same way that amphetamines do. Dopamine is
a neurotransmitter that, in certain parts of the brain, activates the pleasure center.
Obviously caffeine's effect is much lower than amphetamines, but it is the same
mechanism. It is suspected that the dopamine connection contributes to caffeine
addiction.
What caffeine does for you:

So you can see why your body might like caffeine in the short term, especially if you are
low on sleep and need to remain active. Caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel
alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates
dopamine production to make you feel good.

Caffeine can also:

Induce anxiety, headaches, irritability, nervousness, and insomnia.

Increase palpitations and heart irregularities.

Raise blood pressure. Two cups of brewed coffee may contain 300 mg of caffeine. This is
enough to raise your blood pressure and pulse rate
significantly.

Can cause adverse digestive and bowel problems in sensitive individuals.

Excessive intake of caffeine's active ingredients methylxanthines - or xanthines

can cause benign breast disease and prostate problems.

Can interfere with DNA replication.

The amount contained in 4 cups of coffee daily could cause birth defects.

Depletes the body of such needed nutrients as Vitamin B1, inositol,

Biotin, potassium, zinc, and can also inhibit calcium and iron assimilation.

Reported effects of caffeine

The following effects are commonly attributed to over-use of caffeine - while reading
them bear in mind that what is true for one person may not be true for someone else:
1. Stimulates your heart, respiratory system, and central nervous system.
2. Makes your blood more `sludgy' by raising the level of fatty acids in the blood.
3. Causes messages to be passed along your nervous system more quickly
4. Stimulates blood circulation
5. Raises blood pressure
6. Causes your stomach to produce more acid
7. Irritates the stomach lining
8. Makes digestion less effective by relaxing the muscles of your intestinal system
9. Its diuretic effect caused increased urination - although you would have have to
drink about 8 coups of coffee in one sitting for this to occur (1)
10. Stimulates the cortex of your brain heightening the intensity of mental activity. This
can result in a temporary feeling of alertness and, in the short term, banishes
drowsiness and feelings of fatigue. In those who already have high levels of anxiety the
heightened intensity of mental activity can produce unpleasant effects. But check out (2)
below which contradicts this.
11. Affects the length and quality of sleep. Heavy caffeine users suffer from sleep-
deprivation because their nervous system is too stimulated to allow them deep, restful or
prolonged sleep.
12. The American Medical Journal has reported a correlation between caffeine and
decreased bone density or osteoporosis in women.
In addition to the above effects prolonged or very heavy caffeine use can produce the
following:
13. `Caffeine nerves' a jittery feeling with shaking hands, palpitations, and wobbliness
in the legs.
14. Caffeine addiction which involves nervousness, irritability, agitation, headaches or
ringing in the ears.
15. Causes your adrenal glands to release their hormones into your bloodstream
16. Causes blood sugar, or blood glucose, to be released from storage through the effects
of the adrenal hormones. This gives you a temporary lift but
17. requires your pancreas to over-work. This is because your pancreas now has to
produce extra insulin to reduce this extra blood sugar. Once the extra insulin has
'mopped up' the extra blood sugar your temporary lift from the caffeine ends. Your
vitality level is back to normal. However in heavy caffeine users the pancreas, in time,
becomes over-sensitive and over-zealous. Now it begins producing too much insulin it
'mops up' not just the excess blood sugar but the blood sugar you need to feel alert and
energetic. The initial effect of this is a let-down effect and a craving for more caffeine to
give you a further boost. A later effect can be excessive and chronic tiredness, even on
waking in the morning. Some people find that many of the psychological complaints
common to reactive hypoglycaemia (the emotional yo-yo effect, shakiness, palpitations,
weakness, tiredness, etc.) disappear within a few days of stopping caffeine.
NOTE: The fact that caffeine can produce these sensations and symptoms does not
mean that it is the 'only' cause of such symptoms. But if you experience similar
symptoms and your medical advisor confirms that they do not have a verifiable organic
cause then you may wish to cut out caffeine for a few weeks to see if the symptoms
reduce or disappear.

Nutritional Supplements:

Calcium/Magnesium
Vitamin B Complex
Vitamin B1
A good supply of vitamins & minerals above including calcium and
magnesium can be found here: Whole Food Nutrition - Click Here - the Health
& Wellness Pack.
If you can, limit your caffeine intake to no more than two cups a day, especially if your
diet is low in calcium. You can increase your intake of dark greens, soy milk, rice milk,
nuts and seeds - including sesame seeds and sesame tahini as well as high sources of
calcium dairy products.
If you would like to receive the McVitamins Newsletter, please signup here:
Effects on children:
Children who consume large amounts of caffeinated soft drinks may suffer from withdrawal
when their caffeine intake is reduced. Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal in kids include
declining attention and declining reaction time when performing tasks.

Getting off of caffeine:

Sodas, tea and chocolate all contain caffeine.

There is a brand of Coffee Substitute, Roma, that will help break the caffeine habit.
You can go for decaffeinated coffee but it needs to be organic water-pressed decaf
coffee, as commercial decaffeinated coffees can contain toxic chemicals used in
removing the caffeine.

Do not cut out caffeine straight away!

To avoid uncomfortable withdrawal effects it is wise to ease off caffeine over a period of 7-14 days to
reduce the discomfort. Reduce and then stop the richest sources (especially coffee) first. It is unwise,
particularly if you are a heavy user, to suddenly stop caffeine altogether.
Reducing caffeine too quickly can cause a quite dramatic drop in blood pressure, due to the body
becoming over-sensitive to adenosine, and this can cause more blood to gather in the head producing
a migraine-like headache.
Muscle cramps, giddiness, excessive sleepiness, and lack of concentration are other common
withdrawal effects from going 'cold turkey' on caffeine