AT the start of a new year, many of us make several resolutions that are difficult to maintain. Motivation, however, should come from either knowing the specific reasons we ought to do certain things that benefit our health, or from the fear of suffering ill health.

One of the most commonly used beverages in Jamaica, the USA and many parts of the world is coffee. Many of us feel that drinking coffee is beneficial to our mental health and well-being, and many feel we cannot do without it. However, coffee’s main active ingredient is caffeine, the drinking of which is habit-forming. Consequently, if we do not wish to be dependent on any drink or beverage for our ‘feeling good’, then we should be aware of the pervasive effects that the caffeine has on our bodies.

The good: It’s not really good

Most people start drinking caffeine because it makes them feel more alert and improves their mood. Many studies suggest that caffeine actually improves cognitive task performance such as memory, attention span, and similar functions, in the short term. Usually, however, these studies do not consider the other side of the equation: the effect of long-term caffeine use on the habits of the research participants.

New research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the USA, shows that a person’s increased performance due to caffeine intake is the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a short-term reversal of ‘caffeine withdrawal’. In other words, a caffeine-related improvement in performance cannot occur without caffeine withdrawal occurring first. So, essentially, your coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. The only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine, and when you do, you feel like it is taking you to new heights. In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period.

The bad: Adrenaline

Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline, which is the source of the ‘fight or flight’ response that we have when we feel or survival is threatened. This mechanism sidesteps rational thought in favour of a faster response. So, when caffeine puts your body and brain into this hyper-aroused state, your emotions can overrun your conscious behaviour.

Anxiety and irritability are the most commonly seen effects of caffeine use, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that large doses of caffeine also raises the blood pressure, stimulates the heart and produces rapid, shallow breathing that deprives the brain of the oxygen needed to keep you thinking rationally and calmly.

The ugly: Effects on sleep

Caffeine has a six-hour half-life, which means it takes 24 hours to fully work its way out of your system. So, if you drink a cup of coffee at 8:00 am, you will still have 25 per cent of the caffeine in your system at 8:00 pm, and any coffee had after midday will result in you still having 50 per cent of its caffeine in your body at bedtime. Because caffeine has the initial effect of a stimulant, any caffeine within your system makes it harder to fall asleep, with this negative effect increasing with higher dosages. When you do finally fall asleep, the caffeine disrupts the quality of your deep sleep, resulting in you awakening with a functional handicap.

To minimise this, you will be inclined to grab a cup of coffee or a similar energy drink to produce a surge of adrenaline to make you feel better. By the afternoon, the caffeine, plus the lack of recuperative sleep, leaves you feeling tired, and so you drink more caffeine which leaves more in your system at bedtime. Caffeine therefore, very quickly, creates a vicious cycle.

Withdrawal

Like any perceived stimulant, caffeine is physiologically and psychologically addictive. Ask any daily coffee-drinker if they can do without their coffee.

The researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that attempting to withdraw from the use of caffeine causes headache, fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty concentrating. Some persons reported flu-like symptoms, depression and anxiety after reducing their coffee intake by as little as one cup per day. However, slowly tapering your coffee dosage each day can greatly reduce these withdrawal symptoms.

People should therefore be advised to cut back on coffee and other caffeinated beverages, and if they have not yet started, to try to avoid doing so. Coffee-drinking is only beneficial in the short term for improved memory and attention span, but is addictive thereafter with the increasingly disruptive effects of frequent urination and possible dehydration, headache, irritability, anxiety, restlessness, and sleep deprivation. Avoid these problems, and best wishes for a wonderfully healthy new year.

Derrick Aarons MD, PhD is a consultant bioethicist/family physician, a specialist in ethical issues in medicine, the life sciences and research, and is the ethicist at the Caribbean Public Health Agency – CARPHA. (The views expressed here are not written on behalf of CARPHA)