caffeine molecule

What is the most widely consumed social drug in the US? Tobacco? Alcohol? What if I told you that it was caffeine? According to the dictionary a drug is any substance that is habit forming and addictive and I believe we need any explanation as to whether caffeine is addictive or not. The average American consumes between 2-3 cups of coffee a day and 40 gallons of caffeinated drinks a year.
It is a fact that we Americans are addicted to sugar and caffeine. In fact most of feel it’s a crime for our jobs and other commercial institutions not to provide the facility where we can make the deadly brown drink we all come to know as coffee. Now some of us may drink caffeine because we like it but the vast majority of caffeine users are addicted to the drink. So what are the health risks of such a high consumption of this brown poison?

Carcinogen: Caffeine contains carcinogens (cancer-causing) chemicals. While scientists and doctors beg to differ as to whether these risks are significant it is still an established theory in the medical community that the chemicals such as methylglyoxal, catechol, chlorogenic acid, and neochlorogenic are all cancer-causing chemicals and are contained in coffee.

HBP: Caffeine has been linked to high blood pressure. Studies show that just a cup of this drink a day (or the equivalent in caffeinated drinks) can raise blood pressure levels 5-6 points.
Frontal Lobe Impairment: Among the socially accepted drugs that impair frontal lobe functions is caffeine. Caffeine can impair the frontal lobe in many ways including:

• Produce dependence (on the drug)
• Can cause drug withdrawal syndromes
• Can cause or worsen psychiatric illnesses
• Impairs physical and mental performance
• Interferes with sleep
• May influence the risk of other illnesses that in turn exert frontal lobe effects through physical or mental stress.
• May exert effects that impact on spiritual and social dimensions of our character.
• Can cause toxicity and even death.

Other potential problems include:

• Increase risk of low birth weight in infants born to caffeine consuming mothers.
• Can cause palpitations and other dangerous heart rhythms.
• May increase symptoms of PMS (premenstrual syndrome)
• Stimulates excess stomach acid production and gastroesophageal efflux which is a cause of severe heartburn (for both caffeine and decaffeinated drinks).

So what are the benefits of quitting? Other then avoiding those conditions you will have some extra cash in your wallet; depending on how you consume your caffeine you can be saving anywhere from 4-8 dollars a day on your coffee. And this is just counting Starbucks. So how much does it add up to? Take a look!

$4 = $1460
$5 = $1825
$8 = $1920

Couple that with the long term savings in doctor visits, more sleep, meaning fewer sleeping pills, cut in health insurance your savings could more than double. But the real savings will come in the fact that you will no longer be forced to call in sick because you forgot to pick up your coffee at the grocery store. So what do you say? Don’t you think it’s time to cut your dependence?