
What caffeine does to your brain - chapulin
http://fusion.net/story/166708/what-caffeine-does-to-your-brain/
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mjfl
My father, who is a cardiologist, has all these stories about how they keep
trying to prove that caffeine and coffee in general are bad for you, bad for
your heart specifically. But the more they try to prove it is bad, the more
they keep finding that caffeine is actually good for you and reduces the risk
of heart disease. I'll have to ask him for specific studies. Now the sugar
they put in the coffee, that's a different story...

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pyre
> caffeine and coffee in general

Why coffee specifically? Other things contain caffeine. Tea, for example.

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erkkie
Tea also contains L-theanine which modulates the effects of caffeine:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10737183](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10737183)

~~~
provemewrong
True, but in miniscule amounts. Significantly lower than the doses taken by
the people who use L-theanine as a supplement. Also L-theanine to caffeine
ratio is all wrong.

>Why pick pure l-theanine and caffeine over green or black tea?

>Most studies done on the l-theanine-caffeine combination have a l-theanine to
caffeine ratio that isn't consistent with ratios you would expect from most
teas. The studies used about twice as much l-theanine as caffeine by weight.
The ratio found in most teas is reversed, with the possible exception of high
quality green tea. [1]

[1]:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/wiki/faq](http://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/wiki/faq)

~~~
veidr
Which is why I drink high quality green tea.

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walkingolof
I stopped drinking coffe 6 months ago and I feel that I raised my average
productivity allot as a programmer, my day is more "even" in lack of a better
word. I also sleep better, even if I didnt think I had an issue with that
while drinking coffe.

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xorcist
I believe it likely that all drugs have a net negative effect in the long run.
If humans in general had a chemical imbalance so our brains did not function
optimally, and caffeine would fix that so that we just functioned better
overall, shouldn't evolution have taken care of that by now?

Messing with the signalling systems can be productive in the short run, and
certain individuals have other needs, but it is unreasonable to assume it
would be good for most people forever. I do drink coffee every day, because I
like it, but I would never assume it makes me more alert or smarter in some
way.

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BaryonBundle
Evolution doesn't code for just __optimal __. During the time that we were
actually evolving, there existed pressure, for example, to optimize our use of
the small amount of food that we had access to, optimizing to be as
incospicuous during the dark hours, etc. Signaling processes weren 't
optimized for access to post-scarcity (in the first-world) availability of
sugars, proteins, and fats; sleeping for as long as we do isn't optimal at all
(some people have genetics that improve on this, though), and not to mention
that the very nature of genetics will definitely produce humans that are sub-
optimal in ways that that won't necessarily lead to sterility but will no
longer be removed from the gene pool of the species.

I'm not claiming that caffeine will make you super-human but the use of
substances like these that may have decreased survivability in pre-historic
years (e.g., due to increased metabolism, induced bowel movements that
decrease nutrient absorption) may augment several aspects of human cognition
(and worsen others) in a way that __is __towards optimal, for say, coding but
suboptimal for, say, creative writing (I don 't claim this is true, just
provide this as a possible example). Many contemporary college students can
definitely attest to both the positive and negative aspects for drugs such as
amphetamines (e.g., Adderall) in a manner that one could describe (though
misleadingly) as superhuman.

I do agree that use of many of these substances can have seriously deliterious
effects with prolonged use, but all studies I have come across refute this
possibility for caffeine.

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iopq
Different people have different caffeine metabolism. I can still feel it 12+
hours later.

~~~
princeb
i am about 800-1600mg caffeine a day (almost all pill form since brewing and
drinking coffee takes too much time) and i do not feel these so called muscle
tremors, or abnormal heart rhythms.

~~~
stared
Don't. One of my friends went up to 1.5g/day (using crystalline caffeine).
After he had to give it up, he spend at least 6 months without energy,
lethargic, sluggish, possibly depressed.

After ceasing typical consumption brain goes back to normal in 1-2 weeks. But
for huge doses it might be not the case.

(BTW: If anyone knows more info on the length of caffeine withdrawal as a
function of does, I would be grateful!)

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douche
As I see caffeine validated, I wonder about other "upper" substances. I write
code a lot better with a lip full of Skoal... And I'm sure there are other
beneficial chemical compounds that have been given a black-eye. Certainly
seems like there must have been something to all of the people I knew in
college doing lines of adderall, who have probably upgraded to another white
powder now that they work for Bridgewater...

~~~
colechristensen
The combination of nicotine and an MAOI is very much more addictive than
nicotine alone – unknown substances in cigarette smoke mimic MAOIs.

That is, many of the negative consequences of tobacco come from the delivery
method instead of the desirable nicotine. That's not to say vaping doesn't
have it's own (yet unknown) negative consequences.

[http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/38/8593.full](http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/38/8593.full)

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leni536
> Scientists think that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine–the equivalent of
> roughly four cups of coffee–is probably safe for most healthy adults.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a lot? I don't want to argue against
this. When I was doing my bachelor's I pulled all nighters with one or two
500ml Monster energy drinks which is ~320mg max. Of course all nighters are
not healthy but I was mostly worried about the caffeine intake.

~~~
lwh
But it's only one venti at Starbucks ;)

~~~
leni536
I imagine 400mg is for daily intake. I don't now how it applies for the intake
in one sitting. I had to look it up and Starbucks' venti Brewed Coffee really
contains 415mg [1]. Seriously, this product looks dangerous. How come it's not
regulated similarly as energy drinks? Maybe it's protected by "caffe culture",
but I seriously doubt that drinking half a liter caffe was ever part of any
culture.

[1] [http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-
starbu...](http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-
caffeine)

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Rudism
I suffer from occasional SVT episodes and gave up caffeine as a result (it
causes them to trigger more frequently). I'm not sure how it would be in other
industries, but as a software engineer, telling colleagues that I don't
consume any caffeine at all is almost always met with looks of disbelief and
horror. I never realized how dependent on it so many people around me are to
get through their day until I gave it up.

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fasteo
I just found out a couple of weeks ago that a time-released caffeine
formulation[1] works wonders for me. It gives me 8-10 solid of solid focus
without all the jitter. This, plus my morning joe with coconut oil, that is.
About 300mg total caffeine.

[1] [http://www.metrx.com/products/timed-release-
caffeine/](http://www.metrx.com/products/timed-release-caffeine/)

~~~
provemewrong
What's the purpose of coconut oil?

~~~
thecupisblue
I'm assuming he's talking about "Bulletproof" coffee, since Coconut oil
contains medium chain triglycerides. Some claim it increases "clarity and
alertness" and apparently boosts metabolism, lots of Paleo dieters use it.
Never tried it personally, so can't attest for the benefits.

~~~
fasteo
It may sound odd, but Bulletproof coffee does not work for me at all; maybe
the fatty acid profile of butter vs coconut oil are too different, but for me,
coconut oil works and butter doesn't.

Note that I have a primary mitochondrial defect, so my nutritional experiments
results are always "weird", for the lack of a better word.

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jipumarino
Is it possible to approximate the amount of caffeine based on the beans weight
I use for brewing? Before I take any further steps I'd like to know how close
to the danger zone I am.

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electriclove
Pretty useless article. Nothing new

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rubicon33
1\. The modal made me consider instantly closing the site. If that article
didn't REALLY interest me, I would have insta-closed it.

2\. No offense, but this is pretty basic, high school biology class knowledge.
Would be nice if we knew more than this in 2015.

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vonklaus
Putting a modal over the entire iphone screen is a great way to get me to hate
your site. Article was decent, but mostly contained a semi-technical overview
of well known info.

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mullingitover
Mobile web browsing is a true nightmare on iOS. It's pretty shocking that it's
taking Apple _nine_ OS releases to address what's clearly a defect in their
platform.

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vonklaus
maybe the fault you find with Apple is not without merit, but surely you can't
be suggesting that a websites choice of UI could possibly come down to apple.

~~~
mullingitover
Taking away all control from the user in terms of how their device's browser
is able to render websites is all on Apple. They could've fixed this a long
time ago. I'm not a fan of Android at all, but I've been tempted to switch
back purely because of the ability to run a spam filter in my browser.

