Why Am I Dependent on Caffeine, and How Can I Wean Off?

Hi, I'm Jordan, and I need a daily caffeine fix. (Hi, Jordan!)

Initially, I was drawn to the fun of snatching up seasonal lattes. (That's how they get ya.) Soon after, I appreciated coffee for its smooth taste and irresistible roasty smell. 

But as I started spending more of my time working in a window-less cubicle, I began relying on coffee to not only perk myself up, but also stay perked up throughout the day. Now I need it every morning.

So, am I too far gone? Why do we become dependent on caffeine in the first place? And is it possible to wean off and get back to "normal"?

I NEED IT. Source: quinntheislander (Pixabay)

First of all, it's important to remember that caffeine is a drug — albeit one that 80% of Americans consume daily, in one form or another. By definition, that means that ingesting caffeine causes a physiological change in the body.

In the case of caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant, those physiological changes include increased heart rate, alertness, faster reaction time, and, in larger doses, jitteriness. (And, for fun, I've also previously written about why coffee makes you poop.)

To understand caffeine, we must understand another chemical: adenosine. Adenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, believed to play a role in suppressing arousal and promoting sleep. Levels of adenosine rise throughout the day, which may explain why we become increasingly sleepy the longer we've been awake.

Caffeine doesn't work because it activates the brain; rather, it's more that caffeine inhibits deactivation of the brain. Caffeine and adenosine have similar chemical structures, which means that caffeine can bind to adenosine receptors — essentially blocking them, and thus blocking their sleep-promoting effects. 

Chemical structures of caffeine and adenosine. Source:  ClockworkSoul (Wikimedia Commons)

When people ingest caffeine everyday (or, you know, hourly), the body tries to re-regulate itself by creating MORE adenosine receptors ("c'mon lady, you're supposed to be sleepy at 9pm"). Regular coffee, tea, and soda drinkers, thus, build up tolerance to caffeine over time, because we need more of it to plug up all the new adenosine receptors that keep forming. 

Like withdrawal from other types of drugs, caffeine withdrawal can cause tiredness, irritability, and headaches. In more severe instances, people can even experience nausea and flu-like symptoms. 

Source: chuckyeager (Flickr)

So how long does withdrawal last, and can we actually ever get back to baseline?

A review of 66 studies by American University scientists suggests that withdrawal symptoms pass relatively quickly: you'll feel your crappiest 20-51 hours after your last ingestion of caffeine, and symptoms last between 2 and 9 days, on average. Although harder to study at the cellular level in humans, researchers have found that the number of adenosine receptors in mice returned to normal levels after 8 days of caffeine withdrawal in the forebrain (which, among many other functions, controls sleep behavior). After 15 days, however, adenosine receptor levels were still elevated in the cerebellum (the region of the brain responsible for coordinating muscle activity).

In other words, if you can last a week without a caffeinated concoction (and yes, it might feel like a looooong week), you too can return, for the most part, to your pre-PSL self.

Have you ever given up caffeine for a period of time? How were your withdrawal symptoms? Did you manage to get back to "normal"? Let me know in the comments!

Why Does Coffee Make Me Poop?

Free Stock Photos

Why does coffee make me poop?  Come on, fess up. It happens to the best of us. In fact, I just finished my morning mug, and...anyway, you get the picture.

If a cup of joe makes you go, you're not alone – 29% of people have the "desire to defecate" after drinking coffee, according to this 1990 paper published in the journal Gut. In addition to the survey, the study authors studied bowel motility in 14 subjects before and after drinking caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, or hot water using a manometry probe (fun!).

Common sense suggests that, like its stimulating effects on the brain, caffeine must also act on the muscles of the colon, resulting in peristalsis (coordinated contraction/relaxation of the GI tract that cause bowel movements). But the results suggested something else.

Peristalsis. Adrignola (Wikimedia Commons)

When asked, 6 subjects who drink coffee and 4 who drank decaf said they felt they could defecate afterward, compared to no subjects who had hot water.

Eight of the 14 subjects who had claimed that coffee typically induces the urge to purge showed increased bowel activity within four minutes of drinking coffee. This continued for at least 30 minutes. But interestingly, a similar increase was seen in those who drank decaf, suggesting that a compound in coffee other than caffeine may be responsible.

Interestingly, 63% of those who claimed that coffee makes them go were women, which may be supported by research suggesting that women are generally more sensitive to distention than men, and are more likely to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome.

What about you?

Does coffee make you wanna poo?

Let us know

In this anonymous poll!*

(*The rhyming was not intended, but hey, it works.)

Coffee: A caffeinated chronicle

The following is a story about a college girl named Jordan.

Jordan blindly, exhaustedly, yet somehow successfully stumbled her way through college. In her final two years, she averaged 4 or 5 hours of sleep every night due to schoolwork, labwork, club responsibilities, and the dreaded 4:55 A.M. alarm for crew practice.

She only drank one coffee, ever—a pumpkin spice latte—simply because the rest of her team regularly raided Starbucks after races. It tasted alright. Oh, and she had some orange energy drink before a Developmental Bio exam once. Her pee was subsequently green.

A graduate student once told her, "If you get into grad school, you'll become addicted to coffee." Jordan scoffed at the silly, weak student, and vowed, "Ha! Never."

Then one day Jordan had a Bob Evans mocha, and her life was forever changed.