Hundreds of millions of Indians rely on caffeine in its various forms- coffee, tea, and caffeinated soft drinks- to help them get through the day. For most people, up to 4 cups of tea/coffee a day (a total of 300 mg of caffeine) will refresh and invigorate the body and mind without being harmful to health. Unfortunately, many people imbibe caffeine to excess. Some people suffer ill effects at lower than normally safe doses.
The episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer goes on a coffee binge after winning a lifetime free pass to a coffee shop in a legal settlement does a remarkable job of portraying the side effects of too much caffeine: nervousness, irritability, anxiety, palpitations, restlessness, insomnia, nausea, and intestinal upset. Men are more susceptible than women are to these side effects. Other factors, including age, body weight, smoking, drugs, hormone use, and pre-existing anxiety or stress disorders can cause the side effects of caffeine at a lower dose.
Once the side effects occur, they can set up a vicious cycle of more caffeine followed by more side effects. For example, excess caffeine makes you sleepless and you wake up feeling groggy… and what better cure for grogginess than a cup of coffee? Drugs and caffeine: Keep in mind that some common painkillers and cold remedies have caffeine as an ingredient.
Many common medications augment the effect of caffeine on the body. For example, theophylline, which is a treatment for bronchial asthma, has a caffeine-like effect on the body and can effectively make your morning cup of tea feel like the sixth cup of the day. Common antibiotics like ciprofloxacin can stall the natural breakdown of caffeine in the body, causing its effects to linger for long periods. On the other hand, caffeine can affect the metabolism of several drugs. For example, it lowers the blood levels of diltiazem, a common drug for hypertension and heart disorders.
If you are suffering side effects from excess caffeine, the best solution is to reduce your intake gradually. Side effects of abrupt withdrawal include depression, fatigue, headache, irritability and nervousness! Pregnant women should limit intake to one or two cups a day. Lactating mothers should know that caffeine enters breast milk and can make the baby irritable and sleepless.
Read food labels carefully. Most soft drinks contain caffeine. Chocolate is an unlabelled source of small amounts of caffeine.
