4 replies to this topic

[vader]

Caffeine supposedly increases CPK levels to near schizophrenia levels. Sensationalist books, like Caffein Blues, think of caffeine as the worst drug on the market. Caffeine is also implicated in pancreas disorders, anxiety, ulcers (i'm still unsure about pylori, given that 80% of people never go on to develop ulcers in the presence of pylori infection), changes gut microbiota, impairs absorption of magnesium, iron, seems also to impair chronic intestinal conditions, like IBS. On the plus side caffeine drops blood sugar, reduces appetite (anorectic), seems to have cross-tolerance with nicotine, high in antioxidants.

 

My anecdotal evidence, is that after a week of pretty bad withdrawal, my anxiety and cortisol levels drop dramatically without caffeine. Chronic caffeine could have some effect on HPA axis. I never managed to go without caffeine longer than a week, which given my habit (decade of 500+ mg a day), could warrant a longer period of experimentation. Also supposedly caffeine has a pretty dirty drug profile, affecting GABA, acetylocholine, dopamine, serotonin. Caffeine (and nicotine) abuse is sky-high among certain groups, like drug users and mentally ill.

 

Epigenetical evidence would point us to belief, that roasted beans from tropical country can't be so beneficial to us.

 

http://apt.rcpsych.o...ontent/11/6/432

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/20164571

[gamesguru]

 

Suppression of exercise-induced neutrophilia and lymphopenia in athletes by cystine/theanine intake: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

The increase in CPK after exercise has been reported to be late onset, while that in Mb level occurs immediately after exercising [24].

Effects of L-theanine or caffeine intake on changes in blood pressure under physical and psychological stresses

Background
L-theanine, an amino acid contained in green tea leaves, is known to block the binding of L-glutamic acid to glutamate receptors in the brain, and has been considered to cause anti-stress effects by inhibiting cortical neuron excitation. Both L-theanine and caffeine, which green tea contains, have been highlighted for their beneficial effects on cognition and mood.
Methods
In this study, we investigated the effects of orally administered L-theanine or caffeine on mental task performance and physiological activities under conditions of physical or psychological stress in humans. Fourteen participants each underwent three separate trials, in which they orally took either L-theanine + placebo, caffeine + placebo, or placebo only.
Results
The results after the mental tasks showed that L-theanine significantly inhibited the blood-pressure increases in a high-response group, which consisted of participants whose blood pressure increased more than average by a performance of a mental task after placebo intake. Caffeine tended to have a similar but smaller inhibition of the blood-pressure increases caused by the mental tasks. The result of the Profile of Mood States after the mental tasks also showed that L-theanine reduced the Tension-Anxiety scores as compared with placebo intake.
Conclusions
The findings above denote that L-theanine not only reduces anxiety but also attenuates the blood-pressure increase in high-stress-response adults.
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Background
To live a healthier life in so-called high-stress modern society, a growing interest in natural, minimally processed, nutritional, and healthy foods is spreading around the world, and many kinds of functional food ingredients have recently become widely used due to their health benefits. L-theanine became one of those popular items since its multiple roles in the central and autonomic nervous systems received attention. Animal studies have revealed that L-theanine affected dopamine and serotonin concentrations in the brain, underlying its anxiolytic effect [1,2]. Several reports have found increased alpha brain wave activity in humans after L-theanine administration, indicating that L-theanine could lead to a relaxed and alert state [3,4]. Kimura (2007) reported that L-theanine intake reduced heart rate and salivary immunoglobulin A responses to an acute stress task (an arithmetic task), suggesting that L-theanine could reduce stress by inhibiting cortical neuron excitation [5]. Moreover, animal studies have found that L-theanine reduced blood pressure in hypertensive rats [6,7]. It is known that stress can elevate blood pressure by stimulating the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure [8,9], L-theanine may have inhibited the increase in blood pressure through its anti-stress effects on the autonomic nervous system. From these findings, it can be hypothesized that L-theanine attenuates the stress responses in the autonomic nervous system induced by both physically and psychologically stressful tasks.

Caffeine, another major component of green tea, also has behavioral effects on autonomic nervous activities, and these effects are thought to be the opposite those of L-theanine. Caffeine is a CNS-stimulating drug that acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist in the brain [10,11]. Adenosine antagonism has been implicated as a contributor to the direct cardio-acceleratory effect of caffeine, which also increased blood pressure and respiration rate [12]. On the other hand, both caffeine and L-theanine were recently found to have beneficial effects on cognition and mood [13-15], but no study has compared these two components under conditions in which acute psychological and physical stresses increase blood pressure.

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[vader]

Case in point, I think I'm a slow metabolizer of caffeine, given that i get first withdrawal symptoms after over 20 hours without caffeine. This is with nicotine in my bloodstream, which lowers caffeine half-life 2-fold.

 

The headache is pretty intense, feels like a migraine. Man, caffeine is a hard drug in many ways.

[Vesuvius]

I'm also very concerned about vasoconstriction cause by  caffeine. See here. It appears that your brain does not compensate overtime for the vasoconstriction effect

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19219847

 

 

 

The effect of daily caffeine use on cerebral blood flow: How much caffeine can we tolerate?

Addicott MA1, Yang LL, Peiffer AM, Burnett LR, Burdette JH, Chen MY, Hayasaka S, Kraft RA, Maldjian JA, Laurienti PJ.

Author information

 

Abstract

Caffeine is a commonly used neurostimulant that also produces cerebral vasoconstriction by antagonizing adenosine receptors. Chronic caffeine use results in an adaptation of the vascular adenosine receptor system presumably to compensate for the vasoconstrictive effects of caffeine. We investigated the effects of caffeine on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in increasing levels of chronic caffeine use. Low (mean = 45 mg/day), moderate (mean = 405 mg/day), and high (mean = 950 mg/day) caffeine users underwent quantitative perfusion magnetic resonance imaging on four separate occasions: twice in a caffeine abstinent state (abstained state) and twice in a caffeinated state following their normal caffeine use (native state). In each state, there were two drug conditions: participants received either caffeine (250 mg) or placebo. Gray matter CBF was tested with repeated-measures analysis of variance using caffeine use as a between-subjects factor, and correlational analyses were conducted between CBF and caffeine use. Caffeine reduced CBF by an average of 27% across both caffeine states. In the abstained placebo condition, moderate and high users had similarly greater CBF than low users; but in the native placebo condition, the high users had a trend towards less CBF than the low and moderate users. Our results suggest a limited ability of the cerebrovascular adenosine system to compensate for high amounts of daily caffeine use.

 

I'm still unsure of the exactly relation between blood flow and cognition, but my initial assumption is that more blood = better within reason.

Edited by Andrew Keenan, 28 October 2015 - 09:02 PM.

[gamesguru]

I'm also very concerned about vasoconstriction cause by  caffeine. See here. ??It appears that your brain does not compensate overtime for the vasoconstriction effect??

 

I'm still unsure of the exactly relation between blood flow and cognition, but my initial assumption is that more blood = better within reason.

The effect of daily caffeine use on cerebral blood flow: How much caffeine can we tolerate?

 

In 2011, adenosine was found to modulate dilation of the blood brain barrier.

Chronic caffeine has a different profile of effects than acute.

Caffeine protects against disruptions of the blood-brain barrier in animal models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease

Sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are two of the most common neurodegenerative diseases and as such they represent major public health problems. Finding effective treatments for AD and PD represents an unmet and elusive goal largely because these diseases are chronic and progressive, and have a complicated and ill-understood pathogenesis. Although the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, caffeine, the most commonly ingested psychoactive drug in the world, has been shown in human and animal studies to be protective against AD and PD. One mechanism implicated in the pathogenesis of AD and PD is blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction and we reported recently that caffeine exerts protective effects against AD and PD at least in part by keeping the BBB intact. The present review focuses on the role of BBB dysfunction in the pathogenesis of AD and PD, caffeine’s protective effects against AD and PD, and potential mechanisms whereby caffeine protects against BBB leakage.

Because caffeine is commonly ingested chronically, it is important to note that long-term exposure to adenosine receptor antagonists like caffeine can have effects that resemble the acute effects of adenosine receptor agonists [140] due likely to up-regulation of adenosine receptors (A₁ and A_2A) and adaptive changes leading to adenosine receptor sensitization [140-142]. At higher concentrations, caffeine and its intermediate metabolites such as theophylline, theobromine and paraxanthine can elevate intracellular cAMP levels by inhibiting cAMP PDE activity [137]. At high, possibly toxic, concentrations (mM range) caffeine can mobilize calcium from endoplasmic reticulum stores through actions on IP₃ and ryanodine receptors [137, 143]. Caffeine is also know to affect a number of other cell signaling molecules and physiological functions the composite of which may affect the pathogenesis of AD and PD as well as BBB structure and function.