How many times have you heard somebody start the morning with the words "I need my morning cup of coffee" or words to that effect? Most of us have long known that coffee is more than just a morning pick-me-up; it involves meeting a need that is beyond just the merely psychological.A few years back there was an article in the Seattle Times' web site about coffee addiction. The Times pointed to a study by a team of researchers at John Hopkins University who conducted "the most comprehensive review and analysis of the effects of caffeine abstinence to date." Researchers assessed the results of 66 previous studies and found that missing your morning cup of coffee can lead to fatigue, irritability, nausea and muscle pain. Results of the study lends credence to the idea of caffeine addiction, and could lead to inclusion of the disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM for short.
"We need to recognize that caffeine really is a drug and accord it respect as a drug," said Roland Griffiths, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at John Hopkins. "People need to know what it (caffeine) does when they take it and what it does when they cease to take it and make an adult decision about that."
This was not good news for the National Coffee Association, which hastened to place its own positive spin on the story. Joseph DeRupo, a spokesman for the NCA, noted that the average American coffee-drinker consumes 3.4 cups of coffee a day. What is really addictive, according to DeRupo, is the coffee drinking "routine."
This statement is refuted by the recent study. According to the John Hopkins researchers, 50 per cent of people studied had headaches when they stopped drinking coffee, and 13 per cent "had clinically significant distress or impairment of function."
So like many things in this world, drinking coffee is no longer the "no brainer" that it used to be. While it confers benefits on the drinker, there exist some risks to it as well. One should always exercise caution when it comes to how much coffee is drunk.
1 comment:
Great post! Really enjoy your blog. I couldn't relate more, I'm a babbling zombie before I have any coffee. Two cups at home before work, and luckily our office has a few single coffee brewers so there's never really a wait. In response to that study, for someone who drinks coffee daily I don't see what the harm is, on the weekends I will just have one cup, if any. Perhaps its just me, but I'd like to know what more about the study. How much was drank, how often, what kind of coffee.
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