A Study of Coffee Addiction in the Medical College,
Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, April-June 2018, Vol.9, No. 2 161 A recipe for disaster is working a stressful job and
drinking lots of coffee to cope with it! Adrenaline rushes can be addictive, just ask any gambler or sports nut. But it appears dopamine’s mood elevation may be the hook that makes it hard to kick caffeine and remove the adrenal stress that causes long term negative health effects3.
Many experts consider the caffeine cure for dopamine deficiency the most addictive quality of coffee drinking. Getting off caffeine slowly or cold-turkey can create withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, irritability, mild depression, and mental fogginess4. Nutritional consultant and author of The Body Ecology Diet, Donna Gates, recommends a naturally sourced non-essential amino acid supplement L-Tyrosine to help you kick the caffeine habit effortlessly. It is a natural precursor to the brain’s dopamine production and it helps people be alert5.
Based on the above back ground of coffee we first thing to consider is whether you can do without. If not, there is some level of addiction. There is a way to ease caffeine withdrawal and this addiction might be essential to avert futher physiological complications.
MATeRIAl ANd MeThOd
The questionnaire- based study was carried out online through a survey. Individuality was ensured when the subjects filled up the survey. The participants who undertook the survey are undergraduate students of a Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences Medical students (100) and Bharath Engineering college students (100) colleges and General population (100) in and around Pondicherry population. A total of 15 questions were asked to detect if the subjects showed symptoms of caffeine addiction. The questions included are:
1. Do you have caffeinated beverages? (This includes tea, coffee, coke tec.)
2. What is your most preferred caffeinated beverage?
3. When did you start consuming this food substance?
4. How often do you consume this food/ day?
5. While situation do you consume it to a higher extent?
6. Do you think that caffeine is essential for you to get through a day at work/college?
7. How long can you be without taking that particular caffeinated food?
8. Do you feel that caffeine increases your alertness and activeness during the day?
9. Do you have a strong urge to have that particular food at the thought of it?
10. Once you could not get that foodstuff, did you tell yourself to eat it as soon as possible?
11. How much hours of sleep do you get usually?
12. Do you feel sleepy during the day?
13. Do you feel or did anyone tell you that there are certain changes in your behaviour after taking that particular caffeinated food?
14. Do you think that you are addicted to caffeine?
15. Do you feel that you are caffeine addiction?
Based on the responses from the subjects, statistical analysis was performed and the results were tabulated systematically.
ReSulTS ANd dISCuSSION
It’s common to start our morning with a cup of coffee or tea. Almost everyone is addicted to coffee and especially researchers consume a lot more of coffee than others. There are a lot of positiveeffect of coffee but with every positive effect there comes a negative effect.
Therefore its important to know the effects of coffee on your health.
In the data collected among Medical and Engineering and Pondicherry general population in the study. Medical college students, about 29.% ,Engineering students were 31% and General population 40 % were found to intake caffeinated beverages, among which about in all the groups 15 % intake was in the form of tea, remaining all are taking coffee in morning and evenings. In this group Engineering students were taking coffee 3 times per day, Medical students and general population they were taking 2 times per day. Caffeine may promote the consumption of the caffeine-containing beverages by the development of flavour preferences where individuals associate unconsciously a flavour, leading to its high intake3.
Medical students repots are showing most preferred caffeinated beverage is coffee than in Engineering and general population.
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For questio
n When do you consume it to a higher extent and How often do you consume this food, 80%Medical students repots are whenever exams and boring time and 70% engineering students they told whenever we get boar that time and 85% general population they told tension and stress time consume more times they will take.
The negative effects of a caffeine-generated adrenaline surge are not just behavioral. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that large doses of caffeine raise blood pressure, stimulate the heart, and produce rapid shallow breathing, which readers of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 know deprives the brain of the oxygen needed to keep your thinking calm and rational.
Do you think that caffeine is essential for you to get through a day at work/college for this they told all group of students ( Medical 85% and Engineering 80% ) they told said no as a answer and general population 90%
they told yes when ever we are in work tension at that time most essential thing in working areas.
Most people start drinking caffeine because it makes them feel more alert and improves their mood. Many studies suggest that caffeine actually improves cognitive task performance (memory, attention span, etc.) in the short-term. Unfortunately, these studies fail to consider the participants’ caffeine habits. New research from Johns Hopkins Medical School shows that performance increases due to caffeine intake are the result of caffeine drinkers experiencing a short-term reversal of caffeine withdrawal. By controlling for caffeine use in study participants, John Hopkins researchers found that caffeine-related performance improvement is nonexistent without caffeine withdrawal. In essence, coming off caffeine reduces your cognitive performance and has a negative impact on your mood. The only way to get back to normal is to drink caffeine, and when you do drink it, you feel like it’s taking you to new heights.
In reality, the caffeine is just taking your performance back to normal for a short period6.
Do you have a strong urge to have that particular food at the thought of it-for this all college students ( Medical 65% and Engineering 70% ) they told yes we have very strong urge to take particular food like coffee, even night times also they are ready to go even 10 kilometers for drink coffee.
Caffeine is physiologically and psychologically addictive. If you do choose to lower your caffeine intake.
The researchers at Johns Hopkins found that caffeine withdrawal causes headache, fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty concentrating7 . Some people report feeling flu-like symptoms, depression, and anxiety after reducing intake by as little as one cup a day. Slowly tapering your caffeine dosage each day can greatly reduce these withdrawal symptoms8.
Once you could not get that foodstuff, did you tell yourself to eat it as soon as possible ,for this all three groups Medical 60%,Engineering 70% and general population 55 % of people they told, there is no alternate food for coffee, their mind always pin pointing for lack of that.
The action of adenosine is discussed in detail. But while it sounds like advanced science, it’s really pretty simple. As adenosine is created in the brain, it binds to adenosine receptors. This binding causes drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity. In the brain, this also causes blood vessels to dilate, most likely to let more oxygen into that organ during sleep9.
To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine:
Caffeine binds to the adenosine receptor. However, caffeine doesn’t slow down the cell’s activity like adenosine would. As a result, the cell can no longer identify adenosine because caffeine is taking up all the receptors that adenosine would normally bind to.
Instead of slowing down because of the adenosine’s effect, the nerve cells speed up. Caffeine also causes the brain’s blood vessels to constrict, because it blocks adenosine’s ability to open them up. This effect is why some headache medicines like Anacin contain caffeine constricting blood vessels in the brain can help stop a vascular headache 9.
Caffeine’s effect on the brain causes increased neuron firing. The pituitary gland senses this activity and thinks some sort of emergency must be occurring, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (epinephrine). Adrenaline is the “fight or flight” hormone.
Here’s why you’ll want to: caffeine has a six-hour half-life, which means it takes a full twenty-four hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of joe at eight a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in
Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, April-June 2018, Vol.9, No. 2 163 your body at eight p.m. Anything you drink after noon
will still be at 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream with the negative effects increasing with the dose makes it harder to fall asleep10.
How much hours of sleep do you get usually, students group Medical 85%,Engineering 75 % they told almost 8 to 10 hrs of sleep per day and general population 80%
they told maximum 8 hrs we are sleeping.
Do you feel sleepy during the day students group Medical 75%, Engineering 75% they told almost sleepy during the day but in general group 25%, they told they won’t have this problem.
Do you feel or did anyone tell you that there are certain changes in your behavior after taking that particular caffeinated food, students group Medical 60%, Engineering 70% they told yes lot of changes during the day sleepiness and other group 80% they feel like after taking of coffee they are very active to work in stress full conditions. Very relaxing feel they got.
When you do finally fall asleep, the worst is yet to come. Caffeine disrupts the quality of your sleep by reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the deep sleep when your body recuperates and processes emotions. When caffeine disrupts your sleep, you wake up the next day with an emotional handicap. You’re naturally going to be inclined to grab a cup of coffee or an energy drink to try to make yourself feel better. The caffeine produces surges of adrenaline, which further your emotional handicap. Caffeine and lack of sleep leave you feeling tired in the afternoon, so you drink more caffeine, which leaves even more of it in your bloodstream at bedtime. Caffeine very quickly creates a vicious cycle9.
Do you think that you are addicted to caffeine, students group Medical 55%, Engineering 52% they told almost no addiction for coffee and other general group 60% they told sometimes they will feel like addiction.
Do you have an idea on caffeine addiction-Medical students 60% group they told yes we know but in future we won’t take but in Engineering students 70% and other general group 70% they answered we don’t have any idea regarding addiction.
Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance and has sometimes been considered a drug of abuse. Classic drugs of abuse lead to specific increases in
cerebral functional activity and dopamine release in the shell of the nucleus accumbens (the key neural structure for reward, motivation, and addiction). In contrast, caffeine at doses reflecting daily human consumption does not induce a release of dopamine in the shell of the nucleus accumbens but leads to a release of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, which is consistent with its reinforcing properties11.
Furthermore, caffeine increases glucose utilization in the shell of the nucleus accumbens only at high concentrations; this, in turn, nonspecifically stimulates most brain structures and thus likely reflects the side effects linked to high caffeine ingestion alone. Moreover, this dose is 5-10 times higher than the dose necessary to stimulate the caudate nucleus (extrapyramidal motor system) and the neural structures regulating the sleep-wake cycle, the 2 functions that are most sensitive to caffeine 6.
It also important to know how does coffee or caffeine works in the body. To a nerve cell caffeine just looks like adenosine. Adenosine is a purine nucleotide which is involved in many physiological process and is also involved in regulation of blood flow to various organs.
So, when caffeine is injected in the body it doesn’t slow the effect the cell’s activity but the cell cannot identify adenosine because all the receptors are being taken up by caffeine and this causes the nerve cells to speed up instead of slowing down 9,12.
After consumption of coffee there is an increase in neuronal cell firing which in turn increases the production of adrenaline. Caffeine increases the dopamine level in the brain just like drugs do. The body likes caffeine injection in short term especially when you are sleep deprived and want to stay awake. When you inject caffeine it blocks the adenosine receptors and thereby there is increase production of adrenaline in the body which results in a boost. It also changes the dopamine production and thereby makes you feel good or give a sense of satisfaction 11,13.
Study reports regarding addiction Medical students 60 % are aware of addiction think that they are addicted to caffeine on their own, without proper diagnosis by a specialist. And other Engineering students 70% and general population 70 % they don’t know any idea of addiction, they were not ready to any answer. This might indicate that with proper diagnosis, more subjects are probable to be confirmed to be addicted to caffeine.
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CONCluSION
The data suggests that more than half of the students believe that caffeine has increased their activeness during the day. Caffeine has been proven to increase alertness and has an advantage. At the same time, over-intake of caffeine may cause adverse effects, which might be the need to keep a check on the intake of caffeine.
More research may be required to enlighten the society on the addiction of caffeine and its adverse effects on health and disease. The Pondicherry government has to take initiation to give awareness programmes in and around Pondicherry general population and Engineering colleges regarding in addiction of coffee.
Conflict of Interest: Nil
ethical Clearance: No.IEC/C-P/014/2016 Source of Funding: self
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