Is caffeine bad for you? Have you ever wondered that? I mean are you someone who has to have your caffeine fix first thing in the morning to get your day going? Do you love caffeine? If the answer is yes, trust me you’re not alone because it is actually, the most commonly used drug worldwide and yes it is a drug, it’s a stimulant. And the thing is, we believe that it has some beneficial effects but it also has some potentially dangerous effects as well. Today we’re going to answer the question, is caffeine bad for you?
I’m dr freda is caffeine bad for you have you ever wondered that i mean are you someone who has to have your caffeine fix first thing in the morning to get your day going do you love caffeine if the answer is yes trust me you’re not alone because caffeine is actually the most commonly used drug worldwide and yes it is a drug it’s a stimulant and the thing is
We believe that caffeine has some beneficial effects but it has some potentially dangerous effects as well and so today we’re going to answer the question is caffeine bad for you keep watching i’m dr freda i’m a medical doctor who has been triple board certified in nephrology internal medicine and pediatrics and today we’re going to talk about caffeine is
Caffeine bad for you so first off what in the world is caffeine well caffeine is a drug it’s a stimulant it is the most commonly consumed stimulant worldwide it’s a methylxanthine actually and in its pure form caffeine is a white crystalline powder with a bitter taste and you can find it in different places in nature you can find it in coffee beans in tea leaves
You can find it in cocoa beans you can even find it in the flowers of some citrus plants so how does caffeine work caffeine affects your brain and your body it affects your central nervous system and other parts of your body as well so let’s start with the central nervous system caffeine can work by blocking adenosine receptors so what in the world does that
Mean well you have these adenosine receptors in your body and when adenosine gets to them then it causes you to relax and maybe even feel a little drowsy a little sleepy that’s when adenosine gets to them but what caffeine does is it blocks those adenosine receptors and so the adenosine can’t get to them and it keeps you from being tired it actually makes you more
Awake more alert and so that is one way that it affects your central nervous system adenosine receptors are in other places on your body as well you have adenosine receptors specifically the a1 receptors on your heart and your kidney so again when the adenosine is on these receptors in the heart then it can cause the heart to have a slow heartbeat but if caffeine
Gets to these receptors you can get a fast heart rate so caffeine can have that effect of speeding up your heart rate you may have felt that before so where else you have adenosine receptors on your kidneys and so when you have those adenosine receptors that are taken up by adenosine you tend to have a bit of a slower or lower urine output you’re not urinating
As much but again when caffeine gets to those receptors you tend to urinate more and more frequently and so you may notice that when you’re drinking a lot of caffeine you’re running to the restroom you’re urinating a lot so these are just some of the effects that caffeine has on your brain and on your body it also can affect your muscles as well caffeine causes
Calcium to be released from muscles so what are some of the benefits of caffeine now i want you to understand that there is not enough data in order to promote or discourage caffeine use however there are certain benefits that we do believe you can find from caffeine just in general one it can make you more alert more awake more focused we also believe that
In some cases it can help with memory but we’re not sure if it’s actually helping your memory or if it’s just taking away some of the withdrawal symptoms if you have somewhat of an addiction to caffeine another possible benefit of caffeine is that in low to moderate doses it may help to decrease depressive symptoms and there are some studies that suggest that
Caffeine may actually be beneficial long-term in certain neurodegenerative disorders like parkinson’s disease and dementia oh and caffeine has medicinal purposes as well caffeine can be used in premature infants who have difficulty breathing if they have spells where they stop breathing for short periods of time apnea of prematurity then caffeine can actually
Help so now let’s talk about some of the potentially dangerous side effects some of the adverse effects or bad effects of caffeine and remember there’s not enough data in order to promote or discourage the use of caffeine but we do know that there are definitely some side effects that can affect your health so is caffeine bad for you first remember this that we
Believe that as long as you are not consuming more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day as an adult then it likely will not have a lot of adverse effects for children and adolescents it’s not studied as well but we believe that if children consume less than 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of caffeine then it’s not likely to have bad effects on them
Either but kids have to be careful in adults as well you don’t want to mix caffeine with other substances like you don’t want teenagers having energy drinks or high caffeine and mixing them with alcohol or other pills sleeping pills drugs substances so they don’t want to mix caffeine now okay side effects or potentially adverse effects of caffeine well caffeine
Can have a side effect of restlessness you can have anxiety that’s worsened by caffeine also if you’re a person with high blood pressure caffeine in some cases can exacerbate it or make your blood pressure worse caffeine can also cause a jitteriness caffeine can also cause a fast heart rate like we talked about so if you’re a person who already has a fast heart
Rate or tachycardia especially if you have an abnormal heart rate or you have an arrhythmia then potentially this fastening or quickening of the heart rate from the caffeine could be a potentially negative side effect for you and then there’s dehydration i mentioned that caffeine can cause a blocking of the adenosine receptors in the kidney and it can make you
Urinate more frequently well this can actually cause a dehydration and we know that dehydration can lead to other problems like kidney failure so dehydration is a potentially negative side effect you can also develop a tolerance to caffeine where you need more and more and so i mentioned that we believe that 400 milligrams of caffeine or less we believe that that
Amount has pretty low potential for causing bad problems but if you’re someone who drinks coffee daily and if you’re drinking 400 milligrams to get that alertness that focus that memory sharpness that you want your body actually may develop a tolerance so in other words as the caffeine blocks those adenosine receptors and keeps you awake well your body might
Actually make more adenosine receptors what does that mean that in order for caffeine to block those adenosine receptors it’s going to require that you drink more and more coffee or more or more tea or just taking more and more caffeine so you can get a tolerance and then there’s withdrawal if you become addicted and yes you can become addicted to caffeine then
It can lead to caffeine withdrawal and i’ll talk about what that means so here are some of the caffeine withdrawal symptoms and remember if you are a regular consumer of caffeine if you’re having it daily then if you stop suddenly you may feel these caffeine withdrawal symptoms they include headache fatigue irritability you can even get flu-like symptoms just
From withdrawal from caffeine if you’re experiencing caffeine withdrawal you may also struggle to concentrate these caffeine withdrawal symptoms can last anywhere from a few hours to 24 hours to a few days and a lot of folks just go ahead and drink themselves some caffeine in order to get over the withdrawal but it’s really an important concept because you
Really just don’t want to be addicted to anything to rely on a stimulant in order to function and so it’s important that you’re aware that caffeine can definitely be addictive next let’s talk about some caffeine sources and remember we believe that if you’re taking in less than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day you’re not likely to have a lot of harmful effects
And again for adolescents and teens we’re not sure we believe that 2.5 milligrams per kilogram per day or less for adolescents and teens should be okay do know that it is possible to have toxicity from caffeine to overdose but that would take 10 grams of caffeine we’re talking 10 000 milligrams of caffeine so not likely but yes there is such thing as caffeine
Toxicity all right now let’s get to the fun part let’s talk about how much caffeine is in the the foods and the drinks that we take in each day so let’s talk about tea so here we have an arizona green tea and for this entire can of tea it’s just over 11 milligrams of caffeine all right so that’s not too bad and then we have the arizona mucho mango tea mucho
Mango and now they’re actually making this tea with no caffeine but there was a time when you could get it and it would have 120 milligrams of caffeine so just make sure you’re watching your labels and then we have peace tea don’t we all need peas who doesn’t want peas for this entire can over 20 ounces of peace tea there’s only 23 milligrams of caffeine oh now
Let’s talk about chocolate the chocolate now you all know that chocolate does have caffeine and if you’re looking at your typical chocolate bar your milk chocolate bar it’s going to have about eight milligrams of caffeine in it and if you just kind of break it down as in an ounce of milk chocolate we’re looking at about 3.5 milligrams of caffeine per ounce of
Milk chocolate now dark chocolate has a little bit more a higher caffeine concentration an ounce of dark chocolate has about 13.3 milligrams of caffeine and then i know y’all know what these are these are chocolate covered espresso beans chocolate covered espresso beans now if you have ever been in a situation where you have to be up all night studying or if
You’re working a night shift or you need to stay awake you may or may not have had lost one of my beans you may or may not have had a chocolate covered espresso bean but let me tell you something there’s a lot of caffeine in these beans a lot of bounce per ounce just one ounce of these chocolate covered espresso beans has 230 milligrams of caffeine and so again
Everything in moderation but you really want to be mindful of how much caffeine you’re taking in when you’re doing these espresso beans now let’s talk about the tea and the coffee now in this tea this little tea bag here where i have about 230 milliliters of water for my tea this is a nice little green tea and it will have between 30 and 40 milligrams of caffeine
This one serving of tea and then coffee y’all know about the coffee coffee is tricky because it’s really going to vary depending on what kind of coffee you have how it’s brewed where it comes from the coffee beans coffee can vary anywhere from 65 to about 300 milligrams of caffeine and so that’s kind of the wild card the coffee you really have to pay attention
To how many cups of coffee you’re drinking and pay attention to where you’re getting it from energy drinks these caffeine-filled drinks that many people take in to try to stay alert stay focused pay attention because if you’re not careful you can really go over that daily limit of caffeine so let’s look at this one red bull i know you all heard about red bull
And red bull giving you wings but in this 12 ounces of red bull you get 114 milligrams of caffeine and then you have monster juice monster that just sounds scary doesn’t it monster juice in this one can of monster juice you have 160 milligrams of caffeine and now c4 energy this is nice and bright just looking at this gives you energy does it yeah it kind of
Looks energetic but in this one can of c4 energy you have 200 milligrams of caffeine and then bang this one is called bang honey in this one can of bang you have 300 milligrams of caffeine so these are just some of the examples reminding you to be careful label watchers because there are foods that you eat things that you drink that have caffeine and you must be
Aware of what you’re putting in your bodies okay so what’s the answer to the question is caffeine bad for you well there is no black and white right or wrong answer remember we don’t have enough scientific data to either promote or discourage the use of caffeine what we do know is as i mentioned there are certain dangerous effects potentially there are certain
Side effects and you just must be aware of them on the same note there are some potential benefits it is important that you consult your physician to find out how much caffeine is going to be safe for you the general rule is less than 400 milligrams a day for adults but again consult your physician caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world and
So this definitely affects a lot of people we have over 150 million americans who consume coffee daily so next time you pick up your cup of coffee or your cup of tea or you’re grabbing that energy drink just really be cognizant think about how much caffeine you’re taking in and make sure you do things in moderation in a safe level and while you’re getting those
Benefits like being alert being awake trying not to be sleepy trying to focus trying to do things in a more efficient way think about the potential dangerous effects as well like developing tolerance or getting withdrawal symptoms or having a fast heart rate or dehydrating yourself things of that nature everything in life is a balance if you found this video
To be helpful and informative please like this video and share it with the people you care about also if you’re not doing so already be sure to follow me on instagram at doctor.frida and make sure you subscribe to my youtube channel and hit that notification button so you’ll be among the first to know when i release new medical content i thank you for watching
I appreciate you for watching and i want you to do your best to live your healthiest happiest life i’m dr freda my fingernail is broken but you know i’m stopped trying to hide it and just talk with a broken fingernail cause that’s life it’s okay for a video to be less than 10 minutes and if you include bloopers it might be over 10 minutes you’re good carmen
Crates good girl these are my nieces pit bulls honey okay i’m dr freda you
Transcribed from video
Is Caffeine Bad For You? What The Science Says! By Dr. Frita
