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What's Caffeine and is it Safe?

Early peoples found that chewing the seeds, bark, or leaves of certain plants had the effects of easing fatigue, stimulating awareness, and elevating mood. Only much later was it found that the effect of caffeine was increased by steeping such plants in hot water.

Caffeine is a plant alkaloid, found in numerous plant species, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyses and kills certain insects feeding upon them.

The most commonly used caffeine-containing plants are coffee, tea, and to a small extent cocoa.

How much caffeine in various drinks?
A cup of coffee has about between 40 and 100 milligrams (depending how it is made.)

Tea has about half the amount of caffeine than coffee.

Soft drinks such as cola contain between 10-50 milligrams per serving whereas energy drinks such as Red Bull can contain 80 milligrams per serving.

What does it do?
Caffeine is a central nervous system and metabolic stimulant, and is used both recreationally and medically to reduce physical fatigue and restore mental alertness when unusual weakness or drowsiness occurs. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system first at the higher levels, resulting in increased alertness and wakefulness, faster and clearer flow of thought, increased focus, and better general body coordination, and later at the spinal cord level at higher doses.

Is it safe?
In large amounts, and especially over extended periods of time, caffeine can lead to a condition known as “caffeinism.” Caffeinism usually combines “caffeine dependency” with a wide range of unpleasant physical and mental conditions including nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, respiratory alkalosis and heart palpitations. Furthermore, because caffeine increases the production of stomach acid, high usage over time can lead to peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. However, since both “regular” and decaffeinated coffees have been shown to stimulate the gastric mucosa and increase stomach acid secretion, caffeine is probably not the sole component of coffee responsible.

There are particular issues relating to consuming caffeine during pregnancy – if pregnant, speak to your midwife or health professional.

Links and contact details

Article on how safe caffeine may be on the Times newspaper website

Article on the BBC Wales website regarding high caffeine content drinks

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