Caffeine does not make you more alert!
Caffeine makes us more alert is more imagined than real, a UK-led new study published recently in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology suggests.
While frequent coffee drinkers may feel alerted by coffee, the study suggests that this is just a sign of reversing the fatigue effect of caffeine withdrawal, and given that caffeine also increases anxiety and blood pressure, there is no net advantage. The fact is the frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both its stimulatory and anxiety-producing effects.
Researchers found that little variance among their levels of alertness when they consumed either caffeine or a placebo after not consuming it for given 16 hours.
The results showed that the medium/high coffee consumers who had the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache. Neither of these symptoms were reported by medium/high coffee consumers who had the caffeine, yet their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who had a placebo.
The researchers opined that the caffeine just brought the medium/high consumers back to normal.
They said perhaps a slight increase in anxiety is part of the pleasurable buzz that caffeine gives. With frequent consumption, substantial tolerance develops to the anxiogenic effect of caffeine, even in genetically susceptible individuals, but no net benefit for alertness is gained, as caffeine abstinence reduces alertness and consumption merely returns it to baseline.
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