Is Caffeine the new Alcohol?

Medicine and Psychology

Photo: Wix

Have you ever felt like everything around you is moving extra quickly, extra

overwhelming, and at some point you feel completely zoned out? That’s what I felt

like after drinking a double-shot espresso before stepping onto the squash court for

a competition game in Singapore last summer. That feeling of “hitting a wall” or

feeling completely disconnected was the last thing I needed after traveling 9,537

miles from New York. Like many of my peers at school, I turned to caffeine for a

temporary performance boost.

Caffeine, just like alcohol, has been around since ancient times. It has become

deeply ingrained in our daily routines and social habits worldwide, often without us

noticing it. From morning coffees in cafes to evening drinks at the bar, both

substances are widely accessible and actively encouraged in many cultural contexts

around the world. Obviously, overconsumption of alcohol leads to much more

detrimental effects on people’s lives, but what about caffeine? While caffeine offers

certain health benefits and is widely accepted, its exponentially increasing

consumption level, particularly among the youth community, is leading to long-term

health concerns. That’s why finding alternatives and creating better habits is

becoming more important.

Caffeine has long been present in our lives, from simple drinks like soda to

more complex ones like a frappuccino. It does have benefits. On a mental level,

caffeine gives consumers enhanced alertness and focus because it blocks adenosine,

a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep. This increases activity in the brain and can

improve cognitive function. Moreover, memory and performance can also be

boosted, especially short-term recall and reaction time. From a physical standpoint,

caffeine can boost stamina by raising adrenaline levels and can increase metabolism

by enhancing thermogenesis and fat oxidation. To add on to that, caffeine provides a

variety of health benefits. Regular caffeine intake has been linked to reduced risk of

type 2 diabetes, heart failure, and stroke, and it may help protect against diseases like

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It can also reduce liver damage.

With all these benefits in mind, what could possibly go wrong? For starters,

too much of anything is not good - especially when it comes to the consumption of

caffeine.

Caffeinism is when someone takes in an excessive amount of caffeine, leading

to all types of physical and mental issues, whether short-term or long-term. Although

caffeinism isn’t considered a critical issue right now, it is still very serious, and if we don’t address it now, it could become a much bigger problem later. To put this into

perspective, 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world daily. That is about

1 in 4 people drinking a cup a day, not even factoring in tea, energy drinks, and soda.

Caffeine remains the most widely used psychoactive substance worldwide,

but its downsides are unknown to most people. Firstly, caffeine-induced anxiety

disorder is recognized in the DSM as one of the caffeine-related syndromes. When

you think about how many people drink coffee every day and how common anxiety

disorders are worldwide, it becomes clear that caffeine could be contributing to

more than just a few cases. Secondly, insomnia is a major concern, especially for

growing teens who are already struggling with sleep during school. In my current

boarding school, Deerfield Academy, many people drink a cup of iced coffee a day

with one to two cans of energy drinks before practice, and another one before study

hall. In addition to that, caffeinated gum is now used as a performance enhancer

before sports among teens in school. When you add all these energy drinks, coffees,

gum, and sodas up, the total amount of caffeine can easily surpass recommended

limits that once seemed so far and distant for us to consider.

To make matters worse, caffeinism isn’t limited to only the United States. If we

look at South Korea, caffeine culture is growing alongside long study hours in high

schools or even middle schools. Low-priced coffee franchises and energy drinks in

vending machines make high-caffeine beverages more and more accessible,

disrupting teens’ sleep schedules and, in the long term, poisoning their bodies that

are just slowly developing. A friend of my parents shared something with me, and I

quote: “I walked into a multi-floor coffee shop at 2 a.m. in the morning in Korea,

hoping to get a drink after a long night at the bar. All I saw around the coffee shop

were kids in high school buried in their books with a coffee in their hands.”

Caffeinism is everywhere and it is showing no signs of slowing down. So what are the

solutions?

The obvious answer is to cut down the amount of coffee or energy drinks we

consume each day. Nevertheless, this is very hard. One alternative is choosing

low-caffeine coffee beans, not decaf, but beans with around 50% less caffeine in

comparison. They are naturally grown, contain less than half the caffeine of regular

coffee beans, and taste just like regular coffee beans.

Ultimately, the road to a lower-caffeine lifestyle is long and difficult. But with

the right research and adjustments in consumption, caffeine could once again

become a part of a drink we enjoy without turning into something that harms our

body and mind the way alcohol does when consumed without careful consideration

and self-discipline.