Is Coffee Addictive
Dawn MacKeen on her New York Times article titled “Is coffee good for you?” explores research pertaining to various aspects of coffee when used as a beverage, including its health effects, how it is prepared or served, and its addictive potential. In this article, MacKeen (2020) dedicates a significant proportion of her article exploring the addictive potential of coffee. She argues that there is significant evidence that suggests that coffee can cause addiction. This paper argues that Dawn MacKeen is right in her examination of the addictive potential of coffee in terms of its psychoactive capacity, its interactions with the central nervous systems, rate of action, and withdrawal symptoms.
To begin with, coffee has a psychoactive capacity. According to MacKeen (2020), caffeine is one of the psychoactive drugs. On this note, coffee has caffeine as its major component. According to Jain, Srivastava, Verma, and Maggu (2019), ICD-10 has recognized caffeine as a dependence-producing substance. As such, caffeine has already been identified as a stimulant like cocaine or bhang. Santos, Gavioli, Santa Rosa, de Paula Soares-Rachetti, and Lobão-Soares (2018) argue that caffeine belongs to a group of drugs known as alkaloids. These are substances that are pharmacologically active. In addition to being pharmacologically active, alkaloids are naturally occurring. On this note notes, alkaloids naturally exist in substances such as coffee, guarana, and coffee (Santos et al., 2018). In these plants, caffeine serves the role of a natural pesticide. However, Santos et al. (2018) argue that caffeine produces behavioral and subjective effects that are similar to those associated with other typical psychomotor stimulants. Caffeine impacts dopamine, which a chemical substance that creates the reinforcing behavior. Dopamine acts as a pleasure chemical, which means that it aims at avoiding unpleasant experiences while encouraging exciting ones. According to Jain et al. (2019), caffeine estranges adenosine receptors in the nucleus accumbens and striatum. This action results in excess secretion of dopamine. This means that if a person has been taking coffee for a while, he or she may end up developing a craving for this substance to the point that he or she becomes addicted to it. As such, coffee has psychoactivity effects since it triggers the activation of dopamine.
Additionally, the article under review is right regarding the ability of coffee to cause withdrawal symptoms. MacKeen (2020) says that some of the withdrawal symptoms associated with coffee include headache, irritability, depressed mood, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating. Jain et al. (2019) narrate about what happened to a 23-year old unmarried engineering student who was brought to the hospital for aggressive behavior. The student used to take high quantities of coffee in the hope of remaining awake as much as possible in order to enhance his grades. On the positive side, coffee has the potential to increase one’s level of alertness (MacKeen, 2020). However, only small quantities of coffee can enhance one’s level of alertness. MacKeen (2020) asserts that a moderate amount of caffeine can wake a person up and enhance his or her mood, alertness, energy, and concentration. Upon reaching the central nervous system, caffeine binds to postsynaptic A 2A adenosine receptor and presynaptic A 1 (Santos et al. 2018). This action inhibits the attachment of endogenous adenosine to these receptors. As such, caffeine serves as a stimulant to the central nervous system. As a result, it ends up reducing fatigue while increasing alertness. This is a positive thing for students since it results in one spending more time studying, which may result in positive results. However, a heavy intake of coffee may have negative outcomes on a person. As a result of his heavy intake of coffee, the student suffered symptoms such as restlessness, drowsiness, letharginess, body ache, dysphoria, craving, and mild body intake (Jain et al., 2019). The withdrawal symptoms associated with coffee demonstrates that this beverage is addictive. One of the characteristics of substance-related disorders includes dependence (Santos et al., 2018). Dependence occurs if a person has to continue taking a certain substance failure to which he or she suffers negative outcomes, such as withdrawal symptoms.
At the same time, coffee has a significant impact on the central nervous system. MacKeen (2020) argues that a higher dosage of coffee can result in caffeine intoxication. Other researchers support this assertion. According to Santos et al. (2018), the main trait of drug intoxication involves an entity exhibiting a reversible syndrome after consuming it. The syndrome must be specific only to the drug in question. The other characteristics of drug intoxication entail a person suffering certain clinical signs which are linked to the central nervous system, and which differ between the start and end of the use of the substance in question (Santos et al., 2018). Coffee may result in caffeine intoxication. MacKeen (2020) asserts that some of the signs of caffeine intoxication include irregular heartbeat, shakiness, and nervousness. Intoxication caused by drugs makes the difference between the adverse and desired effects of these substances.
Additionally, coffee is a rapidly acting substance, and it stays in the body long after a person has consumed it. MacKeen (2020) argues that it takes an average of six hours for the body to metabolize half the caffeine. Various factors affect the extent to which caffeine is absorbed by the body. According to Santos et al. (2018), caffeine attains penetration into the bloodstream 15-120 minutes after ingestion, depending on whether or not a person has food components in his or her gastrointestinal tract. This means that the harmful and positive effects associated with coffee may not impact all people who take this beverage the same way.
In conclusion, news articles may be lacking important facts. Also, they may present facts in a manner aimed at exerting undue influence on the audiences. However, the article under review did an excellent job representing information pertaining to the addictive potential of coffee. This paper has demonstrated that the argument that coffee is an addictive substance is supported by other peer-reviewed research.
References
Jain, S., Srivastava, A. S., Verma, R. P., & Maggu, G. (2019). Caffeine addiction: Need for awareness and research and regulatory measures. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 41, 73-75.
McKeen, D. (2020). Is coffee good for you? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/self-care/cof
Santos, M. K. F., Gavioli, E. C., Santa Rosa, L., de Paula Soares-Rachetti, V., & Lobão-Soares, B. (2018). Craving espresso: The dialetics in classifying caffeine as an abuse drug. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology, 391(12), 1301-1318.