Coffee Addiction
Its hard to stop

Coffee addiction

Consumed in high doses, coffee can cause a form of dependence, but it is different from a dependence caused by smoking, drinking or consumption of drugs such as cocaine, cannabis or heroin. Fortunately the brain circuit of the award set on by the hard drugs is not activated by caffeine.

The sensation of pleasure experienced by a person who consumes drugs is the result of many psychological factors, taste, cognitive and physiological. Dependence imposes a regular and generally increasing in drug use. The behavior characteristics of dependence (feeling lacking activity of compulsive drug seeking and self-government) involve a defined set of neurons, including five brain areas: the ventral area tegmentale, the substantia nigra, the striatum , The cortex and the nucleus accumbens. The connection between these areas provides a link between the sensation of pleasure and awareness of gesture providing pleasure (eg, lighting a cigarette).

However, caffeine active neurons from another brain center named caudate nucleus. This center is not part of a circuit strongly connected. It may release of dopamine, which produces a pleasure, and deliver the sensation of pleasure to the cortex, but connections are less strong, so the pleasure is not seen as essential. If there is a dependency this one can’t be compared with the one caused by hard drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
Weaning resulting from a sudden stop on the consumption of caffeine is usually benign. Sometimes occur headache that fade when the ruling is progressive: they appear between 12 and 24 hours after the last cup of coffee, amperage their maximum after 48 hours and disappear no later than one week. These headaches are more intense than the consumption of coffee was important. Thus interpreter there headaches felt by some people over the weekend. They are used to make coffee during the week, at their workplace: the cerebral blood vessels are contracted. Once the caffeine effect cease vessels expand and create intracranial pressure, it’s the origin of the headaches.
Finally, caffeine in high doses can cause some side effects. The excessive consumption of caffeine leads sometimes caffeine syndrome characterized by tremors, episodes of anxiety, irritability or restlessness, and sleep. In some cases appear palpitations, rapid heartbeat and rate of respiration, as well as anorexia.
Women are more likely than men to these disorders, possibly because caffeine is degraded more slowly in their blood. Caffeine may protect against Parkinson's disease, which is a degeneration of neurons leading to disorders of motor function and attention. 8 000 men followed for 30 years, a study showed that Parkinson's disease is rare in individuals who drink coffee, and that its gravity is even lower that they drink large quantities. Most treatments of Parkinson's disease is to administer dopamine, which enters the brain. However, caffeine causes precisely the release of dopamine.
Billions of people consume caffeine in the world. Now arise the question of its status: is it a medicine or food? If caffeine-conditioned capsule was classified as a drug, it would be issued only on prescription. On the contrary, if it were sold freely, many consumers could benefit from this molecule, which improves the condition of alertness to prevent abuse. The situation is paradoxical: the use of psychostimulants is usually discouraged, but caffeine, taken in the form of coffee or soda, is the most consumed psychostimulant in the world.