How Caffeine Affects Your Brain?
Summary
TLDRThis video explores caffeine's impact on the human body, explaining its role as a central nervous system stimulant. It delves into the cellular level, describing how caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, countering the tiredness signal and promoting alertness. The video also discusses caffeine's potential benefits, such as improved cognitive function and mood, alongside drawbacks like increased heart rate and diuretic effects. It touches on the concept of tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and the potential therapeutic uses of caffeine, offering viewers a comprehensive look at the pros and cons of this widely consumed substance.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Caffeine is a widely consumed psychoactive substance with approximately 90% of adults consuming it regularly, primarily through coffee and tea.
- 🌿 Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant found in many plants and is part of a group of compounds known as methylxanthines.
- 🧠 As a stimulant, caffeine affects the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, by making individuals feel more alert and energetic.
- 🔬 Caffeine works at the cellular level by blocking adenosine receptors, preventing the suppressive effects of adenosine and thus promoting alertness.
- 🔒 Caffeine acts as an antagonist to adenosine receptors, fitting into the receptor like a key but without activating it, thereby preventing adenosine from binding and causing feelings of tiredness.
- ⚡ Caffeine's effects on alertness and energy are more pronounced in individuals who are fatigued, sleep-deprived, or jet-lagged.
- 💡 Caffeine does not produce energy like ATP but gives a perception of increased energy, and its stimulating effects can range from 30 to 300 mg per day, with 400 mg considered safe for most adults.
- 🔄 Regular caffeine consumption can lead to tolerance, where the body upregulates adenosine receptors, necessitating higher amounts of caffeine to achieve the same effects.
- 🚫 Potential drawbacks of caffeine include increased heart rate, blood pressure, and urine output, as well as possible agitation or anxiety in some individuals.
- 🔄 Caffeine withdrawal symptoms can occur in regular users who stop or reduce intake, including grouchiness, tiredness, and reduced focus.
- 🏃♂️ Caffeine has potential therapeutic uses, such as reducing headache pain and possibly lowering the risk of neurological disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Q & A
What percentage of adults regularly consume caffeine?
-About 90% of adults consistently consume caffeine.
What is caffeine classified as in terms of its effect on the body?
-Caffeine is classified as a stimulant of the central nervous system (CNS).
What is the role of dendrites in neurons?
-Dendrites are shorter projections from the cell body of a neuron that receive signals from other neurons, allowing for thousands of connections.
How does caffeine affect the adenosine receptors in the brain?
-Caffeine acts as a potent antagonist of adenosine receptors, blocking the suppressive effects of adenosine and leading to increased alertness and energy.
What is the relationship between ATP and adenosine?
-Adenosine is a component of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is the energy currency of cells. As ATP is broken down during the day, adenosine builds up, contributing to feelings of tiredness.
What is the effect of caffeine on the cardiovascular system?
-Caffeine can increase systolic blood pressure and heart rate, and it can also cause the cardiac muscle tissue to contract more forcefully.
Is caffeine considered addictive in a clinical setting?
-While caffeine can cause withdrawal symptoms, it is not as strongly addictive as substances like nicotine or amphetamines, and people can generally taper off caffeine use without severe issues.
What is the range of caffeine intake considered safe for most adults?
-The safe range of caffeine intake for most adults is from 30 milligrams up to 300 milligrams per day, with 400 milligrams being the upper limit of what is generally considered safe.
What is the process called when the body adapts to a consistent caffeine intake by increasing the number of adenosine receptors?
-The process is called upregulation, where the body increases the number of adenosine receptors in response to consistent caffeine consumption.
How can the effects of caffeine be minimized or avoided if someone wants to stop using it?
-By tapering off caffeine use slowly, an individual can minimize caffeine withdrawal symptoms and avoid the negative effects of stopping caffeine abruptly.
What are some potential therapeutic benefits of caffeine mentioned in the script?
-Caffeine may reduce the risk of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and it can be used therapeutically to treat headaches and improve athletic performance.
Outlines
🚀 Introduction to Caffeine's Effects and Mechanism
The video script introduces caffeine as a widely consumed psychoactive substance and sets the stage for a discussion on its effects on the human body. It delves into caffeine's classification as a stimulant of the central nervous system (CNS) and provides an anatomical overview of the brain and spinal cord. The script then transitions to a cellular level, introducing the concept of neurons, their structure, and function. The role of adenosine as a CNS depressant is highlighted, and the video promises to explore how caffeine, as an antagonist of adenosine receptors, leads to increased alertness and energy.
🔑 Caffeine's Interaction with Adenosine Receptors
This paragraph explains the biochemical interaction between caffeine and adenosine receptors in the brain. It uses the analogy of a lock and key to describe how adenosine binding to its receptors can cause feelings of tiredness and fatigue by suppressing neuronal activity. Caffeine is portrayed as a molecule that can fit into the adenosine receptor but does not activate it, thereby blocking adenosine's suppressive effects. The script also introduces AG1 by Athletic Greens, a supplement that may be used alongside or as an alternative to caffeine, and discusses its benefits for performance, recovery, and overall health.
⚠️ Caffeine Tolerance and Potential Side Effects
The script addresses the development of caffeine tolerance, explaining the physiological process of upregulation where the body increases the number of adenosine receptors in response to consistent caffeine consumption. This leads to a requirement for higher caffeine intake to achieve the same stimulatory effects. It also outlines potential side effects of caffeine, such as increased systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac muscle contraction, as well as its diuretic properties. The paragraph notes that these side effects may be less pronounced in individuals with a high caffeine tolerance but become more severe during withdrawal periods.
🏁 Weighing the Pros and Cons of Caffeine Use
In the final paragraph, the script encourages a balanced view of caffeine consumption, suggesting that it should be approached like any other substance with a consideration of its pros and cons. It mentions that caffeine has potential therapeutic uses in clinical settings and may reduce the risk of certain neurological disorders. The script also touches on caffeine's use in treating headaches and enhancing athletic performance. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making regarding caffeine use based on individual needs and circumstances.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Caffeine
💡Psychoactive Substance
💡Central Nervous System (CNS)
💡Stimulant
💡Adenosine
💡Neuron
💡Tolerance
💡Withdrawal Symptoms
💡AG1
💡Diuretic
💡Therapeutic Use
Highlights
Caffeine is one of the world's most commonly used psychoactive substances, with about 90% of adults consuming it regularly.
Caffeine is a stimulant of the central nervous system, affecting the brain and spinal cord.
Caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors, which would otherwise suppress neuronal activity and promote feelings of tiredness.
Adenosine is a chemical mediator of sleep, building up throughout the day as a byproduct of ATP usage in neurons.
Sleep helps to reduce adenosine buildup and replenish ATP stores in the body.
AG1 by Athletic Greens is a supplement that can potentially replace or complement caffeine for energy and mental clarity.
Caffeine's stimulatory effects are more pronounced in individuals who are fatigued, sleep-deprived, or jet-lagged.
Caffeine does not produce energy like ATP but gives a perception of increased energy.
Safe caffeine consumption ranges from 30 mg to 300 mg per day, with 400 mg being generally safe for most adults.
Frequent caffeine use can lead to tolerance, requiring higher amounts for the same stimulatory effects.
Tolerance to caffeine is associated with upregulation, an increase in the number of adenosine receptors.
Caffeine can affect the cardiovascular system, increasing blood pressure and heart rate.
Caffeine acts as a mild diuretic, increasing urine output and the flow of blood through the kidneys.
High caffeine intake can cause agitation, jitteriness, and anxiety, especially in caffeine-naive individuals.
Caffeine withdrawal symptoms include grouchiness, fatigue, and a lack of focus, which can be mitigated by continued use.
Caffeine is not considered highly addictive, and withdrawal symptoms can be minimized by tapering off use.
Caffeine may have potential therapeutic benefits, including reducing the risk of neurological disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Caffeine can be used therapeutically to reduce pain, particularly in treating headaches.
Intermittent caffeine use may prevent tolerance buildup while still providing stimulatory benefits when needed.
Caffeine's influence on athletic performance is a topic of ongoing research, with potential benefits for enhancing physical activity.
Transcripts
Did you know that caffeine is one of the world's most commonly used psychoactive substances? About
90% of adults consistently consume caffeine, usually in the forms of things like coffee
and tea. So if this is so widely used and is considered a psychoactive substance,
we should probably know a little bit about how caffeine works. So,
in today's video, we're going to talk about what caffeine does to the body,
some of its pros and cons, are there safe and unsafe amounts and can it be addictive. So if
you're one of those that loves your beverages, take a sip, and we'll jump right into this.
[Intro]
Caffeine is a bitter tasting, naturally occurring substance found in many plants. It's part of
a group of compounds called methylxanthines and many of these methylxanthines, caffeine included,
are considered stimulants of the central nervous system or the CNS. Now, keep in mind,
the central nervous system in anatomy refers to what you can see here, the brain as well
as the spinal cord. Now, the majority of the spinal cords been removed that you
can see right here but it would continue down the vertebral or the spinal column.
We'll definitely be taking a look at the brain tissue in more detail in regards to how caffeine
works. But let's talk about caffeine being a stimulant. What does that actually mean to us?
Well, when we partake of a stimulant such as caffeine, it might make us feel a little bit more
alert, energetic, able to get stuff done but how does caffeine really elicit these effects?
To answer that, we need to go down to the cellular level.
So, let's actually zoom in and zoom in to this brain tissue and take a look at some brain cells.
Welcome to the inter workings of your brain on a whiteboard with a wondrous drawing of a cell that
makes up your nervous system called a neuron. Now, let me point out some of the structural features
of this neuron. The central portion with the blue nucleus here is referred to as the cell body and
the shorter projections coming off the cell body are known as dendrites and mine has 1,2,3,4 and 5.
Now, why am I counting these out for you? Well, this is a bit of a simplified drawing
because the neurons in your brain can actually have thousands of dendrites branching off
of the cell body there and why is that so cool? Well, that's because these dendrites
are bringing in from the connections they're making with other neurons.
So, if I have thousands of dendrites, I potentially can make thousands of connections
with other neurons and when you start thinking about all those numbers, the connections in your
brain become quite remarkable and we need to move on to this other projection here and this
is called the axon, the longer projection here and this takes signals away from the cell body.
And this is where we're really going to focus our attention with our discussion on caffeine
especially where the axon starts to branch in these things called Axon Terminals. So let's zoom
in to this axon terminal and that's what we're seeing at this upper portion of the whiteboard
drawing and the end of the axon terminal has this little bulge called the synaptic end bulb
for all you anatomy geeks who can't get enough of the names we throw at you but with caffeine,
at least starting this discussion of how caffeine works... Caffeine is known as a potent antagonist
of adenosine receptors. Or in other words, it's going to block the effects of adenosine.
Now, as we talk about adenosine, you keep in mind it can be found throughout the body as well as its
receptors and other body tissues and so therefore can have multiple responses throughout the body
but we're going to focus on how it affects the brain tissue. So, in blue are those blue diamonds,
these are representing adenosine and the adenosine receptor is represented in this green
Y shape structure that's embedded into the cell membrane of the neuron.
Now, when adenosine binds to the neuron, I want you to kind of think of a lock and key analogy
here with receptor physiology. Think of adenosine as the key and the adenosine receptor in green
as the locker, the deadbolt that the key fits into. And so, we all know that the key
has to have a specific shape to fit into a specific shape deadbolt in order for it to work
and that's the same kind of idea in receptor physiology in the human body or at least the
key has to be close to the same shape and we'll talk about that a little bit more with caffeine's
relationship to adenosine but adenosine binding to that receptor causes an effect on the neuron
and specifically, it suppresses the neuron or is known as a CNS depressant.
It suppresses the firing and the activity of this neuron
and so, what does that feel like to you? Well, it suppresses things like arousal and so therefore,
might make you feel tired or more fatigued. Adenosine could be considered
one of the many chemical mediators of sleep and you've probably heard of adenosine before
but in a little bit of a different form called adenosine triphosphate or ATP.
Now, we could do a whole video just on ATP but when it comes to ATP for this video,
we're going to essentially say it is the energy currency of your cells,
and as your cells are active throughout the day, they are burning through this energy currency
called ATP. And so, the idea is that as the neuron, because neurons are greedy little
hogs for ATP, they burn through it like crazy. If you're breaking it down and the adenosine
component of the ATP is thought to have start to build up on the outside of the neuron and as more
and more builds up on the outside more of more - more and more of it combined to more receptors and
again, increase that effect of feeling tired and fatigued throughout the day.
And so, how would you maybe get rid of this buildup of adenosine? Well,
it tends to help when you go to sleep and sleep will also help replenish your ATP stores. So,
what does all this adenosine talk actually have to do with caffeine? Well, if you've got that
caffeinated beverage close by, go ahead and a sip, help calm the anticipation anxiety for
the answer to this question because I first need to talk about another substance that
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So now on to that answer of how caffeine interacts with the adenosine and its receptors
and causes you to experience those stimulatory effects when you partake of caffeine.
Now, remember that lock and key analogy we talked about earlier.
Think of caffeine as a key that can fit into a lock but won't turn it or activate the lock,
and that's essentially what happens with caffeine and adenosine receptors.
It's a close enough shape that it can fit or wedge itself into the adenosine receptor and block it
without activating it. And so if you have all this excess caffeine surrounding the neuron, it'll take
up those adenosine receptors so adenosine can't bind and cause its suppressive actions that we
mentioned kind of suppresses stimulation, makes you feel more tired and fatigued.
And so, imagine you are partaking of that wonderful caffeinated beverage but I'm sure you're
not addicted to it all. We'll talk about that later. The caffeine will eventually make it into
your bloodstream and circulate into the blood of the brain. Here's a little tiny blood vessel that
I'm representing here, not perfectly to scale but this capillary will be close by and the caffeine
would diffuse out, bind to those receptors, again, blocking the action of adenosine, therefore,
making you feel more stimulated, energetic, motivated and determined to conquer your daily
to-do list which I'm sure includes watching videos from the Institute of Human Anatomy.
So, now that we know how caffeine works, how effective is it? What are considered safe amounts
and are there any potential cons or drawbacks when it comes to partaking of caffeine? Well,
there are multiple studies that show caffeine has the ability to improve concept formation, memory,
reasoning, orientation, attention, and yes, even improve the mood of you grouchy morning people.
It's even been shown to be at improving reaction time and visual spatial reasoning.
Now, keep in mind that these effects or qualities of caffeine
tend to be greater when used or tested in individuals that are
already fatigue or sleep deprived or maybe even jet lagged. So, someone who is well rested,
had a lot of sleep, you're not going to see the same level or boost in these qualities.
One of the thing we have to be clear about is caffeine is actually not producing a usable
form of energy like the energy currency we talked about earlier called ATP.
It's more of giving you the stimulus or this perception of feeling more energized.
Now, the amount of caffeine needed to achieve some of those previously mentioned results
has quite the range and that range can be from 30 milligrams up to 300 milligrams
per day with 400 milligrams being considered generally safe for most adults.
Now, you might be thinking "Why is there such a range? Why would one person maybe only need
30 milligrams in another all the way up to 300 plus milligrams per day." And we can have that
conversation of individual genetics, physiology, etcetera but one of the most important factors
in that range is how much caffeine the person partakes of on a consistent or day-to-day basis.
For example, someone like me who doesn't partake of a lot of caffeine and might be considered
caffeine naive would notice these effects probably around that 30 milligram
range and I can attest that I do feel some of those effects if I take 30 milligrams of caffeine.
If I were to take that 300 milligrams per day, I'd likely be bouncing off the wall like a child.
Now, if we compare that to someone who is taking caffeine on a consistent day-to-day basis,
maybe they're a moderate to heavy coffee drinker, they might need that 200 to 300 milligrams a day
to get the same level of effect as someone who's more caffeine naive and that helps
us with a nice little segway for one of our first potential cons or drawbacks of caffeine
and that is, as we partake of caffeine more frequently or more consistently,
our bodies will eventually build up a tolerance to the caffeine and we would therefore need
higher amounts to get the same level of effects. But what's actually happening
at the physiological or cellular level when we build up a tolerance to caffeine?
Well, there's this process that occurs called upregulation and for us to understand
upregulation, we need to remind ourselves about those adenosine receptors that the caffeine was
blocking. Now, upregulation causes the adenosine receptors to increase in number. So, we literally
make more of them and if I have a higher amount or a greater number of adenosine receptors,
I'm going to more caffeine to block that greater number of receptors to get the
same level of effects that I had previously before the process of upregulation occurred.
Now when we're talking about other potential drawbacks or side effects,
we often remind ourselves that caffeine doesn't just circulate to the brain tissue,
it circulates throughout the body and can therefore affect other tissues and other systems
and one of those systems would be the cardiovascular system.
Saffeine can increase systolic blood pressure by as much as 10 points. So if you need a reminder
blood pressure remember the two numbers like 120 over 80, the top number is systolic. So if you are
at 120, caffeine could potentially increase it to 130. Caffeine can also affect the conduction
system of the heart and if the conduction system of the heart is fired off - firing
off more frequently which is in the case of caffeine, it can cause this cardiac muscle
tissue to contract more frequently and therefore increase the heart rate. It can also cause the
cardiac muscle tissue to contract more forcefully and have a little bit more of a four heartbeat.
Caffeine can also increase the flow of blood through the kidneys
and if you take a look at this cool kidney dissection that we have here,
we can look at the internal anatomy of the kidney and the blood is going to come in through this
renal artery and branch and get distributed to the outer portion of the kidney here to be filtered.
Now, this outer portion of the kidney is referred to as the renal cortex. Now,
caffeine can increase the amount of fluid and sodium that's filtered in this area
and therefore, increasing the amount of urine produced which will eventually make it out a
different tube here called the urether down to the bladder and hopefully into the toilet.
Now, that was a really overly long or drawn
out way of just saying caffeine can increase the amount of urine output
and therefore, caffeine is often labeled as a mild diuretic, diuretic just making you pee.
Now, caffeine can also cause things like agitation. It can make people feel jittery
and even anxious. Now, granted, that tends to be a higher risk in people who are caffeine
naive or in people who are taking high amounts of caffeine but it a potential drawback nonetheless.
But with all these drawbacks we're discussing, one thing that's interesting to note is that as a
person builds up the tolerance to caffeine, these side effects or drawbacks become more minimal.
So somebody who's taking caffeine consistently wouldn't notice a full 10
point increase in systolic blood pressure, again,
more minimal of an increase also not as a great of an increase in their heart rate
or a less diuretic effect that caffeine can have upon them with that buildup of tolerance.
And a finalize this discussion around caffeine tolerance in these potential drawbacks or side
effects of caffeine, from one perspective, you might think, well, if I'm a little caffeine
tolerant, those side effects tend to be more minimal and you might think of that as an
actual benefit to tolerance, but if you miss that morning caffeine hit or go on an extended period
of time without caffeine, your body is likely to let you know about it and you might even let
others around you know about it because you might be feeling grouchy, tired, fatigue, foggy, and
maybe even having this inability or feeling less focused and all of these things we are trying to
mitigate with caffeine use tend to come back even stronger as these caffeine withdrawal symptoms,
which brings up an interesting idea or discussion around is caffeine addictive.
Now, in a clinical setting, people often will hesitate to be like caffeine is as
strongly addictive substance and we tend to not see people participating in harmful behaviors with
caffeine use and we definitely know that caffeine does not have that same addictive pattern or that
same level of potential withdrawal symptoms as say like other stimulants like nicotine,
amphetamines, and even cocaine. And luckily, if someone were to want to get off of caffeine,
they could taper slowly and generally come off and minimize these caffeine withdrawal
symptoms and people tend to do just fine if that's the choice they want to make.
And bringing this full circle, is caffeine bad? Should you use it? Should you not use it? Well,
caffeine is one of those substances where it's difficult to draw a hard line
in the sand. There are definitely substances out there that we could discuss where we would say
probably shouldn't take that. It's going to do more harm than good.
Caffeine doesn't fall into that category. I think caffeine should be approached
similar to how you might approach any substance you ingest in your body whether it's like a food
or supplement or maybe an over-the-counter drug. You always want to weigh the pros and
the cons. Could we find situations where people are maybe using caffeine a little bit too much
or ineffectively or relying on it too much? Sure, but we could also find plenty of people who are
using it responsibly and effectively. As well as people who don't use it at all and do just fine.
Another thing that I think is important to mention is caffeine's use as a therapeutic
agent in a clinical setting as well as its potential to reduce risk of certain disorders.
There are studies out there that imply that caffeine may reduce
the risk of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Now, keep in mind, more research needs to be done on this and caffeine would be only one factor for
these things like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's but it is interesting nonetheless to think that it
may have a protective or potential risk-reducing benefit for some of these neurological disorders.
Now, caffeine can be used to help reduce pain,
specifically in regards to headaches in combination with other medications. Now, I forgot
to mention that one of the actual withdrawal symptoms of caffeine can also be a headache.
So, headaches can be a little bit of this double-edged sword with caffeine
depending on somebody's caffeine status but in certain situations can be used therapeutically to
treat headaches. And a final interesting thought on caffeine use. Some people will use caffeine
periodically or intermittently. Maybe one or two times per week
and what they'll do is they'll time that caffeine use with maybe a day that they're
going to need to get more things done or be more focused maybe at work or school or
whatever they're participating in and the idea is that they won't build up that tolerance but
still be able to get the benefits on that day that they're targeting to use the caffeine.
Other people will also even target caffeine use around athletic events as there's been a
lot of research on caffeine and its influence on athletic performance which is extremely exciting,
interesting to me. We're going to be actually doing a video on caffeine and athletic performance
here shortly. Bringing us back to our final thoughts with this video,
our hope was that we could truly show you what caffeine is doing inside the human body
even at the cellular level so you could make informed decisions about how you want to utilize
caffeine in your own life and hopefully you got the information you needed to do that.
So, thank you for watching this video, be sure to check out that link in the
description below with Athletic Greens. Like, comment below. Let us know what you
think about caffeine and how you utilize it in your own life and if you're not a subscriber,
feel free to hit that subscribe button and we'll see you in the next video.
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