Do Not Disturb The Coffee Intake

coffee House in Palestine Circa 1900 (Pic & diagram at (rt) both courtesy Wikipedia)

coffee House in Palestine Circa 1900 (Pic & diagram at (rt) both courtesy Wikipedia)

- by VIJAY BHASKAR -
Researchers at john’s Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA have reached an interesting conclusion. The report published in The New England Journal of Medicine says; ‘Millions of people who drink just two or three cups of coffee a day may experience headache and symptoms associated with depression and anxiety if they abruptly stop drinking the beverage.

Commercially, coffee is the most important beverage plant in the world. Arabian coffee is a shrub or a small tree of genus (Rubi eacea) and a native of Abyssinia (Now Ethiopia). There are 59 species distributed worldwide but only four are of commercial importance. Nine tenths of world supply of coffee is obtained from Arabian coffee species having 15 verities. Coffee is essentially a tropical crop requiring a moderate cool climate that is moist but not wet. The fruit called cherry is small & spherical in structure containing two beans- the coffee beans. In the wet method the cherry are picked up by hand and then pulped and allowed to ferment. In the dry method cherry are harvested and allowed to dry. Finally the beans are roasted to develop aroma, flavor and odor. The coffee content Caffeine is crystalline structure found in several other plants also. Coffee, tea and cocoa- all contain Caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the parts of central Nervous system, lessens fatigue, increase muscular power and enhances ability to perform physical work.

 Chemically, caffeine is a crystalline alkaloid, formerly synthesized by methylation of theorombins, isolated from cacao, but now recovered from the solvent used in manufacture of decaffeinated coffee. Also it is 1, 3, 7,trymethylxanthine widely used in medicine as a stimulant for C.N.S and as a diuretic.

 According to recent researches apart from being apparently useful, to some extent it disturbs medication. So, doctor should also reconsider routinely asking patients to give up caffeine before undergoing medical procedures or for other medical reasons.

 “Any one who drinks two or more servings of caffeinated beverages per day is at risk for possible with drawl effects” Said John Hughes, a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont in the US

Though it was established a long ago that in heavy drinkers caffeine withdrawal could be a problem (heavy drinkers are those who consume more then five cups of coffee a day) the new study indicates that average drinkers (two to three cups a day) can also suffer severe symptoms when caffeine intake is suddenly stopped.

“Stopping Caffeine use in adult can produce a severe and chemically significant withdrawal Syndrome” said Rolando Griffith Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at John Hopkins and lead investigator of the study.

On the other side work on decaffeinated coffee also started. It is available in the leading markets of the world. The decaffeinated coffee both regular and instant is prepared from green beans made softer by steam extracted with low boiling chlorinated solvent to remove the caffeine. It is steamed again to remove residual solvent. After these two stages beans are dried and sent for final processing.

According to Griffith- “If a regular coffee drinker need to reduce or culminate caffeine they should tapper off rather then suddenly stop.”The result of the study suggests that caffeine withdrawal should be recognized by the American Psychiatry Association (APA) as a Syndrome- severe enough to warrant clinical attention. According to Griffith the study does not imply that caffeine is unhealthy. It is not bad as long as you keep taking it moderately.

The study included 18 men and 40 women (age gap 18-50) who were given about 325 milligrams of caffeine a day. This is equivalent to 2 cups of strong coffee or six cups of tea or five bottle/cans of caffeinated beverages. After a few days it was stopped and the result was surprising. Among heavy drinkers, not using caffeine for just two days caused about ten per cent of subjects to complain of fatigue, depression and anxiety.

The conclusion of experiment is self explanatory and it has been termed the most widely used behaviorally ‘action drug’ with between 82 to 92 per cent of adult in North America being a regular consumers. One should be cautions enough to avoid heavy use of coffee. It has been seen that strong tolerance develop with regular heavy use that in turn produce significant physical and mental dependence.

Vijay Bhaskar