Caffeine

Caffeine has impacted our lives immensely by providing us psychoactive and increased productivity rate and mental awareness, vital to those who is in employment. However, even though caffeine has been known to possess several detrimental health affects to us, we still use caffeine in our daily lives to get through the day. In this essay, I will discuss the scientific approaches towards caffeine along with the benefits damage it cause to us externally and psychologically and detriments we gain, but most importantly, my insights towards how caffeine has impacted us environmentally and culturally.

Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system of the methylxanthine class of psychoactive drugs. Surprisingly, despite it being a psychoactive drug, Caffeine is the world’s most consumed psychoactive drug, as psychoactive drugs are usually interpreted as illegal and regulated, while caffeine itself, is an exception. Caffeine is a methylxanthine alkaloid, a bitter white crystalline purine thus making closely related chemically to guanine and adenine that is contained in ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which generally is found in seeds, nuts and leaves of a number of plants that’s native to East Asia and South America. To extract caffeine from the part of the plant containing it to create beverage, you will have to steep it in water, a process called infusion. These beverages are very popular as they are consumed at a 90% rate in North America. Caffeine is classified as “generally safe” by the Food and Drug Administration. A regular and typical cup of coffee contains approximately 80 - 175 mg of caffeine which depends on what bean seed they use and the preparation behind a cup of coffee. However, pure powdered caffeine, otherwise known to be served as a dietary supplement can be lethal in tablespoon sized amounts. The most prominent mechanisms to trigger the affect of caffeine on humans is to block the action of adenosine on it’s receptors, which reversibly blocks the onset of drowsiness induced by adenosine. In addition, caffeine also stimulates selected regions of the autonomic, nervous system.

Caffeine can both possess negative and positive effects. It can be used to treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia (chronic lung disorder of infants and children) of prematurity along with the fact that it treats apnea of prematurity but not prevention. Additionally, as a metabolic stimulant, caffeine is able to reduce physical fatigue and prevent and perhaps even treat drowsiness. It also provide us to gain a clearer and faster flow of thought, increased focus, and greater body coordination. Caffeine may also confer a moderate but not testified and guaranteed protection against some particular diseases, such as certain types of cancer and parkinson’s disease. One analysis which is currently being conducted suggests that cardiovascular disease for instant, coronary artery disease and stroke will occur less likely when coffee is consumed within 3-5 cups whereas it will occur more likely with over 5 cups per day. Some also experienced mild sleep deprivation and insomnia if they consume caffeine regardless of the amount of dosage, especially in evening hours while others find minor disturbances. Mild physical dependance can also occur with chronic caffiene used and is often associated and regarded with withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and irritability. There are also some additional negative affects that caffeine has. For instance, is the prolonged effect of increased heart rate and blood pressure along with increased urine output. However, these effects become either less pronounced or do not occur after a consistent use of caffeine.

As mentioned before, caffeine originates naturally from North America and East Asia extracted from the several plants that generally happens to occur to where insects and animals live. In it’s natural plant produced form, caffeine functions as a natural pesticide and inhibits enzymes in herbivorous insects triggering indulging pain in the insect’s nervous systems paralysing them and to a certain extent towards certain bugs, inevitable death. However, the potentially lethality possess from caffeine doesn’t only impact mere insects, but extends towards slugs and larger form of life. When the slugs are given the option slugs purposefully avoid caffeine dipped roughage and snails that was exposed to 0.5% caffeine solutions die within a few days . To find out what triggered the death of the snails,