The Buzz on Caffeine
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Do your parents or teachers start the day with a cup of coffee? There’s no question that coffee is a popular drink—the National Coffee Association estimates that Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee a day. It’s the caffeine in coffee that provides the energy boost that many people claim they need to function. Caffeine has that perk-up effect because it is a stimulant. It blocks a brain chemical, adenosine, which causes sleepiness.
Caffeine is found in tea leaves, coffee beans, cacao (used to make chocolate), and cola nuts (which come from the plant that gives soda its flavor). Caffeine is also found in many foods and drinks—non-cola sodas like root beer and orange soda, hot cocoa, and ice cream—and some medicines. The latest place to find caffeine is in energy drinks.
Caffeine’s Effects—Not Totally Harmless
Caffeine is a mild stimulant and not a drug, so its use isn’t regulated like prescription drug use is. Still, consuming too much caffeine can make you feel jittery or jumpy—your heart may race and your palms may sweat.
If caffeine is taken in combination with other substances, like alcohol, it can really be dangerous because mixing a stimulant and a depressant like alcohol confuses the brain. A recent report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that emergency room visits for high doses of caffeine have increased sharply. The likely cause is caffeine-infused energy drinks mixed with alcohol. Those most affected? Young people between 18 and 25 years old.
So What’s a Body To Do?
Everyone needs to perk up in the middle of a long day from time to time, but a jolt of caffeine isn’t your only option. Here are a few alternatives you can try to feel energized without overdoing the caffeine:
- Sleep. This may sound obvious, but getting enough sleep is important. Teens need 9 hours of sleep a night.
- Eat regularly. When you don’t eat, your glucose (sugar) levels drop, making you feel drained. Some people find it helpful to eat four or five smaller meals throughout the day instead of fewer big meals.
- Drink enough water. Since we are more than two-thirds H20, our bodies need at least 64 ounces of water a day.
- Take a walk. If you’re feeling drained in the middle of the day, it helps to move around. Do sit-ups or jumping jacks. Go outside for a brisk walk, ride your bike.
Now we want to know: What strategies help you keep your energy up during the day?
Keep “Bath Salts” in the Tub
Bath salts. The name sounds innocent enough, like an old-fashioned cure for tired feet. But these days, “bath salts” aren’t just found in your local soap aisle at the grocery store or day spa—bath salts are now being used as a type of drug. Some are now laced with synthetic stimulants, which people use to get high by swallowing, snorting or injecting them. And…they have just been made illegal.
What Are Bath Salts?
Because these drugs are relatively new and for now unregulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), scientists are not exactly sure of the ingredients in each brand. We do know that the chemicals in these bath salts mimic the effects of amphetamines—stimulants like cocaine or meth—such as racing heart, increased blood pressure and body temperature, and even seizures, which have brought many people to emergency rooms across the country.
According to the head of the Louisiana Poison Center, at least 84 people in that state have been hospitalized after getting high from bath salts. Nationwide, more than 4,000 calls about bath salts have come in to poison centers during the first 7 months of 2011—up from 303 calls in all of 2010.
Risks
It is too early to tell what the exact short- and long-term effects from abusing bath salts is, but what little we do know so far is alarming enough. Effects can include extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts, as well as chest pains, soaring blood pressure, and rapid heartbeat. A number of deaths were reported in people who took the drug, including at least one possible suicide.
Several states, including Hawaii, Louisiana, and Michigan, have introduced laws to ban bath salts. The DEA just announced it will make selling or possessing these chemicals illegal for a year while they study them further. SBB will keep you posted on what they learn.
If anyone offers you bath salts as a way to get high, let them know not only are they taking big risks, they are also doing something illegal.
Not LOKO for Alcoholic Energy Drinks
You may remember that a while back, SBB addressed an unhealthy new fad—energy drinks. We speculated that these drinks, although highly publicized in the coolest venues, were not safe even though they promised to deliver an extra dose of energy. Now, SBB confronts an even more dangerous issue: alcoholic energy drinks, like Four LOKO.
Why are alcoholic energy drinks so dangerous? They contain two main substances—alcohol and caffeine, the first a depressant and the second a stimulant. These two substances should never be consumed in large quantities and they should definitely never be mixed. Why? Because they have opposite effects on your body that can fool you into drinking more than you can handle.
Depressants like alcohol slow down the central nervous system. Drinking a lot of alcohol can affect your coordination and perception and even make you pass out. Stimulants meanwhile “wake up” the central nervous system and increase energy and alertness.
Opposites Do Not Attract. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the caffeine in alcoholic energy drinks masks the effects that the alcohol has on the body, which motivates people to drink more. Worse, the average beer has 4 to 5 percent alcohol, while an alcoholic energy drink is 12 percent alcohol! Therefore, people can get really drunk without realizing it, making them more vulnerable to overdose, alcohol poisoning, and even death.
In the past few months, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pulled alcoholic energy drinks like Four LOKO off store shelves, banning them in many states.
Better to keep it natural—go for a run or do some yoga to “feel-good.”
Alcohol and Drugs Don’t Mix
A recent episode of the hit TV show “Glee” focused on the problem of underage drinking. Called “Blame It on the Alcohol,” the episode depicted glee club members narrowly avoiding school suspension for drinking on school grounds—never a smart idea!
Not only is it illegal to drink before age 21, but drinking too much alcohol can impair brain function and motor skills and lead to addiction. Mixing alcohol with illicit or other drugs—even legal ones—greatly increases the dangers:
Combining alcohol with another central nervous system depressant like Xanax or painkillers like Vicodin can slow your heartbeat and breathing and may lead to death.
Mixing alcohol with stimulants like Adderall or club drugs like Ecstasy can cause heart problems, too, as well as strokes and convulsions.
Cough and cold medicines that don’t need a prescription can mess you up if you abuse them or combine them with alcohol—once again, heart problems and trouble breathing.
Play it safe and don’t mix alcohol with other drugs.
Girls and Boys Have Different Reasons for Prescription Drug Use
Recent research shows that American teen girls have caught up with boys in their rates of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, which hasn’t always been the case. Here’s something else: teenage girls are now more likely than boys to abuse prescriptions drugs like pain pills and ADHD medications. The thing is—they have different reasons for doing so.
NIDA researchers surveyed hundreds of teens and asked them about their motivations for using particular prescription drugs. For stimulants like ADHD medications, for example, the young men were more likely to abuse them to get high or experiment, while for young women, it was to help them concentrate or stay alert. In other words, the young women were more likely “self-treat” for a specific purpose.
So what’s wrong with that? They’re prescribed by a doctor, after all—how dangerous can they be?
For one thing, when you borrow someone else’s medication or even take your own in a way that wasn’t prescribed, you put yourself at risk for scary side effects that can change your heart rhythm and breathing. And although prescription drugs may seem safer than street drugs, they still can lead to addiction and even death, especially when they’re mixed with other drugs or alcohol.
Do you have a friend who abuses prescription drugs? Do your own survey—ask them why, and let us know what you find out.
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National Institute on Drug Abuse | National Institutes of Health | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
