221–230 of 236 posts
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I wonder how long my son would have survived on an exclusive McDonalds french fry diet.
I doubt your son did not like the taste of any other foods beside McDonalds french fries. I don’t understand your point.
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What about those of use who may or may not have ADD and have been using caffine to regulate our mood and focus.... I honestly can't tell at this point if the coffee is helping me focus and I have ADD or if I am just lazy(or depressed) and the coffee is helping get me motivated.
You might want to get diagnosed so you can get a proper ADHD prescription. I'm told Vyvanse is like a smooth day-long caffeine high without the jitters or stained teeth. OTOH, if caffeine is working for you, it sounds like it's performing the same function ADHD medication does for my loved one.
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What about those of use who may or may not have ADD and have been using caffine to regulate our mood and focus.... I honestly can't tell at this point if the coffee is helping me focus and I have ADD or if I am just lazy(or depressed) and the coffee is helping get me motivated.
Isn't it better to find out? I.e. first to stop with the caffeine, then wait until your body readjusts (e.g. a month or two), and possibly get diagnosed by a professional in case you do feel like you need help? Diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean prescription stimulant drugs. I was using caffeine to mask my burnout. Needless to say, it only exacerbated the total feeling of burnout, and "helped" only short-term. It too…
But what if that's not possible? What if you're in the middle of getting a degree or need to financially support your family and can't take a break from work. Any insight into what "dealing with it" means for you?
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> highly profitable substance Yes and no. I've been a fan of caffeine pills for years. They are very cheap, readily available (portable), and most importantly to me offer completely consistent dosing. With caffeine pills I'm able to ensure I stay below the FDA recommended maximum daily intake of 400 mg (worst case). Another fun bonus - when a physician asks you what your caffeine intake is and you respond in milligra…
> caffeine addicts are standing in line at Starbucks Have you considered that those people queuing outside Starbucks might be drinking coffee because they enjoy the whole experience? Caffeine pills are an absurdity to me because I only drink coffee for the taste. Why suffer the unwanted effects of a drug without the enjoyment that it’s supposed to come with?
That's how drugs work, they throw a kind of spell on you, so that, from your trippy perspective, you think that you're not addicted.
Anyone with anxiety or sleep issues should reexamine their caffeine usage. Maybe those problems do not stem from caffeine, but maybe they do. I don't know many people that do not consume caffeine regularly, at least once a day - in such cases, you cannot know whether your anxiety, sleep problems, general tiredness, bad moods, ... are or are not caused by one's caffeine consumption. Some people swear by drinking a sho…
As I have experienced when regularly (but not often) working a 36-hour day, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't proven to be well within reach, but it's no breeze if you are the least bit tired and not fully prepared beforehand, especially when it comes to nutrition and not having anything toxic in your system.
This is completely different than regularly losing sleep every night in a habitual way, which could also be considered somewhat along the lines of everyday exposure to toxic materials, whether toxins enter the body intentionally or not.
Don't ask me how I know what it feels like when exposure to different milligrams of different pure industrial chemicals having known toxicity occurs in spite of state-of-the art workplace controls and PPE. I've been working these truly chemical labs all my life. Eventually I felt like I was guinea-pigging caffeine too, and it's old as the hills.
The default in many cultures is to be born into a caffeine-addicted society, steeped in excess habitual ritual in a way which encourages never-ending tradition. This is over and above the physical & emotional habit-forming nature of the drug itself.
Anyway, culture can be real strong, and I enjoyed being a caffeine addict. It actually takes quite a bit of effort if you want to completely withdraw from its pervasive and widespread exposure, whether commercial influence is involved or not. It's everywhere.
With everyday use you build up a tolerance like anything else, and in the long run it really doesn't make a difference whether you lose an hour of sleep every night or get an extra hour, you always feel the same and have the same energy so it must be working, right? Maybe that's supposed to be a red flag.
Now when you're actually a pretty good addict, you never overdo it, you're never jittery or considered extreme like a 20-cup-a-day habit which can't be that bad either when so many of them seem to do just fine.
But way below any extreme consumption, you can still end up with a fairly late-night dose which actually relaxes you and then you drop off to sleep like you habitually do. Actually without it you might be a little anxious otherwise. It's just your body calling out for what it needs to be normal, due to the current level of tolerance you have built up.
Hey wait a minute, wasn't I enjoying this to begin with for it's stimulant effect?
Too late, that effect has left the building.
This is the part that leads studies like this to less-conclusive results.
For me with nothing in the bloodstream almost ever any more (and after all the dust has settled), there's only slightly more energy than being a mainstream addict. I attribute it to the relatively small amount of toxic pressure exerted by the less-than-gram quantities of caffeine I was metabolizing. Yes, I have more energy without it in my system but it's not a miracle and I'm sure many people would not think it's worth it. It's not that toxic, believe me so many things are much worse.
But when I need to go another 12 hours, one cup of coffee will do it.
Never could be a consideration back when I had a tolerance, stronger stimulants wouldn't even help.
Real sleep is the only answer then, you just can't push to the max whenever you really want when you're already strung out.
One of the things that makes the 48-hour study more conclusive about usefulness best practices.
This was their reference 3:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?&title=Randomized%2...
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I think true coffee lovers like decaf (lets them drink more coffee) hard to get good decaf though, it seems to me like trying to buy diet donuts.
Decaf that tastes like caf would be great. Unfortunately it seems to be impossible. Or at least I haven’t found it yet. The standard processes used to remove the caffeine seem to also remove enough of the other compounds to make it noticeably more watery and thin.
I love my caffeine. But caffeine is an addictive, highly profitable substance. So advertising it and trying to promote it as somehow having real health benefits is widespread. I would not be surprised if routine consumption of caffeine was at least mildly detrimental to health. I think some drugs have managed to gain a special place in our society . Advertising and lobbying warps our perception of these drugs. I even…
> highly profitable substance Yes and no. I've been a fan of caffeine pills for years. They are very cheap, readily available (portable), and most importantly to me offer completely consistent dosing. With caffeine pills I'm able to ensure I stay below the FDA recommended maximum daily intake of 400 mg (worst case). Another fun bonus - when a physician asks you what your caffeine intake is and you respond in milligra…
You mean, sugar ?
A vast majority of the "coffee" drinkers you witness are consuming something that is indistinguishable from an ice-cream sunday.
Would that they were just consuming caffeine ... they would be much, much better off.
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Well, I don’t actually like the taste of coffee and really drink it because of the caffeine effect. I started drinking coffee at 26 because I got so tired after lunch that I almost passed out on my keyboard at work. This disappeared with the coffee intake. After years (I’m 42) I still don’t like the taste and don’t drink it at night or on weekends/holidays.
OT: I used to get that too until I switched to keto. I used to have tuna mayo sandwiches for lunch. Then I cut out the sandwich (I.e. bread) and just had tuna mayo and no longer got that after lunch low and stayed fuller for longer. It was quite amazing to me that I was fuller from eating less. You don't need to go full keto but try cutting out high GI carbs at lunch and see if it makes a difference.
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i think you are bitting the dust of getting used to the taste of a drug, just like people who drink wine, beer etc. these are literally toxic & you get a natural avoidance response the 1° time you try, with very rare cases of acceptance without repulse
Coffee is one of my very favorite things in the whole world and I don't ever remember a time where I didn't like it. Right from the start I've always preferred it black - no flavors or dairy. Alcohol is a little different. Beer I loved from my first sip when I was probably 5 or 6. Whisky, gin, vodka, etc... I mostly didn't like until I learned a little bit more about the drinks and the flavors that alcohol can carry…
Caffeine, up to a certain daily dose, is associated with long-term cognitive benefits and a reduced risk of dementia. This study hints that it specifically doesn't benefit gray matter volume during periods of sleep restriction, at least in the short term. I wonder if substances like Ashwagandha extract or Magnesium L-threonate could mitigate gray matter loss during short term sleep restriction among caffeine drinkers…
Ashwagandha extract Can only be safely taken up to 3 months. It’s not a long term benefit. Magnesium affects your heart’s signaling, which can be problematic if too much. I’m curious why you asked about Ashwagandha ahd magnesium? They seem to be THE supplements du jour, which is a pretty weird concept. There is a lot of grift going on, and little recognition of the potential negative health impacts of both.
I take magnesium daily, including the regular dose of Magnesium L-threonate, and my last CMP showed serum levels within range.
Maybe super large medical doses beyond even those used for eclampsia would affect heart conduction, or those who take way more than what supplement bottles recommend.
I'm not sure what studies have conclusively shown Ashwagandha to be safe only up to 3 months. I get most of my herbal data from Examine.com (PhD academics that analyze data), where they say:
"Some case reports have suggested adverse effects such as rash or thyroid dysregulation may occur with ashwagandha use, but the same has not yet been observed by safety studies with larger samples.[38][39][35] Several case reports have also raised concerns regarding the rare occurrence of liver toxicity with ashwagandha use, but similarly, toxicity has not been observed in clinical safety trials. In the reports, liver toxicity was usually reported within 2–12 weeks of ashwagandha use, and liver function returned to normal in all but one case following medical support and ashwagandha discontinuation.[40][41][42][43][44][45] An in vitro study suggested that withanone (one type of withanolide in ashwagandha), may have toxic effects in the context of low levels of the cellular antioxidant glutathione (GSH), which is involved in drug detoxification.[46] However, this research is far from conclusive and the mechanisms underlying this possible adverse effect are unclear."