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Post by Thomas Eversole on Jul 31, 2015 6:21:32 GMT -6
Anyone have any thoughts on this psychoactive drug? (Yes, I'm calling caffeine a psychoactive drug because it is one.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drugOne study I've seen is that 90% of Americans consume caffeine on a daily basis. (not sure what the stats are in other countries. Sorry.) There are health benefits and consequences to using caffeine. For me, I like the alertness and "pep in my step", especially for those trips to the gym or when I throw my mower around the yard. As a benchmark, I believe a small bottle of Mountain Dew has 80mg of caffeine in it. A cup of strong coffee might have 200mg or more. (I like my coffee to be almost like motor oil though. HAHA!!) Generally, I consume 201mg-400mg every 1-3 days (it varies) and its strange to me how different I'll feel. Sometimes I'll feel so jacked its almost like I took speed. Sometimes it keeps me up most of the night, or I might fall asleep right away. Other times, caffeine almost makes me feel sleepy/sluggish or do not feel good at all and I regret drinking it. Lately, my method of caffeine consumption has been one large zero/low-carb energy drink (usually Monster - 210mg-220mg of caffeine) or a scoop of my Nitroflex (350mg) which also has a testosterone supplement. I tend to feel better with these instead of coffee/soda, probably because of the extra vitamins that go with them. I recall my father needing 2 pots of coffee every morning "just to get going" for the day. I can get going whether I have caffeine or not. I don't "need" it. Thoughts or opinions? Is this important to you?
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Post by blake on Jul 31, 2015 7:33:21 GMT -6
I drink alot of soda. For about a year I stopped caffeine altogether and only drank caffeine free soda. I felt great during that time. But once I started my IT career I had to get back on caffeine.
Heres some food for thought though. Caffeine is classified as a psychoactive drug the same category as cocaine as there are certain cells in caffeine that closely resemble a key chemical in your brain. So if you drink enough caffeine then your brain basically replaces these chemicals with caffeine. This is why you get withdrawal headaches, because your brain cant find this replacement chemical its been using
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Post by Kerrick on Jul 31, 2015 11:09:17 GMT -6
I used to drink a "tall" (12 oz) cup of Starbucks coffee every morning at work - in addition to some instant coffee in the morning. (I have no idea how many mg that adds up to, but relatively, probably not a whole ton.) I have quit coffee altogether, though I'll have some every once in a while. I drink a couple cups of caffeinated tea a day, but compared to coffee, I think it's not much. If I don't have any, I'll be fine. I don't like "needing" any foreign substance to operate, and I certainly don't mind saving the ~$2/day either!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2015 15:40:22 GMT -6
I'm not a coffee guy, but I do drink a lot of soda, which is honestly pretty unhealthy. I'm more concerned about my dental health than my caffeine intake though. I can go a few days without soda and be fine, but I much prefer to have some because I'll feel less exhausted. I don't recall ever experiencing a withdrawal headache, though I suppose it could happen if I went long enough without it.
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Caffeine
Aug 1, 2015 7:49:28 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by blake on Aug 1, 2015 7:49:28 GMT -6
I am very familiar with withdrawal headaches. Many years ago I used to drink at least 64oz of mt dew per day. Was having severe chest pains accompanied with rapid heart rate.
Went to the doctor and did every heart test they had, even the nuclear injection thing. They never found a reason for it.
My doctor asked me about caffeine and Itold him about the mt dew. He suggested I cut back and that caffeine can "excite" the heart and cause palpitations.
Well I stopped cold turkey and pushed through the withdrawals. I never had the chest pains or palpitations again so caffeine was causing it.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Aug 2, 2015 10:01:54 GMT -6
Despite the coffee and energy drinks, I never felt withdrawal symptoms (because it can be more than headaches) except for when I quit drinking tea back in 2011. Tea (believe it or not) has more caffeine in it per dry mix than coffee. ....and I liked really STRONG tea, unsweetened of course.
I felt like a zombie for a week when I tried to stop drinking a liter + of strong home-brewed tea from drinking it every day.
I do remember a time probably a two years ago where I "overdosed" on caffeine. I made an insanely strong pot of coffee and drank half of it / 4 mugs of it. It was so black that you couldn't see through 1 drop of it in the bottom of the cup.
I wouldn't use the word "hallucinating", but everything looked different and I felt very strange on top of being very wired - and then later, I felt like I was dying. The crash gave me body aches so bad I had to lay down, and I think I was up for over 24 hours easily.
I never had more than 1 cup of coffee at a time after that.
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Post by blake on Aug 3, 2015 7:08:39 GMT -6
I do like dark tea. At work I will often brew a cup of Irish Breakfast and rather than let it steep only a few minutes like the directions say. I always leave the tea bag in the cup INDEFINITELY. I only remove the teabag when I'm out of tea. Another thing I used to do alot which will get you laughed at if anyone sees you, is taking the teabag out of the tea and "suck" on it, as it will give you quite a bit of the "essence" of the tea so to speak. You can imagine the kind of jokes that can generate, haha.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Aug 5, 2015 9:46:38 GMT -6
I've never done that (suck on a tea bag) but I imagine that its enjoyable. (and you can imagine my admittance to that generating its own jokes. A former sponsor of mine was trying to quit chewing tobacco and he had a "mint packet" alternative. (I'm making the comparison because they looked like little tea bags that were meant to be sucked on)
I had a scoop of my Nitraflex this morning. One service is barely larger than a thimble, has 350mg caffeine as well as a proprietary blend of testosterone/bloodflow stuff. Coupled with the cool morning, throwing the mowers around the yard will be EASY.
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Post by blake on Aug 7, 2015 7:24:42 GMT -6
Yeah occasionally at work someone will bring up the tea bag thing randomly and innuendos begin to flow. Its a room full of IT guys so once we start theres no stopping us lol
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Aug 8, 2015 22:14:11 GMT -6
I had too much caffeine yesterday. Some of it was my wife bought some milk coffee drink things like a couple months ago and they were closed to expiring so I drank them because I didn't want them to go to waste. ...and then I was up until 2am. HAHA!!
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