Yes, caffeine is a drug, even though it's something that you ingested in your beloved chocolate bars and colas since early childhood.

Date:   6/16/2006 4:09:24 PM ( 18 y ago)

Adrenalin is what gives athletes that winning burst of energy and
Good Samaritans the ability to rescue people by lifting cars.
Adrenalin is also the source of our "fight-or-flight" response,
which enabled our prehistoric ancestors to escape from saber-toothed
tigers and other predators.

By stimulating your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin,
caffeine puts your body in this "fight-or-flight" state, which is
useless while you're just sitting at your desk. When this adrenal
high wears off later, you feel the drop in terms of fatigue,
irritability, headache or confusion.

At this point, you may reach for another "hit" of caffeine, followed
by another, and another and maybe even one more. If you constantly
keep your body on a caffeine high, you're constantly keeping your
body in "flight-or-flight" mode.

Cherniske explains your body's "perspective" of this constant state:
"Imagine you lived in a country that was always under threat of
attack. No matter where you went, there was a perpetual state of
alert. Not only that, but your defenses were constantly being
depleted and weakened.

Does that sound stressful? Caffeine produces the same
effect on your body, like fighting a war on multiple fronts at the
same time." Cherniske calls your body's constant state of alert
"caffeine-ism," which is characterized by fatigue, anxiety, mood
swings, sleep disturbance, irritability and depression.

After prolonged "caffeine-ism," your body enters a state of adrenal
exhaustion. Your caffeine consumption has simply pushed your adrenal
glands so much that they've burned out. Ralph T. Golan, ND, describes
this unfortunate state in his book, Herbal Defense: "Caffeine forces
your glands to secrete when they don't have much left to give, and
they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more
tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to
get the same result.

Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of
coffee to get the same result and it's barely keeping them awake.
That's severe adrenal depletion."

In other words, caffeine affects your body just like any drug. You
start taking it slowly, but as your body develops a tolerance to it,
you need more and more to feel the same effects. Eventually, your
body reaches a point where it can't be without it; otherwise, you
will start to experience withdrawal symptoms.

You may think that you don't drink nearly enough to become addicted
to it, but you probably already are. "Careful research conducted by
the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine shows that low to moderate caffeine
intake (as little as one 14-ounce mug per day) can quickly produce
withdrawal symptoms," writes Cherniske.

Yes, caffeine is a drug, even though it's something that you
ingested in your beloved chocolate bars and colas since early
childhood.

Instead of reaching for your morning cup of coffee, you can do your
body a big favor by eating a healthy breakfast instead. A good
breakfast, maintained by a healthy lunch, will keep you energetic all
day. You can read News Target's page on breakfast to learn to
distinguish between the good and bad breakfast foods, but whatever
you do, don't wash it down with a cup of coffee.

Kathleen Sales, CBT, CCHT, EFT
International Energy Therapist
ANCIENT WISDOM ~ A Healing Place
http://www.ahealingmind.com

 

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