CAFFEINE 

The following article is a small excerpt from one of my books.  I hope you’ll want to learn more and let me help you to get into the best shape of your life.

90% of Americans consume caffeine in one form or another every day. More than half of all American adults consume more than 300 milligrams (mg.) of caffeine every day, making it the most popular drug by far. The caffeine comes in from things like coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, etc.

Caffeine is known as trimethylxanthine.  When isolated in pure form, caffeine is a white crystalline powder that tastes very bitter. The chief source of pure caffeine is the process of decaffeinating coffee and tea.

Medically, caffeine is useful as a cardiac stimulant and also as a mild diuretic (it increases urine production). Recreationally, it is used to provide a "boost of energy" or a feeling of heightened alertness. It's often used to stay awake longer.  College students and drivers use it to stay awake late into the night. Many people feel as though they cannot function in the morning without a cup of coffee to provide caffeine and the boost it gives them.

Caffeine is an addictive drug. It operates using the same mechanisms that the amphetamines, cocaine and heroin use to stimulate your brain. Caffeine's effects are milder than amphetamines, cocaine and heroin, but it is manipulating the same channels and that is what gives caffeine its addictive qualities. If you feel like you cannot function without it and must consume it every day, then you are addicted to caffeine.

Caffeine occurs naturally in many plants, including coffee beans, tea leaves and cocoa nuts. It is therefore found in a wide range of food products. Caffeine is added artificially to many others, including a variety of beverages.

• Typical drip-brewed coffee contains 100 mg per 6-ounce cup. Typical brewed tea contains 70 mg per 6-ounce cup.
• Typical colas (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc.) contain 50 mg per 12-ounce can. Things like Jolt contain 70 mg per 12-ounce can.
• Typical milk chocolate contains 6 mg per ounce.
• Anacin contains 32 mg per tablet. No-doz contains 100 mg per tablet. Vivarin and Dexatrim contain 200 mg per tablet.

If you sit down and calculate your caffeine consumption during a typical day, you may be surprised! You may consume a gram or more every single day and don't even realize it.

As adenosine is created in the brain, it binds to adenosine receptors. The binding of adenosine causes drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity. In the brain, adenosine binding also causes blood vessels to dilate (presumably to let more oxygen in during sleep).

To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine therefore binds to the adenosine receptor. However, it doesn't slow down the cell's activity like adenosine would. So the cell cannot see adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the receptors adenosine binds to. So instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level, the cells speed up. You can see that caffeine also causes the brain's blood vessels to constrict, because it blocks adenosine's ability to open them up. This effect is why some headache medicines like Anacin contain caffeine.  If you have a vascular headache, the caffeine will close down the blood vessels and relieve it.

So now you have increased neuron firing in the brain. The pituitary gland sees all of the activity and thinks some sort of emergency must be occurring, so it releases hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (epinephrine). Adrenaline is, the fight or flight hormone and it has a number of effects on your body:

• Your pupils dilate
• Your breathing tubes open up (this is why people suffering from. severe asthma attacks are sometimes injected with epinephrine)
• Your heart beats faster
• Blood vessels on the surface constrict to slow blood flow from cuts and also to increase blood flow to muscles. Blood pressure rises.
• Blood flow to the stomach slows
• The liver releases sugar into the bloodstream for extra energy
• Muscles tighten up ready for action

This explains why, after drinking a big cup of coffee, your hands get cold, your muscles tense up, you feel excited and you can feel your heart beat increasing.

Caffeine also increases dopamine levels in the same way amphetamines do. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, in certain parts of your brain, activates the pleasure center. Obviously caffeine's effect is much lower than heroin's, but it is the same mechanism. It is suspected that the dopamine connection contributes to caffeine addiction.

So you can see why your body might like caffeine in the short term, especially if you are low on sleep and need to remain active. Caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates dopamine production to make you feel good.

The problem with caffeine is the longer-term effects, which tend to spiral. Once the adrenaline wears off you face fatigue and depression. So what are you going to do? You take more caffeine to get the adrenaline going again. As you might imagine, having your body in a state of emergency all day long isn't very healthy, and it also makes you jumpy and irritable.

The most important long-term problem is the effect that caffeine has on sleep. Adenosine reception is important to sleep, and especially to deep sleep. The half-life of caffeine in your body is about 6 hours. That means that if you consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00 PM, then by 9:00 PM about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but your body probably will miss out on the benefits of deep sleep. That deficit adds up fast. The next day you feel worse, so you need caffeine as soon as you get out of bed. The cycle continues day after day.

This is why 90% of Americans consume caffeine every day. Once you get in the cycle, you have to keep taking the drug. Even worse, if you try to stop taking caffeine, you get very tired and depressed and you get a terrible, splitting headache as blood vessels in your brain dilate. These negative effects force you to run back to caffeine even if you want to stop.

I know you want to get in shape and look great. Whatever your fitness goal…to slim down... gain muscle... tone your arms or flatten your tummy I’m here to help you accomplish your goals and to improve your fitness level. You will learn how to select and combine your diet with exercise, so that you can be the best you can be.