Caffeine Blues_ Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America's #1 Drug ( PDFDrive ) Read online

  The Dark Side of Caffeine

  There are plenty of people who don’t want you to know the truth about caffeine.

  If it were just a matter of “coffee jitters,” it wouldn’t be such an issue. But as you will see, the effects of caffeine are farreaching and can be quite serious.

  Importantly, women are at higher risk than men, and children are the most vulnerable to caffeine because of their limited ability to detoxify the drug.

  Caffeine stays in a child’s brain and bloodstream much longer than an adult’s, and subsequent doses produce a cumulative increase in stress and addiction. Is it any wonder that soft drinks, to which manufacturers add caffeine, have become the most widely consumed beverages in America? The truth is, Americans of all ages are addicted to the caffeine in soft drinks!

  It’s a fact that young children consume alarming amounts of caffeine, entering the cycle of dependency and nervous system dysfunction early in life.

  One study identified peak consumption periods at three, thirteen, and seventeen.1

  These children are set up for a lifetime addiction with serious health consequences. In the following chapters, we’ll explore caffeine’s connection to hyperactivity, learning and behavior disorders, fatigue, cancer, heart disease, ulcers, headache, allergy, PMS, birth defects, and more.

  Caffeine Is Literally a Pain in the Neck

  You’ll learn that many of our physical experiences of tension and pain are directly related to the level of stress hormones in our bodies—and that caffeine acts as a pain trigger because it elevates blood levels of these biochemicals.

  Susan M., for example, came to me as a last-ditch effort to help with her neck and shoulder pain. She’d been to doctors, chiropractors, and acupuncturists, but the pain was relentless.

  Susan listed four cups of coffee per day on her diet diary, and I soon learned that her “cup” was a sixteen-ounce mug. She was thus consuming over 900

  milligrams of caffeine per day from coffee and, ironically, another 190

  milligrams in her over-the-counter painkiller. Using the Off the Bean program outlined in Chapter 10, she gradually reduced her caffeine intake to almost zero.

  Three weeks later, she was pain free for the first time in twenty years.

  This case is not an isolated incident. Over the years, I have counseled hundreds of patients who could trace the beginnings of their chronic pain to a

  hundreds of patients who could trace the beginnings of their chronic pain to a time when they started drinking large amounts of coffee. Often, it was during their college years, or when they started working in an office. And usually there was the vicious cycle of coffee and stress. Perhaps you have found yourself in a similar situation.

  Unsafe at Any Speed?

  Newspaper and magazine articles appear every week identifying some health risk associated with caffeine. Invariably, however, they conclude with the absurd statement that “moderate intake” is no problem. The fact is that no scientist can tell you how much caffeine is safe for you to ingest because the effects of caffeine differ significantly from person to person. A multitude of individual differences enter the picture, including age, weight, sex, and numerous biochemical, psychological, and emotional factors. What is tolerable for one person may be excessive for another. Moreover, what is tolerable caffeine intake at one point in your life may actually cause health problems just a few years later.

  If this sounds strange, remember that caffeine is a drug with cumulative effects over time. Also keep in mind that of all of the thousands of research papers that have been published on caffeine, none have concluded that caffeine is good for you. Rather, the continuing debate in the popular and scientific press focuses entirely on the degree to which caffeine is injurious.

  Caffeine Blues will help you understand how your body works. With the right care, the human body is designed to last 100 years or more, but most of us fall apart after age sixty and die in our mid-seventies. I have drawn upon thirty years of clinical and research experience and will give you graphic case histories culled from thousands of client files. But in the final analysis you are the only scientist who matters, and the only laboratory you need is your body.

  Health risks are rarely self-evident. For a cigarette smoker, the destruction of lung tissue occurs silently over many years—until one day it’s too late.

  Likewise, the first overt consequence of a high-fat diet is often a fatal heart attack. As a society, we therefore make education about such health issues a priority. We put warnings on cigarettes and encourage sensible eating. But I would like to remind you of a sobering fact. Cigarette companies fought successfully for years against warning labels, and only recently admitted that nicotine is addictive. The caffeine industry has refused even to disclose the amount of caffeine in their products. Big business watches bottom-line profits, and addiction to any substance means higher levels of consumption and more

  and addiction to any substance means higher levels of consumption and more product sales. The caffeine industry knows this better than anyone.

  Caffeine Alternatives: There Is Hope

  Caffeine Blues presents a credible and carefully researched argument against the habitual consumption of caffeine, but, unlike other health exposés, it will not leave you feeling helpless. This book will give you a new view of life after caffeine as seen through the eyes of former coffeeholics. I am keenly aware that coffee plays a major role in most people’s lives. Without their morning “wakeup” cup and their midmorning and midafternoon jolts, most of my clients were concerned that they would not be able to function effectively.

  These concerns led to my next research project: finding safe and effective alternatives to caffeine. I scrutinized botanical texts, ran hundreds of Medline computer searches, and ultimately traveled to three continents researching every legal substance purporting to have energy-enhancing effects. This research was a real eye-opener. There was a tremendous amount of misinformation, especially concerning so-called herbal energizers. Most, like guarana, kola nut, yerba maté, and ma huang (ephedra), turned out to be nothing more than plant sources of caffeine and other stimulant drugs. Their mode of action is exactly the same as coffee: stimulation of the central nervous system resulting in adrenal stress. The fact that these stimulant products are found in healthfood stores and claim to be “all natural” is simply part of the hype that fills the energy market. These “alternatives” to coffee are thoroughly debunked in Chapter 7.

  Let me state this clearly: A substance that purports to give you energy by stimulating your nervous system isn’t giving you anything. It’s harming you!

  Using stimulants is like whipping a horse. They work for a short time, but prove disastrous when used repeatedly. My goal was to find substances that would nourish the body, not stress the adrenals, substances that would enhance the metabolic efficiency of the body in order to fulfill our inherent potential for vitality and wellness.

  Eventually, I discovered a group of substances with true energizing properties. Just as a tune-up can enhance the efficiency of your car’s engine, this group of vitamins, minerals, herbs, coenzymes, and organic acids can dramatically improve your body’s production of energy. And I’m not just talking about energy in the sense of strength, stamina, and endurance. Imagine every cell in your body operating at a higher level of efficiency, including your

  immune system, brain, and nervous system. This “tune-up” has already changed countless lives, and you too can experience the exhilaration of peak vitality and what I call high-level wellness.

  It’s ironic that all the things you thought you could get from caffeine can in fact be obtained only by getting off it. These breakthrough alternatives are presented in detail and supported with abundant scientific and medical references in Chapter 10. I’ll show you how to quit coffee by drinking delicious, satisfying, healthful alternatives and rebuild your natural abundant energy supply without harmful stimulants.

  Beating the Caffeine Blues
/>   Perhaps you’ve already thought about reducing your caffeine intake. But to make that decision, you need accurate information, and the facts on coffee have been slow in getting out. And you also need more than just information, since facts alone are not enough to motivate change. Caffeine Blues is designed to lead you through a discovery process that will increase your health awareness. For some people, awareness begins when they add up how much caffeine they consume every day. Then they connect their caffeine intake to the tired feeling they have when they wake up, or the roller-coaster mood and energy swings they experience throughout the day.

  The challenge, of course, is to discover just how addicted you are to caffeine, and how that addiction affects the quality of your life. I suggest that you try kicking the habit for sixty days—the minimum amount of time you’ll need to evaluate the benefits of a caffeine-free body and mind. For some people, I know that’s asking a lot. But don’t Worry. Chapter 10 will give you an effective, clinically proven, and pain-free method for reducing or eliminating caffeine.

  This step-by-step Off the Bean program will enable you to free yourself from dependence on caffeine without the headaches, irritability, fatigue, and depression normally associated with caffeine withdrawal.

  This program is not theory or conjecture. Thousands of people have already taken this important step, and are right now experiencing greater vitality, greater energy, and better health than they ever felt when they were addicted to caffeine.

  You can also enjoy these blessings if you really want them. The choice is up to you!

  A Word about Notes

  In compiling this manuscript, I initially handed my editor over 700 footnotes.

  “Take out these footnotes,” he said. “They make it look like a textbook”.

  I protested. “I’m asking readers to consider a very controversial subject,” I argued, “one that purports to show beyond the shadow of a doubt that most everything they’ve heard about caffeine is wrong. How can I expect them to believe me if I don’t provide legitimate scientific support?” I also wanted the health-care community to pay attention to this material, and they would of course require careful documentation.

  So we compromised. The key controversial statements are referenced, and notes are listed at the end of the book. This level of scientific integrity means that you can share the book with your doctor without the fear of being labeled a “health nut.” The research cited here can be found in any medical library. You can skip the notes or use them for further study.

  CHAPTER 1

  Coffee and Caffeine: A Dose of Reality

  We have seen several well-marked cases of coffee excess. … The sufferer is tremulous, and loses his self-command; he is subject to fits of agitation and depression; he loses color and has a haggard appearance. The apatite falls off, and symptoms of gastric catarrh may be manifested. The heart also suffers; it palpitates, or it intermits. As with other such agents, a renewed dose of the poison gives temporary relief, but at the cost of future misery. … By miseries such as these, the best years of life may be spoilt.

  —SIR T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT and

  DR. WALTER ERNEST DIXON in A System of Medicine, vol. II, London, 1909

  Goatherds, Monks, and the Rest of Us

  The origins of coffee are lost in legend, although the most popular tale traces its discovery to a goatherd dwelling in Ethiopia. According to the story, the goatherd watched his flock eat the bright red berries from a wild evergreen bush —and was subsequently amazed to see the animals leap about with wild abandon. He tried some of the berries himself, and soon he was leaping too.

  By around the sixth century A.D., the plant had reached Arabia, where it was used as a food and medicine. Coffee berries were either fermented to make wine, or dried, crushed, mixed with fat, and eaten. It was not until the thirteenth century that Arab monks made a revolutionary discovery: Roasted coffee beans could be made into a drink. No more falling asleep at prayers! The news spread from monastery to monastery, then hit the streets with the worlds first coffeehouses.

  Everyone who tried coffee wanted more—and if they were travelers, they

  Everyone who tried coffee wanted more—and if they were travelers, they wanted to take it home with them. With lightning speed, coffee became a valuable trading commodity and spread to the world at large: first to Turkey, then to Italy and France, and finally to the rest of Europe by the mid-seventeenth century.

  The Arabs maintained strict control of the coffee trade until smugglers from other countries got hold of the seeds. The Dutch brought coffee to Java and Ceylon, the French transported it to the West Indies, and a Brazilian obtained coffee for his homeland. Today coffee is cultivated widely in regions between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn: Central and South America, Java, Sumatra, India, Arabia, equatorial Africa, Hawaii, Mexico, and the West Indies.

  Most American colonists drank tea, a caffeinecontaining leaf from the Camilia senensis bush, until the boycott against King George’s tea tax climaxed with the Boston Tea Party in 1773. From that point forward, coffee grew in popularity as America’s national drink. Americans are now the largest consumers of coffee in the world, drinking over 420 million cups per day, or about one-fifth of the world’s total annual supply. In America, coffee wins hands down as the most popular substance containing caffeine, with soft drinks, tea, and chocolate as runners-up.

  From Plant to Percolator

  The word coffee comes from the Arab word qahwah. The botanical name of the original species discovered in Africa whose beans are grown around the world today is Coffea arabica. There are three general groupings of coffee: Brazils (all Coffea arabica grown in Brazil), Milds (all Coffea arabica grown outside of Brazil), and Coffea robusta, a variety of coffee grown at lower elevations and generally considered to be inferior in quality to Coffea arabica. Robusta beans contain nearly twice the caffeine of arabica and are also more acidic. Massmarketed brands of coffee contain primarily robusta, whereas specialty coffees tend to be made primarily from arabica beans.

  One reason coffee spread so quickly around the globe is because it’s an exceptionally hardy, self-pollinating plant. Though it’s usually referred to as a tree, coffee is actually an evergreen shrub that, when cultivated, is pruned to a height of twelve feet or less. An arabica tree produces only about one to two pounds of coffee beans per year, so supplying worldwide demand requires an incredible amount of space. We’ll discuss the problems associated with coffee cultivation in Chapter 7.

  Coffee berries—the fruit of the plant, which contains the beans—are usually harvested by hand and undergo a lengthy processing procedure. Once removed from the berries, the beans are fermented, washed, dried, hulled, and peeled before they are roasted. After roasting, the beans are ground and then they are ready to perk, brew, or drip into your favorite cup of Java.

  A Cupa Cupa Cupa Cupa Chemicals

  Caffeine has received a great deal of attention ever since it was identified as the principle stimulant in coffee (1820). But it seems that every year, even more noxious ingredients are isolated in coffee. In 1992, researchers found another stimulant compound distinctly different from caffeine that may be responsible for coffee’s gastrointestinal effects.1 To date, over 700 volatile substances in coffee have been identified, including more than 200 acids and an incredible array of alcohols, aromatic compounds, carbonyl compounds, esters, hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compounds, and terpenoids. Nonvolatile substances in coffee include caffeine and other purines, glycosides, lipids, melanoidins,

  caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acid.

  And that’s just the stuff that’s supposed to be there. Coffee often contains a raft of pesticide residues and other contaminants such as nitrosamines, solvents, and my co-toxins. These carry welldefined health risks, and some are carcinogenic.2

  Survival of the Bitterest

  Caffeine is produced by more than eighty species of plants, and the reason may well be survival. As it turns out, caffeine is a biological poison u
sed by plants as a pesticide. The caffeine gives seeds and leaves a bitter taste, which discourages their consumption by insects and animals. If predators persist in eating a caffeinecontaining plant, the caffeine can cause central nervous system disruptions and even lethal side effects. Most pests soon learn to leave the plant alone.

  Which is not to say that coffee is impervious to insects. On the contrary, the modern agricultural practice of growing coffee plants in dense plantations fosters the development of insect infestations. Enormous amounts of chemical pesticides and herbicides are then applied to control those infestations. In fact, coffee is the most heavily sprayed food or beverage commodity on the face of the earth.

  Caffeine: Romancing the Drug

  When coffee was first brought to European cities in the seventeenth century, people were repelled by its color and taste. They complained that it smelled and looked like roofing tar. But after they experienced its stimulating effect, the beverage was quickly proclaimed to be one of nature’s miracles. Historians record this phenomenon without noticing the irony of what they are writing.

  Caffeine is, after all, a psychoactive drug, and human beings tend to crave substances that alter their state of mind—among them caffeine, morphine, nicotine, and cocaine. Indeed, all of these alkaloids are chemically related and, while they produce widely different effects, all are poisonous.

  Caffeine is considered harmless simply because it is so widely used.

  Obviously, from a scientific perspective, that is not valid reasoning. What’s more, if caffeine were proposed today as a new food additive, the FDA would never approve it. Any substance that causes such extreme reactions—heart palpitations, anxiety, panic, insomnia, and even birth defects—would be treated by the FDA as a new drug and denied status as a food additive. Yet amazingly, even healthconscious people, many of whom try to minimize their use of additives, preservatives, and drugs, consume high amounts of caffeine with no thought to the consequences.