I've got the 'caffeine patch'!

One of my favorite children's movies for the last few years has been "Meet the Robinsons", a cute but poorly rated Disney movie about an orphan's adventures with time travel. I think I like it because of the characters created in the film; there is something to love in all of them! My favorite is (without a doubt) Lucille Krunklehorn. Lucille is a scientist who is zany and fun-loving, eventually proving to be *PLOT SPOILER* the future adoptive parent of little orphan Lewis, an aspiring inventor. My mother has always teased me, claiming that my preference for this character was particularly enlightening and should teach me about myself, etc. At my initial viewing of this movie: I was a designated biology hater. If I had been in possession of a time machine and taken a spin to the present (about 2-3 years later), my mind would have been blown by my current situation. What was that?! A Biology major??!! I would have begun to question the contents of my coffee, suspecting close friends of slipping narcotics of some kind into my cream-and-sugar laced caffeine fix.

What is my point? My character preference is entirely appropriate for myself, the extent of which remained unrealized until much later. This week, however - I have redefined it in light of 'caffeine' and science. For the last few days...they have owned me.

Watch this clip, reevaluate your interpretation of my actions of the past week, and become an enlightened individual like my mother. Lucille Krunklehorn.

Caffeine has temporarily consumed my being, so that I may be capable of completing the sale of my soul with science (and theater...but mostly science). My doctor cruelly took my coffee and caffeine fix from me approximately 9 months ago, informing me that I was allergic (tears were shed) and caffeine was terrible for a sick individual like myself. Insert guilty admission here: I've been drinking caffeinated coffee all week. To relieve my offense, I will note that I was in the correct time frame for reintroducing coffee - but (though unspoken) I'm fairly confident he meant decaf. I finally slept last night and woke up this morning already contemplating the evils of the oh-so-delicious and addicting beverage, because I have discovered this week the truth of Dr. W's words: I am highly sensitive to caffeine in any form. To my surprise and delight I had an

email from a friend who sent me a link for a caffeine necklace! It is available for purchase at Think Geek (when in stock) for about $85. New favorite website? I think so.

I took this email as a message from God to ignore my lab notebook (due yesterday) to write an entry depicting the joys and sorrows of the most highly unacknowledged drug in American society: caffeine.

I did a wee bit of research, and discovered the following information that is associated with caffeine consumption:

Caffeine is a white crystalline xanthene alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant in the human body. Discovered in Friedrich Ferdinand Runge in 1819, it acts as a central nervous system stimulant that is currently found in most popular drinks and a lot of popular foods (like chocolate). You can't sleep because you're stressed? I'm sure it is completely unrelated to the ungodly amounts of chocolate (and sugar - though a different story altogether) you consumed right before heading to bed tonight. According to a couple of different websites (with different figures) 75 - 90% of American adults consume caffeine in some form every day.

It is an antagonist for adenosine (it binds without activating), and adenosine receptors are found heavily in the part of the nervous system that is involved in behavioral control.

Pros:

• Increases capacity for work and physical labor
• Increases alertness
• Decreases drowsiness/fatigue

Cons:

• Diuretic
• Can become addicting
• Can build up a tolerance - you'll begin to need more of it to feel the desired effects
• nervousness
• irritability
• anxiety
• trembling
• muscle spasms
• inability to control behavior - speech and actions
• disorientation
• mania
• depression
• insomnia
• headaches
• breathing problems
• heart palpitations
• peptic ulcers
• erosive esophagitis
• acid reflux
• it can even kill you

Now I grant you, some of these effects only occur after periods of over-dosing and long term usage...but they can be experienced even after two average sized cups of mild-strong coffee depending on your tolerance level.

Random Facts:

• Smaller people are (typically) more highly affected by caffeine intake.
• It has a healthy half-life of approximately 5 - 10 hours (depending on the individual and their specific circumstances). In laymen's terms, this means that if there are approximately 115mg of caffeine in your cup of coffee at 9am, you will still have about 60-70mg of caffeine circulating in your system at 2pm that afternoon. The caffeine will be present until at least 11 - 20 hours later. This spectrum is obviously taking into account the more sensitive individuals (like myself), but it still is something to consider before administering your self-prescribed 3pm 'pick-me-up', no matter what your size or situation may be.
• Children are much more sensitive to caffeine consumption.

I also found a list at Kids Health.org which provides information about caffeine content (on average) for a variety of foods and drinks...one or two were mildly surprising to me, I'll admit.

Once upon a time, I woke up at 6:30 am to finish my lab notebook. Approximately an hour and a half after sitting down to begin work, I have only finished researching caffeine and writing a blog entry. So much for finishing before Organic Chemistry today...oh well :)

Tip(s) of the day:

• Monitor your caffeine level intake, particularly if you have a disease or disorder that requires you to take a stimulant - the doubling up makes caffeine much more difficult to handle.
• Monitor your intake if you have a disease that increases your sensitivity to everything - oh, I don't know, kind of like E.E. does for me! I guess there was a real reason Dr. W warned me against it...