Caffeine is perhaps the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world. Because of its widespread use, a large body of evidence has been collected on its effects. Some of these effects are beneficial to the health and therefore caffeine should be considered a healthy component of food, on condition that the substance is not abused. In particular, caffeine is a stimulant and is able to significantly alter the function of the central and peripheral nervous systems. For example, caffeine has been shown to improve reaction times and increase vigilance, suggesting that it is useful in maintaining or enhancing performance and alertness. In addition, the stimulation of the nervous system by caffeine results in the release of noradrenaline to tissues and the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands, and this causes a significant increase in metabolic rate. This increase in metabolic rate effect explains the weight loss effects of caffeine, something that is very well reported. Weight loss is significantly protective of many diseases.
The adverse effects of caffeine have been described as fatigue and headaches. However, these are often not the effects of the caffeine itself, but the effects of withdrawal of caffeine from users habituated to its use. Care must therefore be taken when reading studies on caffeine, and it must be ascertained whether the subject are habitual caffeine drinkers or not, as this can have a significant bearing on the results of the study and how it should be interpreted. As caffeine is a stimulant it is clearly unlikely that it would cause fatigue. There is little evidence that caffeine causes headaches in normal individuals when consumed in moderate amounts.
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RdB
