Future Imperative: Coffee -- Mental Stimulant, or Cycle of Withdrawal?

Future Imperative

What if technology were being developed that could enhance your mind or body to extraordinary or even superhuman levels -- and some of these tools were already here? Wouldn't you be curious?

Actually, some are here. But human enhancement is an incredibly broad and compartmentalized field. We’re often unaware of what’s right next door. This site reviews resources and ideas from across the field and makes it easy for readers to find exactly the information they're most interested in.

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The future is coming fast, and it's no longer possible to ignore how rapidly the world is changing. As the old order changes -- or more frequently crumbles altogether -- I offer a perspective on how we can transform ourselves in turn... for the better. Nothing on this site is intended as legal, financial or medical advice. Indeed, much of what I discuss amounts to possibilities rather than certainties, in an ever-changing present and an ever-uncertain future.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Coffee -- Mental Stimulant, or Cycle of Withdrawal?

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Researchers from the University of Bristol have something to say to people who feel caffeinated coffee "picks them up" in the morning -- you're wrong. The BBC reports:

Those who swear by their morning caffeine fix say it wakes them up, and if they missed out they would feel sluggish and unable to get on with their day.

But the Bristol researchers, who carried out a review of previous studies into the effects of caffeine, say all the drink does is counteract the mild caffeine withdrawal symptoms people are experiencing because they have gone without the stimulant overnight.

And those who drink a caffeinated drink first thing are no more alert than those who never consume one.

Actually, the most important thing said in the article was a one-liner at the bottom...

Professor Rogers said caffeine did have some benefits, such as preventing cognitive decline in the elderly.

Yes, a few trivial benefits, but what's more important, getting a buzz in the morning, or staving off, say, Alzheimers'?

I know what's more important to me.

Pass the Red Bull.

Future Imperative

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Moderate use of caffeine is good for you. I only drink two cups of coffee in day, one in the morning to wake me up and another after lunch to keep me awake. Thats enough to get the "buzz" from caffeine, but not enough to get addicted and start building withdrawal symptons.

So basically:
"It is caffeine alone that sets my mind in motion. It is through beans of java that thoughts acquire speed, that hands acquire shakes, that shakes become a warning... I am... IN CONTROL... OF MY ADDICTION!"; March 15, 2007 12:43 PM