Too Much Caffeine Can Slow Brain Development

These days, caffeine is the most commonly consumed psychoactive drug. It is estimated that at least 50% of adults consume caffeine on a daily basis. It is also estimated that soda and sweetened drinks are the single most consumed food in the American diet. The energy drink sales market in the United States throughout 2009 brought in roughly $4 billion dollars, with Red Bull coming in as the top selling energy drink, with Monster and Rockstar coming in 2nd and 3rd place. Red Bull currently has a 65 percent share of the U.S. Energy drink market. And in 2012 it took in sales of over $1 billion dollars alone. Coca-cola earned an impressive $4.68 billion in 2012. Alarmingly, more than one-third of teens are consuming are energy drinks daily “just to get through the day.”

“The soda fountain is the most valuable, most useful, most profitable, and altogether most beneficial business building feature assimilated by the drugstore in a generation…” – John Somerset, Drug Topics June 1920

When we feel tired or drowsy, this is thanks to the binding of adenosine to adenosine-receptors on the synapses of neurons in our brain. These receptors help to facilitate a “slow-down” of our brain’s signaling functions, and induces a tired sensation, when adenosine is bound. Caffeine’s chemical structure is vastly similar to that of adenosine, and the neurons in our brain will allow for either caffeine or adenosine to bind to the adenosine-receptors, effectively blocking adenosine’s binding. When we are really active, and expend adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (often referred to as the ‘molecular unit of currency’ or ‘energy currency’), there are higher levels of adenosine concentration in our brain. (Fisone, Borgkvist,& Usiello, 2004).

Caffeine is an antagonist which inhibits the effects of adenosine and competes for binding sites. When caffeine occupies the binding sites on nerve cells, it doesn’t mimic the ‘slow-down’ that is initiated when adenosine binds to the site. Instead of slowing down, the cells speed up and fire rapidly. Consuming too much caffeine can have many negative effects on our health, common symptoms of caffeine withdrawal include (but are not limited to): headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, nausea, muscle pains, and stiffness. It can also have negative effects on our sleep, even our brain development.

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