SPECIAL REPORT--Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance in more than 60 plants including coffee beans, tea leaves, kola nuts used to flavor soft drink colas and cacao pods used to make chocolate products. Caffeine can also be replicated artificially and is often an additive in foods and medicines.

While the substance has its benefits, many researchers believe that the effects that caffeine can have upon the body outweigh the advantages. Caffeine is often used in over-the-counter pain medications because of its ability to dilate blood vessels, allowing other ingredients such as aspirin and acetaminophen to work more efficiently.  It can also work as a stimulant to treat temporary drowsiness or tiredness.

However, caffeine has plenty of negative effects that can be detrimental to your health, even in moderate quantities. People with heart problems shouldn’t use caffeine because it can raise the blood pressure, speed up the heart and create abnormal heart rhythms. Caffeine can elevate alter behavior, causing anxiety, headaches, nervousness, dizziness and a chemical dependence.  It can affect digestion, increasing stomach acid and creating upset stomachs or gastro reflux. Caffeine can also dehydrate the body, especially after strenuous activity so caffeinated beverages make poor choices for quenching a thirst.

In recent years, many beverage companies have begun producing energy drinks that have huge amounts of caffeine; sometimes more than two and a half times what a normal cup of coffee would possess. What’s worse is that these drinks are marketed to both children and young adults. 

In a 2006 study that was conducted by Bruce A. Goldberger, director of toxicology at the Unversity of Florida College of Medicine and published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, Goldberger pointed out that most energy drinks possessed caffeine in doses higher than the U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) limit for soft drinks and that such levels in energy drinks were not regulated by FDA.  In the U., 80 percent of adults consume caffeine every day with the average adult taking in about 200 mg per day. That is the amount in two 5-ounce cups of coffee or four soft drinks.

Another study of middle school students in Ohio found that the average student took in an average of 53 mg of caffeine per day, but almost one in five consumed more than 100 milligrams per day.

While most people will suffer nothing more than withdrawal reactions from a dependency, overdoses of caffeine poses a serious danger and can at times, be fatal. The FDA knows of at least one college student who died after taking an overdose of caffeine tablets, which are commonly found at convenience stores, supermarkets and pharmacies over the counter. Another incident involving a caffeine-induced fatality was a supermarket worker who had consumed four energy drinks. The 40 year-old man collapsed and co-workers were unable to revive him.

The best advice is to limit caffeine as much as possible and keep consumption in tolerable limits. Be informed of how much caffeine is in a product that you are eating or drinking.  Most doctors recommend between 100-200 mg each day as a target limit, yet caffeine affects individuals with great variances, especially children. 

Consumers may be unaware of the exact amount of daily caffeine they consume, because they are unaware of its presence in some products. For example, one chocolate chip cookie can contain 3-5 mg of caffeine; even decaffeinated coffee contains 2-5 mg of caffeine. Dedicated coffee drinkers, who think that switching to decaf is acceptable, may find themselves drinking more of it to satisfy an addiction to caffeine.