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SYDNEY: The sensation of alertness that comes when you enjoy your morning tea or coffee may be an illusion, according to a new study.
Caffeine brings coffee drinkers back to but not above their baseline level of alertness. In fact, frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine, the researchers report.
“At a personal level the results tell us we don’t gain much, if anything at all, from consuming caffeine. Decaff tea and coffee is a good alternative option,” said psychologist and nutritionist Peter Rogers from University of Bristol.
Anxiety, alertness and headache
In the study, published this week in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, Rogers and his colleagues asked 379 individuals, the largest study so far, to abstain from caffeine for 16 hours. Then they gave them either caffeine or a placebo.
The study participants then rated their personal levels of anxiety, alertness and headache.
Approximately half of the participants were non or low caffeine consumers and the other half was medium or high caffeine consumers.
The withdrawal reversal explanation
The post-caffeine levels of alertness in the regular coffee drinkers were the same as the non and low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to normal.
“It adds further weight to the withdrawal reversal explanation of caffeine effects, while at the same time suggesting anxiety is not an important effect of caffeine for a vast majority of people,” Rogers said.
However, there are side effects for caffeine abstinence among the regular coffee drinkers. When they replaced placebo consisting of cornflower with caffeine, the coffee drinkers reported headaches and low alertness.
The authors also examined the recently discovered link between caffeine-induced anxiety and a specific mutation in the gene ADORA2A.
Some of us just like the taste!
I drink coffee because I like the taste and I get so tired of people telling me all these other reasons why they think I drink it and why I should not. I was very impressed with the study I heard being discussed on the radio the other day about coffee consumption being linked to a reduced likelihood of developing diabetes type 2. Being of northern European background I like a mild roast, long black without sugar.