Think that cup of joe is harmless? Think again.

[wtmusic]

"At CaffeineWeb.com, psychiatrists, allergists and toxicologists address caffeine's potential to induce symptoms of mental illness in healthy people.

Nearly 80% of the world's population uses caffeine, and 25% of the population is diagnosed with a mental disorder. Clinical studies indicate that there may be significant overlap between those figures, and that many people diagnosed as mentally ill are in fact merely suffering from caffeine poisoning. Caffeine also exacerbates the symptoms of patients suffering from organic, non-caffeine-induced mental illness.

As a small, lipid-soluble molecule (like alcohol, nicotine, and certain antidepressants), caffeine is one of the few substances capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier, which is critical to maintaining cerebral homeostasis. Once it has penetrated this barrier, it is capable of affecting its victims' thoughts and behavior, sometimes to an alarming degree."

The results of a NASA study using spiderwebs as a test for toxicity:



Articles

Renowned allergist: Thousands are in mental institutions because of caffeine
Journal of the American Medical Association: Caffeine induces “psychological problems”
Eminent pharmacologist: Caffeine causes depression
Biochemist finds 50% of anxiety cases caffeine-induced
Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Caffeine-induced psychosis may be mistaken for true psychosis

http://caffeineweb.com/

Holy crap...don't take away my second-favorite vice :scared:

[HughMoran]

1. This isn't a joke?

:hide:

[wtmusic]

5. Wish it was. nt

[cwydro]

2. Lol!

Not buying it, sorry.

[MH1]

21. Video about the study - check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

[MH1]

22. deleted - dupe - sorry

hiccup in my internet connection

[MH1]

28. deleted - dupe - sorry

[babylonsister]

3. Heh. Thought you were talking about scabby. nt

[Slit Skirt]

9. me too!!!

he is very dangerous in the morning because he can really piss me off
i can't cup of joe in the morning or anyother time

[saltpoint]

4. I'm not convinced. The overlap these clinicians seem to say is there is

not 'clinically' there, unless there are studies they aren't citing.

What about the rate of incidence of mental illness in populations where caffeine is not used, or not excessively used?

What percentage of psychiatric units serve coffee to patients and staff?

[lolly]

83. True

Also doesn't establish a cause-effect.

So, even if caffeine drinkers are more likely to have mental problems, who's to say that they weren't having problems in the first place, and those problems made them more likely to turn to caffeine?

No relevant context given here--no studies of rates of illness in non-caffeine drinkers,no correlation between types of mental illness (does caffeine just randomly cause some sort of illness? Does it lead to paranoia? Depression? Bipolar disorder? Obssessive Compulsive behavior?)

[ensho]

6. decades ago I read articles that said coffee/cig. smoking were a

double hazard to a persons health.

that women that drank coffee and smoked cigs all day long were asking for major health problems.

[Deja Q]

7. So stress, poor wages, no jobs, outlandish education and health care costs, aren't factors?

It's solely been coffee all this time? Well, dayum! :party:

[Laelth]

8. k&r for a very interesting theory that MAY have merit. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[pink-o]

10. So 3/5's of the human race has been mentally ill since the 10th century

...yeah, maybe I can buy that. Welcome to the nut house--and you'll have to pry my Latte from my cold, dead hand.

[SmileyRose]

11. so if someone has a problem get off the caffeine and see if it helps

not exactly rocket science "Dude, switch to decaf!" has been in our vocabulary for some time now.

[Liberal Veteran]

12. Fortunately, my job doesn't require me to spin intricate webs to catch food.

So I'm good with having some coffee.

[Liberal_in_LA]

72. me either ( though that would be a cool job) So I can keep drinking coke.

[slackmaster]

13. I like the LSD spider web better

[Slit Skirt]

14. perhaps pesticides

when I was young I used to dring coffee with my mom. Suddenly the coffee started having a strange flavor to it. My mom researched and found that the DDT they had made illegal in the United States, was being sold to other nations for their use. One of the products was coffee beans. I do not really know where she discovered this at, but my mom had many political aware friends..
would be interesting to find out...happened I think in the middle or late 60's

[hobbit709]

15. Name ANY form of human activity

and I'll find you a group of doctors against it.

[Enrique]

16. Java madness!

:crazy:

[rug]

17. This is the reason I can't make webs.

[Liberal Veteran]

18. So how do you catch food?

You must be one of those liberal pinko commies that uses food stamps to buy food that productive web producing citizens work hard to create. :P

[Robb]

20. Hm.

If pressed, I'd have to say what comes out of my ass bears more resemblance to the second web than the first.

But still looks very little like either.

[FirstLight]

19. I don't care! I loves mah coffee!

I think coffee is the one thing I will never willingly quit...(and herb...hehe)

hey, maybe the combination will keep me sane after all?

"Breakfast of Champions", anyone?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

23. No wonder my web weavings are looking so crappy!

:rofl: :rofl:

[Arugula Latte]

69. I make webs like this ... What does that say about my mind?

:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

77. What bean roast did you use to make that black hole?

Very impressive.

[Arugula Latte]

90. Hey, that's a trade secret.

;)

[katsy]

24. how much caffeine did they give that spider?

How much caffeine is considered an overdose - by weight of the subject?

One can OD on just about anything, including some non-water soluable vitamins.

[stray cat]

25. Spiders clearly should not drink coffee while spinning webs

[Lex]

26. I've been drinking it for 30 years, when do I start going crazy?

Or being depressed?

[alfredo]

27. Look what it did to this unfortunate soul

[Ms. Toad]

29. High doses - in the range of 4- 8 oz cups

can cause restlessness, nervousness, insomnia, and tremors. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/821863-overview

The dose required to cause psychosis requires significantly more. In one reported case, the guy was drinking 36 cups a day. He lowered his intake to 2 cups a day and he was fine. http://mbldownloads.com/0309CNS_Hedges.pdf

As for spiders - well, I doubt spiders are similar enough to humans for them to be an appropriate medical model.

[saltpoint]

30. Thirty-six cups a day. Hells bells. It seems like his heart would

have exploded.

That's a torrent of coffee.

[GoCubsGo]

47. Not to mention his bladder...

Heck, I have a couple of cups of the stuff on Sundays, and it means extra trips to the loo for me. And, any more than that and I wind up with a fierce gut-ache. That's provided I don't drink a blend that upsets my stomach on the first cup.

[busybl]

36. wow, my old boss was in the test?

spiders shouldn't be drinking coffee anyway.

[astral]

65. There ya go! See how well humans make webs when they

are fed bugs!


'''As for spiders - well, I doubt spiders are similar enough to humans for them to be an appropriate medical model.'''

[Ms. Toad]

70. Good point...

Do the stray meal moths that I occasionally find in my flour count? Maybe I should try making a web.

[busybl]

31. last week coffee was good for you

Ya know what, I'm just gonna do what I do and stop listening to health reports.

[Ms. Toad]

33. If you follow the links to caffeine web

you'll see that most of the cited material is considerably older than last week. (80s)

[Quantess]

80. True. There have been recent studies with glowing reports about health benefits of coffee.

[elehhhhna]

81. the largest source of antioxidants consumed by Americans come from coffee

mmmmm. i love it. it DOES make my 15 y/o psycho, though. she's jumpy & jazzed enough without it.

[AgadorSparticus]

32. i don't doubt the research. i've known people who drink diet coke

first thing in the morning and all day long. they literally cannot function without it. shakes. withdrawal. total mood swings and VERY irritable (understatement). same goes with coffee. they don't drink water---ever. the amounts that they drink in a day is just mindboggling and I have often thought 'that can't be good'. I'm hoping it's just a matter of moderation. i can't imagine some of these people staying under 17oz of their ceffeinated beverage of choice in the morning much less in a day. but i see more of the withdrawal symptoms with those that drank sodas than with coffee or tea.

[cbdo2007]

43. do you think this has more to do with the aspartame than the caffeine?

Maybe it pumps them up also, similar to the caffeine effect? I'm just speculating here but see those same people also, who drink diet coke from 8:00am-8:00pm almost constantly. That's a shit load of aspartame they're fooling their systems with. I'm much more worried about fake sugars than caffeine.

[AgadorSparticus]

53. i agree about the artificial sweeteners. and prolly coupled with the caffeine,

that's why they are what they are. I agree with you about the fake sugars. Hands down, it wreaks havoc on the body. I definitely worry more about that than caffeine.

But this got me thinking. I just read that book, Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larson. He writes about the issues of sexual violence in Sweden. And in the book, they are always drinking coffee. I know it's just a fiction and totally made up. But you can get realistic snippets of a culture through books. I don't know. I haven't researched it to say with any conviction. But it made me think though.

[comrade snarky]

60. Trying to tie sexual violence to caffeine may be going a bit far...

If that were the case Portland, Seattle and San Francisco would be like a Mad Max Thunder-dome.


Who rules Barter Town?

Maxwell House rules Barter Town!

[AgadorSparticus]

76. I'm not trying to tie sexual violence in particular. Just violence in general.

Suicide is a form of violence too. Seattle used to hold the honor of being the suicide capital. I don't know if it is anymore. But then again, the gray, rainy weather would drive anyone to over caffeinate themselves.

But that link suggests this sort of behavior along with many others with caffeine toxicity.

[lolly]

87. Don't all carbonated beverages have phosphorus?

OR something, I can't remember what, that messes with calcium intake?

Drinking any carbonated beverage nonstop would cause problems--add all the sugar/HFCS OR aspartame AND caffeine--hope your company has a good health insurance program for your coworkers!

[zonkers]

34. I like the second web better anyway.

[Liberal Veteran]

37. I agree the first is so pedestrian and common.

The second has a certain abstract flair of a true artist.

[endless october]

35. seems based in hyperbole.

if caffeine hasn't driven you nutty yet, you'll most likely be fine.

i drink five or six cups a day, yeah, definitely, five or six cups a day.

10 minutes to Wapner.

[Prophet 451]

38. Shit, that explains a lot

Years ago, I discovered that you could remember more if you were over-caffeinated but that you would only be able to retrieve that data if you were also over-caffeinated. I decided the obvious solution was to never not be over-caffeinated and I've been drinking twenty to thirty cups a day for years.

You can tell where this is going, can't you? I've also been suffering from Major Depressive Disorder since my early twenties (I'm now 33) which has been massively exascerbated in the last year.

[Ms. Toad]

48. You're definitely approaching, if not in, the range that does

produce caffeine psychosis (see the article I posted earlier: http://mbldownloads.com/0309CNS_Hedges.pdf . Probably a good idea to talk to the doc about it...

[laughingliberal]

62. The term is "chemical dependent learning"

Not a very well known effect of studying while on various chemicals. People who make their way through school using stimulants or other substances often can not recall the information when the substance is withdrawn.

[Prophet 451]

75. Which is why I resolved to never come down.

I'm glad you remembered the name because it completely escaped me.

[elehhhhna]

85. so true. I remember those little white cross speeders from college.

they worked that way.

[elehhhhna]

82. Buy the half-caf/half-decaf next time --

please! I'm a coffee achiever, too (remember that line?) but wow. Do you ever get a good nights sleep?

[Prophet 451]

86. No but...

...that's got nothing to do with the coffee. I've suffered from insomnia, night terrors and ASP since I was about eight.

[cbdo2007]

39. Wait a second - "25% of the population has a mental disorder" - source please?

They're claiming here that 1.5 Billion poeople have a mental disorder?

Also, what makes them think it's caffeine that's causing this and not high fructose corn syrup or even aspartame(sp?)? I'm guessing a very large percentage of those with mental disorders are under the age of 18, which are not very high users of coffee. Yes, I realize that coffee is kind of a fad for the high school kids out there, but they are in no way using as much as the rest of the population yet have one of the largest amounts of mental disorders.

[surrealAmerican]

44. They must have a very loose definition of "mental disorder".

It probably includes anyone who ever sought treatment or counseling for any non-physical reason at any time in their lives, any then some.

[elehhhhna]

88. everything for which there is a pill is a disorder. EVERYTHING.

[pipi_k]

58. Honestly, I think just about everyone has a mental disorder

It's just a matter of what kind, and to what degree...

[Nye Bevan]

40. This is your spider web

And *this* is your spiderweb on caffeine.

The message of this? *Don't* splash coffee on a spider web. You will totally ruin it.

[Lagomorph]

41. Been wanting to post this

[merh]

42. Don't make me switch to decaf.

:puke: The stuff is nasty.

:scared:



I have cut back - I suppose I could cut back some more.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

45. what a pile of dog squeeze...

a few weeks ago we were reading studies about how caffeine could reduce the effects of Alzheimer's...

Water...in high enough doses...is fatal too!

sP

[lonestarnot]

46. Back off.

:donut:

[Kaleva]

49. I don't count cups; I count pots. Already had one pot today.

[kestrel91316]

50. I've been drinking coffee most of my adult life, generally about 12 oz a day.

If it hasn't caused me mental problems by now, I figure it never will. And the benficial effects are substantial.

Sorry. I won't scare that easily, lol.

[comrade snarky]

51. No caffeine for spiders?

Great, now all my arachnids are gonna be drowsy and short tempered in the morning.

[Liberal Veteran]

52. It will look something like this

Go forth my children! And don't come back without a triple shot latte!

[comrade snarky]

54. I kind of hate spiders

But if they bring me triple shot espresso drinks I could learn to love the 14 eyed little monsters.


Fly my pretties... no

Scuttle my pretties! Scuttle forth!

[The Straight Story]

55. Time to ban it, will cost us more health care $$, add it to smoking, fast food, and beer - we will

control all things for all people and finally have our utopia.

And to think I used to drink that stuff. I apologize to all for the money it costs you, I will go to confessional later and say some hail dollars.

:rofl:

[pipi_k]

56. If I switch to caffeinated coffee, will I be able to walk upside down on the ceilings?

If not, then screw it...I'll stick to decaf and be happy with living in a dusty corner of my room.

[seabeyond]

57. read first before drank coffee. now that i drank it.... fuck that shit, lol lol

i guess after the fix, being insane allows me to talk and type, lol. i will take it.

[Mari333]

59. its true!

The last time I tried to build a web the same thing happened.

:P

now, wheres my coffee

[kim the waitress]

61. Thank you for posting this!!!! I need an impetus to quit!!!!

And, like you, it is something that I absolutely enjoy. Just the flavor of coffee...

Funny--I don't get the anxiety from it anymore and I used to get panic attacks. When I quit coffee, I noticed I was pretty keyed up. I guess our brain chemistry is different at different times.

[Swamp Rat]

63. Correlation does not = causation, and people are not spiders (Ann Coulter excluded)

:hangover:

[laughingliberal]

64. Another perspective

I noticed the article mentioned caffeine sensitive individuals and caffeine allergies. I suspect this is one of those things that is based on individual responses to substances. Individuals with ADD are known to calm down on stimulants. There may be those who are more sensitive to the effects mentioned in the articles. Overuse of almost any substance can often be linked to attempts at self medicating a problem that is undiagnosed or inadequately controlled with current treatment. I drink a lot of coffee and I do suffer with anxiety and depression. However, I have suffered anxiety and depression since I was 12 and I did not start drinking coffee until my 20's. Now, if I had started drinking coffee at 11 perhaps they would think the coffee was the culprit.

Filed under 2 sides to every story:

http://men.webmd.com/features/coffee-new-health-food?page=2

[elehhhhna]

89. I prefer to snort Folgers crystals. Leaves whiter teeth...

browner nose.

[nc4bo]

66. I can see it now, coffee located behind the pharmacy counter!

Oh wait, it's a legal drug that's harmful to the user and to society (caffeine migraines, heart palpitations, nervous jitters while operating motor vehicles or heavy equipment, harmful to a fetus, etc.).

:think: Let's demonize it THEN we can SIN TAX IT!!

YEAH!! :woohoo:

Sorry, couldn't help myself....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

67. Maybe it helped spidey to think outside of the box? ;)

[mamaleah]

68. *Snort* They can go hang out with the anti-tobacco, anti-sweets/fats

anti-fun crowd and preach.

Some of us have no desire to live to 150 years old on the rabbit food diet.

[Posteritatis]

71. BREAKING: Everything potentially linked to everything else, therefore everything is bad! (nt)

[uppityperson]

73. "The more toxic the drug, the less organized the web the spider created."? I'd say less OC

Who is to say that being obsessive/compulsive is a good thing? Maybe with a few cups of coffee, spiders could have evolved further?

[Liquorice]

74. Coffee is nothing more than bean broth when you think about it. I doubt it's dangerous. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

78. Nope, I'm going to keep on drinking coffee

and smoking weed, too. I'm DOOOOOOOOMED.......

[NNN0LHI]

79. I bet everybody institutionalized ate tomatoes once too

Does that mean tomatoes lead to institutionalization?

Don

[stevedeshazer]

84. Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it.