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Kicking The Caffeine Kick
by John Morley |
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The most commonly used drug in Europe and America is caffeine. Eighty percent of us consume it daily. Fifty tons of caffeine are consumed in the USA every day. Yet caffeine is highly addictive, and a dosage equal to 75 cups of coffee placed into the body at one time would kill you.
Coffee drinkers usually start out by drinking one or two cups per day. But over time it is not unusual for the habit to increase to between five and ten or more cups per day. "I need a coffee" becomes a common sigh by the coffee drinker. What they don't realize is that the morning coffee is more than a ritual; rather, it is a "caffeine fix" needed by the body to rebalance the blood that is out of balance because of the previous day's caffeine intake.
Ask any coffee drinker what happens when they abstain from caffeine for a single day. The answer is often headaches, fatigue, sleepiness, stomach pain and irritation. These are withdrawal symptoms. The major addictive substance in coffee is caffeine, a white crystalline alkaloid that stimulates the brain and artificially and chemically lessens fatigue. In reality caffeine is a poison.
Injected into human muscles, caffeine will cause paralysis, while ten grams of caffeine accumulated suddenly in a human body would result in death. Fortunately, coffee
ingested in the common manner of a single cup at a time is not fatal because the kidneys work overtime to eliminate this toxin and prevent accumulation.
However, continuous use of caffeine devitalizes the body to the point that the body cannot function without it, because the adrenal glands have been so over-stimulated that it takes a high level of caffeine just to feel normal. Thus a vicious cycle is created, as the very thing that created the problem becomes the cure, and thus perpetuates the problem.
While not causing paralysis or death, small regular doses of caffeine are a very big challenge to the body. For instance, caffeine causes stomach temperature to rise 10 to 15 degrees, makes the stomach more acidic, and years of over-acidity can lead to stomach ulcers. Caffeine causes the heart to beat faster, lungs to work harder, and the blood vessels leading to the brain to narrow, while increasing the body's metabolic rate. Studies show that caffeine consumption is related to increased bladder and stomach cancers, elevated blood pressure, aggravated diabetes, and damaged stomach lining.
Many people do not realize that most soft drinks are also loaded with caffeine, while chocolate and many over-the- counter drugs also contain high amounts of caffeine. Bear in mind also that the diet-soft drinks options, although they contain less sugar, they still contain caffeine and they also contain other added chemicals that are potentially just as harmful. Here is a partial list of some commonly consumed products that contain caffeine. The amount of caffeine is in milligrams per 7-ounce cup of coffee or 12-ounce can of soda.
Drip coffee 115 - 117
Brewed coffee 80 - 135
Instant coffee 65 - 100
Decaf coffee 2 - 4
Cold tablet 30 - 200
Diet pills 100/pill
Stay-awake pill 100/pill
Tea, iced 70
Coca-Cola 45
Dr. Pepper 39
Pepsi Cola 37
Chocolate bar 30
Children, who may weigh only half as much as adults, are three times more sensitive than adults to the caffeine. One can of cola in a child is equivalent to three cups of coffee in an adult. This caffeine, combined with the approximately eleven teaspoons of sugar found in each can of soft drink, creates very unmanageable youngsters--not to mention all the physical damage it does in a child's body.
Caffeine penetrates deeply into vital tissue. Reports indicate that caffeine may be linked to male infertility as well as birthing defects, and can even be passed through mother's milk into the nursing child. Coffee, tea and pop have absolutely no nutritional value, and usually leach minerals from the body of the drinker.
Blood sugar can be raised by coffee, heart rate increased, gastric secretions of hydrochloric acid quadrupled, lungs stimulated, kidneys worked overtime, and changes take place in the blood vessels in the entire body.
Can there be any benefit from such stimulation? If we feel fatigued, the body is trying to tell us something. We may need rest or food to replenish the fuel supply needed for energy. When we use a chemical substitute for either, we are whipping a tired horse. The result will be a temporary speeding up, but eventually the horse will collapse. Sooner or later we all have to accept the laws of nature.
Intensive tests of caffeine indicate that the effect on the brain and nervous tissues is more serious and destructive than equivalent doses of morphine. Would you use a small amount of morphine every day? Is it possible that your nervous system could work better without a constant bombardment of the caffeine drug?
Coffee does not come into the category of being useful for the body. It has no positive function. It furnishes no vitamins, minerals, enzymes or protein to the diet, but does create many problems which cause the body to expend much energy to overcome them. Coffee, tea, cola drinks and chocolate all contain caffeine. There are many herb teas and coffee substitutes, which can be consumed to benefit the body. The elimination of caffeine-containing substances from your diet can be one of the most important health decisions you ever make. The bottom line is that caffeine does destroy your body! It messes with your hormones, your sleep cycles, your ability to remain emotionally stable, your nervous system, your brain, your muscles. Over the long run, caffeine will affect your health at some point!
Here is a testimony sent to Hallelujah Acres by Monica Warriner:
"I am a walking testimony of how damaging caffeine can be to a human body! Briefly, I began using caffeine early on in my life. I am now 34 years old, and I have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I truly believe that my heavy caffeine use really wore my entire nervous system and body out. I was drinking no less than ten to twenty cups of strong coffee a day, and about two or three cokes per day. Also, I craved and ate chocolate. "
This is quite an emotive example but is a good illustration of the far-ranging consequences of regular caffeine consumption. As a health practitioner I see the effects of caffeine consumption every day. It is true that it is more dangerous for some people than for others, but it is still a negative food choice for everyone. It is a daily life choice that has become socially acceptable, but if caffeine was introduced to the food chain now, rather than 300 years ago, it would be seen as another dangerous white powder from the tropics and its use would be banned or strictly regulated.
Kicking the caffeine kick, like kicking the nicotine kick and the alcohol kick, only works when you genuinely want to quit and are sick of yourself for your dependency. If you are so determined to quit that there is no question of any other option, then there are many food and other daily choices that can make the withdrawal period much easier to navigate. Complementary medicine's methods offer a number of effective strategies for dealing with the withdrawal period, particularly the Nutritional Supplementation approach, and the Biological Medicine Therapies that use a person's own energies as the basis for their own therapy. These include Complex Homeopathy, Bioresonance therapy, Ear acupuncture, Mitosan Therapy, Matrix Regeneration Therapy and good management of the detoxification process.
Kicking caffeine is not that difficult if you are ready for it. Forward Planning is the key, in that you want to have a better health situation in the future, rather than a health future that will be the result of current habits.
© Copyright Wholistic Research Company 2001
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