Summary:
Describes the effects of coffee drinking and caffeine. Explores the history of caffeine and the culture that has risen up around it.
Everyone drinks caffeine, whether it be in your morning cup of coffee, a can of soda at lunch, or a cup of tea before bed. But do they know where it came from? Caffeine containing plants might have been around since 600,000 BC, but was first really put into use in 900 BC. T In 1100 the first coffee trees were cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula where they were boiled by the Arabs to make a drink called qahwa. In 1450 the love for coffee started to spread through Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the centuries this plant has shaped our economy into the shape of a coffee bean.
Think about walking through downtown Boston, or downtown New York City. There is only one kind of shop in which one is found on nearly every block; coffee shops. Our culture has molded itself around loving coffee. Although it is a commonly known and loved drink, coffee does have its side effects and down sides. Caffeine is an alkaloid, and some effects are stimulant of central nervous system, cardiac muscle, and respiratory system. One downside to coffee drinking is the fact that you can become addicted. People who are addicted to caffeine often experience cravings and build up a tolerance to it.
Caffeine has the potential to produce tolerance, which means that increased amounts of the drug are needed to achieve a consistent effect. Withdrawal symptoms can occur when use of caffeine is stopped abruptly. Users may experience fatigue, and most commonly, headaches. Primary withdrawal effects last for only a few days though mild withdrawal effects can last as long as a week or two.
Coffee may be addicting, but it still plays a big role in the economy and agriculture of many countries. Brazil and Martinique are two examples of countries that cultivate coffee beans to this day. Caffeine is important to the world because of the lifestyles we live these days. Get up at six in the morning, don't go to bed until twelve or later; you need something to get you through the day. Caffeine is also great at waking you up because of Phosphodiesterase inhibition. This enzyme is responsible for the breakdown of cAMP and therefore this action of the methylxanthines leads to increased cAMP 2nd messenger functions.
I do not see the importance of coffee. I believe that it is nasty, and very bitter. How people can't start there day without a cup of coffee is still a mystery to me.
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