After the habitual two cups of Starbucks coffee, Adam set to work. So far, so good. But as the academic pressure mounted, he had to work longer hours, and that meant more coffee — a lot more coffee than he had ever consumed in his life. In fact, for six weeks, he had been drinking up to 10 cups of Starbucks coffee daily.

That is a lot of caffeine, considering that each large cup contains on average about 375 milligrams, according to a 2003 study of caffeinated coffee published in The Journal of Analytical Toxicology. With 10 cups a day, Adam was turbocharged with nearly four grams of caffeine.

So Adam was not just nervous about his academic work; he was also suffering from caffeine intoxication.

How, you might wonder, could such a ubiquitous substance be toxic? With an average of one to three cups of coffee a day, most people get 100 to 300 milligrams of caffeine. With chronic exposure, though, people become accustomed to the stimulant effects of caffeine. In contrast, a sudden increase in caffeine consumption can easily produce caffeine intoxication.

[New York Times: Jittery? Peevish? Can’t Sleep? What Are You Drinking?]

I like my coffee strong, without cream or sugar. I favor high-quality tea. And I surely love imported dark chocolate. All of these contain caffeine. So does cola and over-the-counter migraine medicine. Exposure to this mild stimulant is greater than one might think. Caffeine intoxication can also be mistaken for a manic espisode or a panic attack.

Surfing around, I found some interesting tidbits. For example, is there a legal limit on caffeine content? According to this FAQ:

In the United States there is a limit of 6mg of caffeine per liquid ounce in beverages. There is also a limit of 200mg in pills such as Vivrin.

Australia has a limit of Australia 145mg of caffeine per liter.

In parts of Northern Thailand it is completely illegal. It was outlawed as a precursor to meth.

The site mentions, as well, the chemical structure of caffeine, its flavor, symptoms of intoxication, effects of caffeine on bone density and pregnant women, and more.

On the other hand, you might be curious to read about caffeine myths and facts to find answers to questions such as whether caffeine causes cancer or heart disease, or generates hyperactivity in children.

My aim with this post is neither to condemn nor promote the use of the substance. I’m sure there are defenders on both sides of the issue.

As with most things in life, moderation is key. Some people are more susceptible to the effects of what they ingest, so they need to reduce consumption. What I find interesting is that we live with cultural pressure to be more and more active and productive, especially at work, which encourages greater use of caffeine. In itself it is not “bad,” but I do think the overall effects of prolonged, high consumption aren’t healthy. We could all benefit from slowing our pace. We’re here for such a short time as it is.

Also, please know it is important to see a medical professional for guidance. This blog nor any other site should be your sole authority regarding your health.

The state’s highest court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of a law that gives judges authority to force mentally ill people to comply with treatment. …Under the law, a family member or caseworker could seek a court order requiring treatment. A court hearing must meet a set of criteria established under the law before what is known as an assisted outpatient treatment order can be issued. The appeals court found that the “statute’s procedure for obtaining an A.O.T. order provides all the process that is constitutionally due.”

—New York Times

Native American women are snapping up a health-advice book written, in the tradition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” by and for them. Editors say interest in the book is fueled by historic abuses of indigenous women’s reproductive rights.

—Women’s eNews

To purchase the book, contact the Native Shop.

(via Idealist.org)

From PsycPORT comes a summary, Morning Headaches Associated with Depression and Anxiety:

Morning headache affects one individual in 13 in the general population, Dr. Ohayon writes. Chronic morning headaches are a good indicator of major depressive disorders and insomnia disorders. Contrary to what was previously suggested, however, they are not specific to sleep-related breathing disorder, concludes Dr. Ohayon.

You can read the study, Prevalence and Risk Factors of Morning Headaches in the General Population, at Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:97-102.

(via The HeartMath Report)

An excerpt from an eloquent treatise on why suicide should not be dismissed as “merely” an act of irrational behavior. From the blog of Antonio Savoradin:

So I do ask, under such circumstances, in which the sufferer of depression is mocked, is disbelieved, is denied treatment, is blamed for his illness, is acused of selfish whining, is discriminated against for having accepted treatment, or is given inadequate treatment and told to hope for the best (“Here’s a script, follow directions. Expect serious nausea and other side-effects. Your hair won’t fall out, but you may never experience orgasm while taking these. Come back in 2 months if you don’t feel better.”)– all the while the symptoms he feels cannot be seen or measured — under such circumstances, if the depression is severe enough, is ending one’s life truly irrational? Are the circumstances, the “suicide’s situation,” less comprehensible than those leading to suicide for political purposes or to preserve honour, to save face?

There is no doubt depression in all its varieties affects the sufferer’s capacity to think with perfect clarity. But to dismiss a depressive’s suicide as merely the result of a thought disorder, without taking note of the awful conditions against which she has battled, is to do her a great injustice.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t do every single thing that is within our power to prevent a suicide when recovery is a plausible possibility. We should. We must. But let us also realise it is not so simple as saying “suicide is madness.” It is far far more than that. Sometimes suicide is despair; sometimes it is escape from pain; and sometimes it is rage.

How do you approach the severely depressed? You do not deny the reality of his prison. You say, I see the walls of your cell. I see the bars and the door and the lock. But there are many keys (we’re making more, as we speak) and we have to try them *all* if we must. We’ll tear the building down brick by brick if necessary. We know the pain –physical and psychic– is real. We’ll give whatever relief we can for as long as we must. And you have to mean it.

(via The Coffee Sutras)

Panic disorder is an incredibly intrusive ailment that can up-end one’s life. A recent study suggests it may result from abnormalities in the brain. From Panic Spells Are Traced to Chemical in the Brain:

People with panic disorder, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, have drastic reductions of a type of serotonin receptor, called 5-HT1A, in three areas of the brain. The findings, reported last week in The Journal of Neuroscience, lend credence to the suspicion that serotonin dysfunction plays a role in the disorder.

“This provides evidence for what we’ve been telling patients all along,” said Dr. Dennis S. Charney, chief of the mood and anxiety disorders research program at the institutes and an author of the paper. “Panic disorder is due to a specific abnormality in the brain, not a weakness in character.”