Caffeine Fiend

Published on Thursday, August 21, 2008, by Traci Vogel / Edit Post

A recent CBS story about “caffeine intoxication” was a classic piece of scare journalism. It referenced a report from the University of Massachusetts Medical School that stated there had been 4,600 caffeine-related calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers in 2005, more than half of them from people under 19. The report then uses this as a reason to warn about the increasing use of caffeinated beverages by young people—but no comparison numbers are given. How many caffeine-related calls by young people were there in 2004? 2003? Just how seriously should we worry about caffeine intoxication? What were the health outcomes of these calls?

One of the study’s authors, Dr. Richard Church, describes some common symptoms of caffeine intoxication to Early Show cohost Maggie Rodriguez: nausea, headache, mild heart palpitations, and insomnia. But wait! People predisposed to seizures could have seizures. And people predisposed to heart disorders could have heart disorders.

“Everyone’s going to be a little bit different,” says Church.

Rodriguez tries to prompt the doctor to go further, saying, “You called [the caffeine drinkers] users—it really can be like a drug,” but he doesn’t take the bait, replying, “Well, ingesters, I suppose.”

Hint to healthcare experts: If you want to keep the kids off the caffeine, don’t concoct ridiculous scare stories—give us some real numbers. Don’t compare caffeine to a drug. And maybe don’t use the word intoxication. Just sayin’.

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  • Do you mean Rite of passage?

  • Odd, the symptoms of caffeine intoxication are also those of withdrawal.

    I gave up caffeine (As much as possible) about three years ago. One day, I just stopped my morning coffee and switched to decaf tea, coffee, the rare decaf soda and such.

    But not because of any fear of intoxication or wish to feel morally/fitnessarily superior. Caffeine addiction turned me into a jerk. So I gave it up, and...+READ

    Odd, the symptoms of caffeine intoxication are also those of withdrawal.

    I gave up caffeine (As much as possible) about three years ago. One day, I just stopped my morning coffee and switched to decaf tea, coffee, the rare decaf soda and such.

    But not because of any fear of intoxication or wish to feel morally/fitnessarily superior. Caffeine addiction turned me into a jerk. So I gave it up, and now only have it if I accidentally eat some allergen and need to avoid death.

    Now when I'm a jerk, I know it's all me, baby, and not the caffeine talking! ;) Unless its an allergy attack.

    Still, I don't understand buying kids lattes. When I was a sprog, coffee was one of those things considered a right of passage. Tea we drank all over, thanks to English parents, but coffee was for grown ups who enjoyed the mysterious klatches involving sitting and yakking in the front room, or for construction workers to drink out of tall thermoses.-COLLAPSE

  • "caffeine intoxication"?? please. this country finds a way to overreact/take to extremes the risks of everything we put into our bodies, these "healthcare experts" are probably just looking for new reasons to hand out prescriptions to gullible americans

  • well, I'm happier since I cut down on tea. But I'm very sensitive to caffeine. sleeping better.

  • caffeine is definitely a drug. a wonderful, happy, perfect drug.