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Caffeine > Friend or Foe?

You’re tired, you have tons of work to do and you have to stay awake. What do you do? For many adults, the easy answer is to go for a caffeine buzz. But how safe is this? And how much is too much?

A three-year examination of calls to a Chicago poison center reveals a growing problem with caffeine abuse, primarily among college age adults, according to Northwestern University’s Danielle McCarthy, MD and colleagues.

Her research documented 250 cases of medical complications from ingesting caffeine supplements with 12 percent of the cases requiring hospitalization, including the intensive care unit. The average age of those who had abused caffeine was 21. Dr. McCarthy and her colleagues compiled data from calls to the Illinois Poison Center in Chicago.

“Young people taking caffeine either to stay awake or for a feeling of euphoria, may actually end up in the emergency department more often than we think”, says Dr. McCarthy. “Young people being hospitalized for chest pains and heart palpitations are rarely asked if they’ve taken caffeine supplements because everyone perceives them to be safe.”

Caffeine alone was abused in 186 of the cases (68 percent) and abused with other pharmaceutical products in 81 (29 percent) of the cases.

“Part of the problem is that people do not think of caffeine as a drug, but rather as a food product,” said Dr. McCarthy. “We want people ingesting caffeine pills and supplements to know that caffeine is a drug, and overuse is potentially harmful, especially when mixed with other pharmaceuticals for euphoria. There is a trend in the pro-drug culture towards promoting legal alternatives to illegal drugs, and it can be very harmful.”

These findings were reported during the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians* (ACEP) in New Orleans in October 2006 where emergency physicians gathered to share research related to emergency care and patient safety.

*American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine with more than 25,000 members worldwide. http://www.acep.org/sa.

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