Caffeine's Overlooked Health Effect

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - June 26, 2020 - PRLog -- Cancer-causing. Cancer-preventive. Life-shortening. Longevity-promoting. The headlines focusing on caffeine and caffeinated beverages continue to be filled with contradictions. However, physician and health educator, David DeRose, MD, MPH, pulls back the curtain on one of caffeine's most overlooked effects: how it impacts us behaviorally.

In Dr. DeRose's recently published, "The Methuselah Factor: How to live sharper, leaner, longer, and better—in thirty days or less," he shares insights into caffeine's most overlooked dark side.

"My concerns with the behavioral effects of caffeine date back some three decades, when I worked with the now late Bernell Baldwin, PhD—a genius neuroscientist who had a healthy respect for the behavioral effects of common drugs. Baldwin told us that the great Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, had dubbed caffeine 'bad-habit glue.' To support the validity of Pavlov's moniker, Dr. Baldwin related how research on typists revealed that caffeine would generally help them type faster. But that speed came at a price: they made far more errors. However, the typists didn't merely make random errors; they tended to make the same mistakes they had made when learning to type. In other words, caffeine seemed to resurrect bad habit pathways that remained in the typists' brains.

"I've tried to track down independent evidence of Pavlov's insights into caffeine, without success. However, over the years, I've found ample evidence of the connection between caffeine and unhealthy habits. My most memorable personal experience came when I was helping run a residential stop smoking program. Patients would come to our facility for five to seven days while we helped them break free from nicotine. Because of insights like those of Dr. Baldwin's, we didn't allow any caffeine in our facility. In addition, we instructed participants to remain caffeine-free when they returned home. We had the privilege of following up with many of our patients, weeks to months after they returned home. We were struck with an amazing observation: all those who remained caffeine-free stayed nicotine free. However, many of those who returned to coffee or other caffeinated beverages went back to smoking."

Dr. DeRose shares more insights into caffeine's behavioral effects in a short video that forms part of a free 30-day program for health optimization.  You'll find it here: https://youtu.be/utKb6uZCAko.