By Selena Leon
Students turn to caffeine for energy in the last stretch of this semester. If consumed in right amounts, it can be healthy.
Final exam week is approaching May 7. After many weeks of hard work and studying, some students are exhausted and looking for easy sources of energy. They tend to turn to caffeine, particularly coffee.
Nick Harris, College of Southern Nevada student, mentions, “As soon as I get to school the first thing I do is go to the coffee shop or student store to grab a coffee. It doesn’t necessarily wake me up but I love the taste. I’ve been in the habit of drinking coffee for years now.”
“As you now know there are several benefits of caffeine that can help you succeed in college especially when it comes to completing course materials and studying,” according to California College San Diego’s research published in a July 2017 article titled “Is Caffeine Affecting Your Study Habits.” “Whether you are a parent, working professional or someone interested in starting a new career, you can now have confidence going back to college knowing caffeine isn’t your enemy, it is your friend but only as long as you drink it in moderation.”
The research also explains how coffee has the ability to impact two main chemicals in the brain: adenosine and dopamine. Adenosine has the potential to increase activity and energy levels. Dopamine releases those feel-good chemicals into the brain creating pleasure, which can lead to addiction to coffee or any form of caffeine.
According to the research noted above, 90 percent of Americans consume caffeine each day with coffee as the favored front-runner. Typically the population drinks 3.1 cups of coffee per day. There are more than 30,000 coffee shops and the industry makes up 1.6 percent of the national GDP with $74.2 billion spent on coffee in 2015.
Just like most things, caffeine has its advantages and disadvantages.
According to the article above, “Whether caffeine is good or bad for your body has been a decades-long debate that seems to be almost settled. In fact a new study has found that individuals who drink three-to-five cups of coffee everyday have a 15 percent chance of living longer than those who don’t drink coffee.” Caffeine can increase memory, decrease risk of stroke, Type 2 diabetes, among other health benefits.
In contrast, taking more than 400 milligrams of caffeine at a time is an excessive amount and can interfere with sleep, and increase stress and anxiety.
“Caffeine is a central-nervous system stimulant and is one of the new bio-hacks for improving cognitive function,” says CSN Professor Teresa Rogers, who teaches health sciences. “It is best to consume in small amounts throughout the day instead of one huge drink. I have seen students who have consumed two or more energy drinks in a day and suffer from things such as heart palpitations, extreme restlessness and impaired sleep.”
Danielle Maatouk, CSN student, states, “Depending on the amount of caffeine I have a day will determine if I become jittery or not. One or two of any caffeinated drinks won’t affect me in a negative way but anything past that will make me shaky most of the time.”
Natalie Gomez, CSN student, mentions, “For me personally, I need something with caffeine in it to get me through my day. I have become so reliant on it that I get a headache if don’t at least have my morning coffee.”
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 