Many teens mindlessly consume products containing caffeine without considering the effects. Caffeine is a drug that can affect the body and the mind in many negative ways. Caffeine is an ingredient in many drinks that teenagers consume – many of them realize that caffeine can be helpful in aiding them in staying awake. What they don’t realize that there are risks with every sip that they take.
On average and often without realizing it, teenagers drink around 200- 400mg of caffeine a day. “Caffeine is safe if you don’t get too much. Experts recommend teens get no more than 100 mg of caffeine a day (about 1 cup of coffee or 2 caffeinated sodas),” according to KidsHealth, an organization aimed at giving families the tools and confidence to make the best health choices.
Caffeine is a performance enhancing substance that gives a fast-acting energy boost, it increases alertness; this is because it affects the central nervous system. Teens like caffeine because it gives them energy for up to six hours after taking it; however, caffeine can also increase anxiety, cause jitters and contribute to a lack of sleep. Consumption of caffeine impacts each person differently, depending on gender, weight, age, and caffeine sensitivity.
An extreme example of the impacts of caffeine consumption recently occurred in South Carolina. “For caffeine consumers and teetotalers alike, the news was shocking: A South Carolina teenager died after drinking a cafe latte, a large Diet Mountain Dew and an energy drink in two hours. He collapsed at his high school in late April,” reports the University of Michigan Medical School, one of the nation’s largest biomedical research communities. This news shocked many people, prompting researchers to look further into the dangers of caffeine.
Caffeine can be safe when it's consumed moderately with all the potential risks in mind. “I think caffeine should only be used in an instance where you're doing a physical activity and you need to take it before, just for some energy. And personally, I don’t have a big reason against caffeine, it just makes you act not yourself. It can influence what you're doing, like drugs and alcohol,” said Cascade High School sophomore Ben Jerome.
Many students aged from 12 – 18 think they need caffeine to stay awake. They worry about falling asleep or not being alert if they quit and many finding quitting to be difficult. Caffeine is a drug and can be difficult to remove from one’s diet: side effects of quitting can include nauseousness, headaches, and increased pulse rate.
Caffeine can affect students learning, often to the point that teachers notice the effects. “It's challenging to see what the effects really are, I think we see a lot of change happening as far as possible outcomes of caffeine. The increase in caffeine use, I don’t know if I have seen studies that for sure nail down if its caffeine or other effects, it’s probably more complicated than that. It’s an effect of a lot of things and I think caffeine is one of those big things that has a big change on things, like mental health, anxiety and things like that. I think it’s fine in moderation, I think we're I would draw the line is energy drinks, that’s not moderation, even one of those is not moderation. I don’t think you should be drinking them every morning kinda thing, it’s just too much, it’s an overload for our systems, it's probably because we see a real problem with things like anxiety levels, in high school students. We have this vendetta agents' sugar, but we are allowing that caffeine, it's kinda weird to me,” said the CHS health teacher Mr. Betz.
Caffeine often affects more than just health; it can change people’s mood and thought patterns. After taking caffeine, students' mood and energy will often quickly improve; however, after a few hours that boost starts to wear off and students often find themselves in a slump larger than before they ingested caffeine. Their mood often goes down and they start to feel tired and unwilling to do work. In a repetitive cycle, they crave more caffeine to stay wake and bring their mood back up.
This is how caffeine addiction starts, students need more and more to keep them going. They will need stronger caffeine to feel good and awake. While it is easy to ingest caffeine without much thought, it is essential that students are fully aware of the risks and benefits of this potentially addictive and dangerous substance.
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