The Effects of Caffeine: What Young Adults Need to Know

From ener­gy drinks to sodas to over­priced cof­fee con­coc­tions, young adults love their caffeine.

It’s not hard to fig­ure out why. Between busy sched­ules and not always get­ting enough sleep, young adults and teenagers often need a boost of ener­gy, and caf­feine is a quick and easy way to get it.

But is all that caf­feine good for you? What are the effects of caffeine?

If caf­feine may as well be one of your food groups, here’s what you need to know.

Too Much Caf­feine Can Have Some Unpleas­ant Side Effects.

Hav­ing too much caf­feine can take a toll on your body. A lot of caf­feine can keep you alert and active – but at a cost.

In the short term, over­do­ing caf­feine can cause side effects such as:

• Faster heart rate
• Faster breath­ing
• Dif­fi­cul­ty falling asleep, stay­ing asleep, or insomnia
• Jit­ters, rest­less­ness, or shakiness
• Upset stom­ach
• Anx­i­ety
• Dizzi­ness
• Anx­i­ety
• Depres­sion

These effects might seem like a small price to pay every once in a while. How­ev­er, con­stant­ly hav­ing a lot of caf­feine can cause more seri­ous health prob­lems. For exam­ple, it can put you at risk for addic­tive behav­iors like smok­ing or alco­hol depen­den­cy. Unfil­tered cof­fee that is brewed with a French press can increase your cholesterol.

Also read: Why Am I So Tired? Tips & Tricks for Alle­vi­at­ing Fatigue

Caf­feine Isn’t Always Bad for You.

That said, there are some ben­e­fits to caf­feine. One of the well-known ones is its abil­i­ty to treat headaches. In small dos­es, caf­feine can help you beat a headache. Some peo­ple find that it helps them treat migraines, too.

Some oth­er ben­e­fits of caf­feine (in the right dose) include:

• Decreased appetite, which can slight­ly reduce weight gain
• Faster reac­tion time
• Improved liv­er health
• Increased ener­gy and alertness
• Reduced con­sti­pa­tion

There are stud­ies show­ing that the right amount of caf­feine may low­er your risk of type 2 dia­betes, heart attack, stroke, Parkinson’s dis­ease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Ques­tions about caf­feine intake or improv­ing your ener­gy? Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider. 

Your Source of Caf­feine Makes a Major Difference.

Depend­ing on how you con­sume it, you may negate the ben­e­fits of caf­feine and end up putting your health at risk. This is espe­cial­ly true when it comes to the effects of caf­feine on your weight.

One of the ben­e­fits of caf­feine is that it can low­er your appetite, which may help you avoid weight gain. But, if you fill your cof­fee cup with cream and sweet­en­ers, or drink sodas or ener­gy drinks with lots of sug­ar and calo­ries, you could actu­al­ly end up gain­ing weight.

Caf­feine Affects Young Peo­ple Dif­fer­ent­ly Than Adults.

Many of the effects of caf­feine are the same regard­less of your age. But if you’re a teenag­er, you may want to be a lit­tle more careful.

Dur­ing your teen years, your body is still grow­ing. If you haven’t reached your full adult size yet, it can take much less caf­feine to feel the effects than it does for an adult. You may also be more sen­si­tive to cer­tain effects like anx­i­ety, dehy­dra­tion, or diarrhea. 

There Are Hid­den Sources of Caffeine.

Caf­feine likes to hide in plain sight. Even if you don’t drink caf­feinat­ed bev­er­ages, you might still be con­sum­ing caffeine.

Also, don’t assume that you’re in the clear if you have a decaf cof­fee or tea. ​“Decaf” doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that there’s no caf­feine at all. It just means that there is less.

Caf­feine Can Affect Med­ical Conditions.

Caf­feine can wors­en the symp­toms of some med­ical con­di­tions and make it hard­er for med­ica­tions to work. If you have high blood pres­sure, anx­i­ety, or type 2 dia­betes, you may want to lim­it your caf­feine intake.

Also, be aware of inter­ac­tions between caf­feine and cer­tain med­ica­tions. For exam­ple, hor­mon­al birth con­trol pills can increase the time it takes for your body to break down caf­feine – and the effects of caf­feine could last twice as long as usu­al. Anoth­er exam­ple is pseu­doephedrine (Sudafed), which is an over-the-counter decon­ges­tant. Mix­ing it with caf­feine can increase your blood pres­sure and/​or heart rate.

Alco­hol and Caf­feine Don’t Mix Well.

In 2010, the US banned the sale of alco­holic drinks con­tain­ing caf­feine. How­ev­er, the ban hasn’t stopped peo­ple from com­bin­ing alco­hol and caf­feine. Bars can still sell mixed drinks, like rum and cola or espres­so mar­ti­nis, that are laden with both ingre­di­ents. Many peo­ple mix their own drinks that have both caf­feine and alcohol.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, mix­ing the two can be dan­ger­ous. The com­bi­na­tion of alco­hol and caf­feine has been shown to increase your risk of an alco­hol over­dose and your like­li­hood of mak­ing risky deci­sions like get­ting in a car with a drunk dri­ver. And if you fre­quent­ly have alco­hol and caf­feine togeth­er, you put your­self at a high­er risk for alco­hol depen­dence, alco­hol use dis­or­der, and binge drinking.

Also read: Sober-Curi­ous: Ben­e­fits of an Alco­hol-Free Lifestyle

Find the Right Amount of Caffeine.

When it comes to the right dose of caf­feine, there isn’t a mag­ic num­ber. Every­one responds to caf­feine dif­fer­ent­ly. Age, med­ical con­di­tions, lifestyle habits like smok­ing, or tak­ing cer­tain med­ica­tions can all impact how caf­feine affects you.

But in gen­er­al, most healthy adults can safe­ly have about 400 mil­ligrams of caf­feine per day (rough­ly four cups of brewed cof­fee). Ado­les­cents ages 12 to 18 should lim­it their caf­feine to 100 mil­ligrams per day.

Once you’ve hit your lim­it for the day or feel like it’s too late to have caf­feine, there are plen­ty of oth­er ways to get ener­gized. Tak­ing a short walk, doing a few jump­ing jacks, eat­ing an apple or banana, or drink­ing a glass of water can all give you that boost you need with­out fill­ing your body with caffeine.

Also read: Tips to Avoid Mil­len­ni­al Burnout: How to Stay Healthy and Ener­gized as a Young Adult

The bot­tom line is you prob­a­bly don’t need to give up caf­feine, but it’s impor­tant to pay atten­tion to how much you ingest and your sources of caf­feine. If you’re not sure what the right amount is for you, or if you want to find alter­na­tives to caf­feine, you can always talk to your health­care provider.