Tuesday, October 21, 2008

7% of People Experience Caffeine Intoxication

The food industry is putting caffeine in everything.

With more and more food products containing caffeine, more people are experiencing caffeine intoxication.

Soon enough, we all will be addicted to caffeine.

Hey! Who Put the Caffeine in My Soap?

Oct. 20, 2008 - Time - By John Cloud Monday

Most adults know how many cups of coffee they can have before they get twitchy. We're a race of well-practiced, high-functioning junkies. After all, regular human consumption of caffeine began at least 2,000 years ago, and until recently there was no reason to think our little global addiction posed any threat.

The trend started with super-caffeinated energy drinks in the '90s, but more recently scientists and marketers have created caffeinated foods and even personal-hygiene products. In the past five years, according to the market research giant Mintel, firms have launched at least 126 caffeinated food products for sale in the U.S. Twenty-nine such products have been introduced this year alone. The offerings include things like Morning Spark oatmeal, NRG potato chips and — my favorite, if only for the brazen attempt to draw kids into caffeine culture — Jelly Belly's Extreme Sport Beans, which the company calls "Energizing Jelly Beans." You can also now buy caffeinated toiletries like Bath Buzz Caffeinated Lotion.

Public-health officials are worried about the new products for two reasons: first, people might simply add the new products to their typical ration of coffee or tea. That could increase their risk for caffeine intoxication, a condition that causes symptoms like nervousness, insomnia, tachycardia and psychomotor agitation. Caffeine intoxication is not uncommon: according to a 1998 study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 7% of caffeine users have experienced it. The symptoms usually abate quickly when people quit caffeine, but in rare cases the symptoms can lead to death.

(Read More)

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Rick Kaseljrkaselj@HealingThroughMovement.com
Corrective Exercise Specialist specializing in Pain-free Living
Vancouver, BC, Canada
To learn how to eliminate low back pain in 30 days! -
www.CoreStabilityoftheBack.com
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