Stuff You Should Know - Selects: The Duality of Caffeine

Episode Date: July 20, 2024

Caffeine is a heck of a drug - at the same time it's both good and bad for you. Learn the good, bad and ugly about this everyday stimulant in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For so many people living with an autoimmune condition like myasthenia gravis or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the emotional toll can be as real as the physical symptoms. That's why in an all new season of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition from Ruby Studio and Argenics, host Martine Hackett gets to the heart of the emotional journey for individuals living with these conditions. To find community and inspiration on your journey, listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women's sports. Every day I'm bringing you the stakes, stars, stats, and stories to keep you up to date. If you're new to women's sports, welcome. And if you've been around, let's make things nice and comfy for our new friends. Good Game is where we go to celebrate, debate, and dissect the teamwork, competition, and

rivalries that we love to watch. Join us. Let's have some fun. Listen to Good Game with Sarah Spayne on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everybody. It's your friendly neighborhood co-host, Charles W. Chuck Bryant here. We're going to take you back in time to January 14th, 2016, when we spoke at length about

caffeine and the ups, literally, and the downs downs literally. It's called the duality of caffeine. I hope you enjoy over your cup Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there totally throwing us off with some new Hocus Pocus 2016 head stuff. What? Yeah. Yeah. She's messing with it. So we, you guys you guys don't know this, cause through the power of the magic of editing... And publishing. And publishing, you think we've just never been gone from the office? Yeah. But we've been gone.

I have no idea what episodes we released. I've been so out of it. Yeah, I took, uh, six weeks of paternity leave. Woo! And I did by proxy. And you did by proxy. Yeah. So we've been gone from the studio for a while, and just wanted to say it's glad to be back, buddy. Yeah, it is nice to be back, buddy.

And it's good to see you again. It's been a long time. What's happened in the meantime? I lost another tooth. Yeah. My stupid front, the tooth next to the one that came out broke off at a Falcons game.

Oh well, there you go. God was cursing you for being at the Falcons game. So I have another stupid flipper in another eight months of. Eight months, really? Yeah, until I get the permanent implant. So again, I'll be out on tour with no tooth. You can't even see it.

Like you have to literally like pull your gums back, or your lips back to your gums. Or if I laugh a lot, which I'm trying to just lead a more somber life. Well I plan on making you laugh a lot on stage, so people might see it then. What else, you got a dog. Yeah, we got a puppy named Momo.

You wanna talk about Momo? Momo is very sweet. She's a sweet little Shizu Poodle mixture. How's that going? She's a little fluff ball, very good. House trained or? Yes, right off the bat. We crate trained her.

And at first I was like crates are mean. No they're not mean. You shouldn't put a dog in a crate. And then I started to read up on it. They love it. Yes, it's like her den. It's her little room, like her bedroom. In fact, when we took away the crate

from our youngest dog, Charlie, because we needed a breakfast nook, she was kinda like, dude, you took my room away. Yeah, that was my room. We plan to keep her crate around as long as she wants it, but just she won't be penned in it against her will at certain times until she's housebroken, which I mean,

she's basically there. It's just, we're like, what are you doing? You're about to pee, you know? Right, right. She doesn't actually have accidents in the house. We're just staying on top of it. That's great. What else happened?

We had holidays. Yes. Good Christmas and New Year's, I guess. Yup. Yumi's birthday. Oh, yeah, of course. She had her birthday. And it was just a nice time off. Like I had this big to-do list.

Yeah. And none of it got done, because it was raising a puppy replaced that. Yeah. How's your kid? Ruby's great, man, and I did the same thing. I had a big to-do list, and found myself just kind of being like, oh, could you do this?

Or I could just like play with my kid. Right, or watch Making a Murderer. Yeah, I did watch all that, did you? Same here. Yeah. In like a day. We'll talk about that. We probably shouldn't talk about it.

People want us to do a podcast on that. I know. Like a follow-up. Maybe. It's not as bad as the request to do a podcast on the case that Serial covered. I'm like, I think Serial got that one covered. No, I'm not gonna get it, no.

No, of course not. I could maybe do a follow-up on Making Over Murder. I think we should revisit Exoneration's and the Innocence Project again, because when we did that one, we had no idea what was going on, and now it's really like, it's really coming through. True.

So yes, let's do that. Oh, I've been playing a lot of, I got a PS4. Oh yeah? I've been playing Fallout 4. With the dog? In their dog companion? Well, you can have a dog companion, so of course I chose it.

Okay. But it's really awful, cause the dog gets hurt a lot. And like struggles around, whimpering and bleeding. Do you have to put it out of its misery ever? Well no, you can heal the dog, but I went to message boards and everyone's like, don't heal your dog. Like, just trust me, it'll heal itself.

Don't waste your medicine. Oh, okay, yeah. I'm sure you waste your medicine every time, don't you? Well, yeah, it's tough to hear the fake dog whimper. Yeah, and it's like, I'll be okay. Don't mind me. Dogmeat, that's his name. So that was a big time off that we just covered.

It was, and that's all that happened. Jerry, how about you? That was great, Jerry. I'm glad you had a nice time as well. Jerry also had a nice break with her little baby Inez. She told us this through a series of blinks. She did. That we've worked out a series of blinks. She did. That we've worked out over the years.

Yep. Nice job. All right, so sorry about the long intro, but I felt like we needed to catch everyone up even though you didn't know that you needed it. Right. And maybe it has something to do with caffeine. Because we did such a good job when we recorded those ones

that were released over the break of predicting things we would be talking about at the time. True, yeah. Who could tell? Exactly. So I'm a little caffeinated right now, believe it or not. I don't drink nearly as much coffee as I used to. It's because I really realize it really does have a detrimental effect on my mood.

Say in the car. Car's a really good example of me and caffeine. You're a little ramped up in the car anyway, so that probably didn't help. Right. Well, I'm working on that. But part of working on that is just, you know, not drinking as much coffee. Yeah, I think a good title for this could be mixed messages because in studying caffeine, and we did one on coffee, so we dabbled in this a little bit,

but all the research is, caffeine can be really good for you and help a lot of things and caffeine can be kind of bad for you and it's kind of both or can be both. It sure seems like that unless we have like a completely misunderstood model of addiction and the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system. Unless we don't know those things, then yeah, coffee is both for sure.

The weird thing is, like everybody realizes that coffee, or I'm sorry, caffeine, I think I'm probably gonna do that a lot this episode, because they are virtually interchangeable, but it's not really. But caffeine, it has a lot of really bad effects on you, and a lot of really bad effects on you and a lot of people know that just from having experienced it. You're right. It's the beneficial effects that are so surprising.

But they do seem to, like you say. Agreed. So Chuck, I drink, today I've had five cups of coffee and a diet Mountain Dew. And it is 1.40 in the afternoon. Right. What time did you get up? Seven.

Seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, yes, I'm counting on my fingers. Got six and a half hours. You've done well. Six and a half hours, you've had five cups of coffee and a Mountain Dew. Right. And that's cutting back?

Yes. Oh man. Yeah, and it's cutting back because, like this afternoon, I won't keep going. Oh, so you stop. This will be my last probably. Really, for the day? Yeah, oh okay.

And I'm actually, I'm above average for the United States and I could have guessed that. Yeah. But the average for the United States is actually on the worse end of the spectrum as far as like caffeine consumption goes. Yeah, the latest information I got is that the US was 16th in the world

in per capita consumption. Yeah, not even 10th or 9th, or anywhere above 10th. No, 16th. If you wanna know who leads the world, right now, I think it's the Netherlands is what I found. I found Finland. Oh really? Uh-huh.

From 2013? That was the most recent I saw. Well the most recent I saw said the Netherlands at 2.4 with Finland at 1.8. Really, that is not what I saw. Really? Yeah. Where were the Netherlands on your list?

I don't remember, I just saw that Finland was number one at like 2.4. Oh wow. And like 9.6 kilograms of coffee beans per person per year consumed. Well I bet the top 10 is kind of interchangeable and fairly static though. Sure.

As in the same-ish countries in different orders. Yeah because I mean coffee consumption patterns, I guess they could change fairly rapidly, but they don't change in the blink of an eye. Well, think about how much Starbucks changed coffee consumption in this country. Did it ramp it up? Oh, yeah.

Like, think about how many people now swing by Starbucks at like 3 p.m., whereas before they may not even have drank coffee. Yeah, don't you mean Charbux? Yeah, yeah. Actually have noux? Yeah yeah. I actually have no skin in the game. I like Starbucks. Yeah I don't really well you know me I don't drink caffeine that much. No I know. You're very mellow. Yeah I don't know I'm starting to think I should drink more coffee though. Why? Because of the health

benefits. Oh yeah. You know. We'll see we'll'll get into all that. But in the top 10, you have Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Scandinavia loves their coffee apparently. Yeah, it's very cold there. Slovakia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Norway, then eventually the US. Cold countries. Not bad. Although Brazil loves its coffee as well I think. They're like number 10 or 11 or something like that. Good I didn't see they weren't even in my top 16. So we had different lists made by two different caffeinated weirdos So the US

The FDA and the AMA right now, I think they raised it to 400 milligrams a day From 300 just in the face of changing coffee consumption. Yeah, I think it's now up to 400 milligrams a day as they said should be like the upper limit of what you should drink and what is cool to drink for your health. Right. Not by being cool.

You could drink 100 cups a day and you'd be super cool. Right. That's why I drink coffee so much. Yeah, exactly. I wanna be cool. So what is that? 400 milligrams a day. That's about two,

eight ounce cups of coffee. 400 is? Yes. Like high, high. High octane. Right, coffee. Sure. But yeah, it's no more than maybe three.

Well, and that's caffeine though. That's not coffee. Right. So you might also be drinking sodas or eating chocolate. Sure. Or eating on a cocoa nib. That's packed with caffeine. Yeah.

Yeah, it does show up in all sorts of surprising places. Including, I looked this up, decaf coffee as well, we should say. Yeah, it's still got some caffeine in there, right? Yeah, so like a cup of coffee, eight ounces of coffee can have anywhere from like 75 to 200-ish milligrams of caffeine in it. Decaf coffee still might have like 20 milligrams.

And I mean, it doesn't sound like much, but if you're pounding decaf coffee, because you love coffee, but you're trying to cut back on caffeine, stuff can add up. decaf coffee because you love coffee, but you're trying to cut back on caffeine, stuff can add up. Interesting. I knew there was some caffeine, but maybe that's not,

is that negligible? I, 20 itself, just if you drank one decaffeinated cup of coffee a day, yes. I think on the overall effects of your health, it would be negligible. But both ways, because again, the coffee giveth,

and the coffee taketh away. It's a double edged drug. Yeah, and it is a drug, and it's also in tea, which we'll get to as well. But yeah, it's a drug, it naturally occurs, like many drugs, but it is a stimulant called trimethylxanthine. Nice job.

Chemical formula CH, Sorry, C8H10N4O2. Not zero two. I think there's a 10 in there. What did I say, one zero? Yeah. Which I mean, you know, if you're on a CB or something, they get the point. Oh man.

This podcasting is as close to CB chatter as you can come. You know, if you're on a CB or something, they get the point. Oh man. I used to love CBs. Is this podcasting as close to CB chatter as you can come? I, quick segue here, I used to love talking on the CB because my dad had one in his Jeep. Oh yeah? And remember when CB culture was huge in the 70s. Sure. My buddy John Pendell now is a trucker. You met John.

Where? At our New York shows, tall Johnny Pindell. He's a trucker now. Okay. And I got to hang out and get in his truck. And he does not use a CB. And he said that he might get one, but it's not like the standard thing anymore.

What is now? Texting? No, just cell phones. I mean, he said if you really wanna be a part of that big trucker culture you can do the CB still. Well you can just be a lone wolf. He's a lone wolf. Gotcha. Right now he is. He needs one of those jackets like Lenny and Squiggy used to wear. Yeah, it was fascinating though we need to do an episode on trucking because when I saw him all I did was ask questions basically. Yeah. It's fascinating.

Does he have his own rig? No, he doesn't own it. That means truck. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, well, hey to Johnny, and he listens to the podcast now, so. Hey, Johnny. Yeah, you don't need a CB

if you listen to stuff you should know. No, we are your CB. We'll keep you company. All right, so anyway, caffeine, he does drink a lot of caffeine. I think that's where I was going with that. Yeah, but that really had nothing to do with it. I brought up CBs because you said H1, zero.

Why don't we take a break? And get our C legs back, our P legs. We're a little rusty. And P is in podcast, not urine. I thought you meant urine. Oh man. Oh, hey, I'll tell you something about this break. I learned that there's something called

mixturition syncope. Mixturition is, a lot of people think it means to pee. No, urination is to pee. Mixturition is the urge to pee. Syncope is a fainting spell. So, there's a condition out there called mixturition syncope where a fainting spell. So there's a condition out there called mixture-ition syncope where people faint after they pee. There's also one called defecation syncope

where people faint after they poop. They have no idea why. I think Elvis had the most severe case of that. Yeah, he did. All right, well don't let that happen to you during this break and we will be back right after this. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition, the emotional toll is as real as the physical symptoms.

Starting this May, join host, Martin Hackett, for season three of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production, and partnership with Argenics. From myasthenia gravis, or MG, to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, also known as CIDP, Untold Stories highlights the realities

of navigating life with these conditions from challenges to triumphs. This season, Martina and her guests discuss the range of emotions that accompany each stage of the journey. Whether it's the anxiety of misdiagnosis or the relief of finding support and community, nothing is off limits. And while each story is unique, the hope they inspire is shared by all. Listen to Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women's sports. Every day I'm bringing you the stakes, stats, stars and stories to keep you up to date. If you're new to women's sports, welcome. Can't wait to show you around. And if you've been around, let's make things nice and comfy for our new friends. We want Good Game to be just like women's sports. The best of the competition, teamwork

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The tea, y'all, the tea is so good. Good Game is where we go to celebrate, debate, and dissect those stories and all aspects of women's sports. Join us. Let's have some fun. Listen to Good Game with Sarah Spayne on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tom Slick, February 14th, 1958. We just heard it. The proof. Owen Wilson is Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter. To track the Yeti is an expectation of life and death, Mr. Slick. It's a mystery that does not want to be solved. That's why I'm here we're gonna die Ellis when chance arrives God I need my blood pressure checked after that mom you don't have to listen to this if it's too much these are my father's untold stories I am listening join Claire and Liv Slick,

played by Sissy Spacek and Skyler Fisk, as they uncover the truth behind a man they thought they knew. Listen to my show, Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most thrilling adventure stories. you get your most thrilling adventure stories. Late on the evening of March 8, 1971, a group of anti-war activists did something insane. Holy s***, we are really here.

This is really happening. They weren't professional criminals. They were ordinary citizens. But they needed to know the truth about the FBI. Burglary's forged blackmail letters and threats of violence were used to try to stop anti-war marches. Even if that meant risking everything. I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon and it was just my job to stop the fire.

I'm Ed Helms, host of Snafu, season two, Medburg, the story of a daring heist that exposed J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI. If it meant some risks that were involved, well, that's what citizens sometimes have to do. Listen to season two of Snafu on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hoo, ha, hoo, wherever you get your podcasts. ["Hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha"] ["Hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha"]

Have we got it together? That was like a half a second. Are we good? Yeah, I guess so. All right. We're gonna give it another stab here. So caffeine, I think that's what we were talking about. It's a drug and in its pure form, Chuck,

it is a bitter tasting crystalline powder. That's right. It's actually very closely related, at least in its effects, to opioid antagonists like heroin, cocaine, caffeine. Yeah. And we'll talk a little more about the effects on the brain, but it does have these effects and it does basically, it uses the same mechanism as these drugs and therefore it can cause

addictions just like these drugs as well. Yeah. And like I said, it occurs naturally. It's in the coffee bean and in chocolate and tea. But it's also added artificially in things like soda. And I looked up the sodas to get the most recent amount and Pepsi One right now I think has the most caffeine. Man, do you remember Jolt and Vault? I used to drink a ton of Vault.

Sure you did. Well, I would drink one right before the podcast, remember? And then I'd just be like talking a thousand miles an hour. Yeah, the good old days. I've settled down quite a bit. You have. I'm happier for it. Pepsi one at 57 milligrams, Tab is number two at 48,

Diet Coke 46, you will work your way down to regular old Coca-Cola at 33 milligrams per 12 ounce can. And the FDA regulates how much caffeine you can put in a soda. A soda. A soda. That's the key. That's right. If you're an energy drink, like Red Bull or any of those other gross tasting things, I don't like them personally, but people love them. I just don't

like the taste, but that's the work around for the FDA because they're not considered sodas. They can put lots of caffeine and sugar to the tune of about 80 milligrams per 8.3 ounces, in the case of Red Bull. That's a lot of caffeine. It does seem like a lot, but some people love to take it even further. And there's like those five hour energy shots. Oh yeah, I have had those before. Those are two, I have not tried it before. I don't know why, I think I was doing construction work

and I was really tired. And I was at the big box store and it was right there at checkout. I was like, let me try this thing. Yeah. And it ramped me up, I felt like a speed head. So in that little two ounce shot, there's 200 milligrams of caffeine.

No wonder. Like a high end amount in a coffee in that little two ounce shot. Okay, and I think those are the, like coffee has the most of any beverage. I think espresso ounce for ounce has the most. Well, I mean from the coffee bean at least, or espresso bean.

Oh yeah. Not like an artificial drink is what I meant. Yeah, we got an espresso maker and it has some pronounced effects. It's crazy how different it is from coffee. Yeah, I like an espresso every now and then. Sure. And I like my coffee every now and then.

Yeah. But just every now and then. If you want the health benefits though, and you're like, I like an espresso every now and then. Sure. And I like my coffee every now and then. Yeah. But just every now and then. If you want the health benefits though and you're like, I don't drink that much coffee, you should just be injecting pure caffeine, Chuck. Can you do that? They do it to mice. Yeah, that's a good point.

As we'll see later on. True. I should probably, again, it's been several weeks since we've done this, I need to probably throw out a disclaimer there, that was a joke. Right, don't inject caffeine into your bloodstream. No, if you can even get your hands on pure caffeine, do not inject it. You probably shouldn't inject anything,

let alone the pure form of anything. Because even too much water can kill you. Always remember that everybody, even too much water can kill you. And I did, everybody. Even too much water can kill you. And I did look into caffeine overdoses because I was curious, and it doesn't happen much because you'd have to drink so much of something that it makes it unlikely,

but there have been overdoses blamed on caffeine pills. Like, okay, what's the milligram amount? What's the dosage amount that it got? Oh, I can't remember. This one kid died in Connecticut like a 19 year old that I Think he had like a dozen or two dozen caffeine pills Wow And it's the I think the deal with caffeine pills. It's concentrated and it hits you all at once Yeah, so taking a lot of it is just like overdosing on any kind of sure emulant. I think yeah, it's a stimulant

Yeah, that's some weird stuff to you. Including killing you. And like you said, Chuggers, we already talked about coffee in the coffee episode, right? Yes. But some of it bears repeating. The lighter the roast,

the higher the caffeine content, typically, because the roasting process actually bakes out a lot of the caffeine. I thought you were gonna make up a clever rhyme. Like, the lighter the roast, the darker the toast or something. No, that doesn't make any sense. The rhymes got to at least make sense, or else it's just rhyming words.

How about the lighter the roast, more caffeine than most? How about that? That's great. That actually makes sense. And so if you want to extract the most caffeine out of your diet, Yeah. I actually came across a website called Bulletproof exec.

You know that Bulletproof coffee thing? Where you put like butter in your coffee? No. It's like a diet thing. I think it aids in pooping and- Butter in your coffee? Yeah, butter in your coffee. Sounds delicious.

It's called Bulletproof, it's actually not bad. If you like that though, take it one step further and useing and. Butter in your coffee? Yeah, butter in your coffee. It sounds delicious. It's called Bulletproof, it's actually not bad. Yeah. If you like that though, take it one step further and use coconut oil. Oh, okay. That's even better. It's got a little, it's like an Almond Joy creamer. Ooh, wow. But like an oily version of it.

Yeah. Anyway, this Bulletproof exec, they had a post about maximizing your caffeine intake so you can suck it to your underlings throughout the day or whatever. Most efficiently, right? And one of the things that they said is that grapefruit, you should eat more grapefruit

because grapefruit contains something called naregin, or naregin, and it actually slows the removal of caffeine from your brain. So you enjoy its effects longer. Nice. So a morning breakfast in the 1950s of coffee and half a grapefruit is all you needed. Yeah.

And then your noon cocaine bump just to keep you going. Just from drinking Coca-Cola. Yeah, exactly. And if you also, if you wanna maximize your caffeine intake from coffee, you should look at the beans you're drinking. So, arabica, which is I think the most prevalent coffee, it's 1.5% caffeine, but Robusta, 2.4%.

That is Robusta. As far as I know, that's the highest caffeine content naturally of any coffee bean. So a light roast Robusta is gonna basically with your grapefruit Yeah, you it'll be like getting kicked in the chest by a mule Wow and is doesn't that sound appealing? That's what every bulletproof exec wants Wow shows you how to be a more efficient robber baron So let's get down to this man How how does caffeine actually affect your brain?

this man, how does caffeine actually affect your brain? Because it does affect your brain. The whole point behind taking coffee and stuff like that is, as the guy who wrote this article, oh, the three guys who wrote this article, including you. Yeah, I did a little update on this, I forgot. Using caffeine, it's a form of self-medication. Of course, that's why most people drink it, I think, to get that boost in the morning.

Sure. Or in the middle of the afternoon. Yeah, and I'm sure people love the taste and stuff. It's not like they're holding their nose and forcing this drink down their throat. Well, that's what like five-hour energy's for. Those don't taste very good. Do they not?

I've never tasted one. I've always wondered, but I've never wanted to experience this effect so badly that I tasted it. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like just that synthetic fruit taste. Does it taste like medicinal at all? Yeah, it tastes, yeah, it's just not good. Huh. In my opinion. Well, it's just two ounces you get it over with real quick, right?

Yeah, you just sock it down and like you're done. And then punch a wall. So how does it work on the brain? It tricks your brain actually. By mimicking something called adenosine. And it's kind of remarkable actually. Because what it does is it mimics adenosine and then does the opposite of what adenosine does. Which is to try and help you sleep.

It's pretty cool. So you have a sleep-wake cycle, right? Part of the sleep cycle is adenosine latching on to the adenosine receptors on your neurons. Makes you sleepy. Yeah, it does make you sleepy because it slows the function of your neurons down. It's a big buzzkill, basically. It's a drag, adenosine is. Well, it's great for sleep. Yeah, it is. It's a drag, adenosine is. Well, it's great. It is.

Yeah, it is. It helps make you sleepy. And what caffeine does is it gets in there into the same receptor. It binds to the same receptor as adenosine. Because your brain thinks it's adenosine. Yeah, it puts on its adenosine costume, basically. Pretty much.

Which consists of like a sparkly one piece jumpsuit. It's a onesie. And it not only doesn't slow your neurons down, it apparently speeds them up. Yes. So your brain starts going haywire. That's part one of what caffeine does to your brain. It not only doesn't slow your brain down,

it prevents the thing that does slow your brain down from slowing your brain down, and it actually speeds your brain up. So it's a haywire. And not only that, but adenosine usually, well not usually, adenosine always causes your blood vessels to dilate and caffeine causes them to constrict, which sounds bad, but one of the pluses,

and we'll get into the benefits, but one of them is constricting, it can maybe help you avoid headaches and migraines, and that's why caffeine is in things like Anisyn or my old reliable BC or goodies headache powders that I use contain caffeine. That's my secret hangover helper. BC powder. BC or goodies. It just acts fast. Bloody Marys, they work reallyover helper. BC powder. BC or goodies.

Or Axefast. Bloody Marys. They work really well too. Both together. A little, yeah, I gotcha. No. Yeah, so caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, right? That's right.

It constricts your blood vessels. And like you said, that can actually help your headaches because a lot of headaches, vascular headaches, I guess is what they're called, are when your blood vessels are too big and the change in pressure in your brain gives you this horrible headache. Right, so while this is happening,

your body thinks these neurons are firing, your pituitary gland says you must be in trouble because you're supposed to be going to sleep, buddy. Yeah, there's clearly a bear coming at you that I don't know about, something's wrong. So let's send you some adrenaline. We've talked ad nauseum about fight or flight, and your body thinks that's what's going on

when you drink coffee, or caffeine. So it says, here, you need this adrenaline because, like you said, you got a bear coming your way, and all the hallmarks of fight or flight kick in. Which, man, this used to be like our... Go to. Yeah. And now it's just such an accepted part of everything.

That's right. Do we even need to say the things anymore? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so your pupils dilate. Yeah. Your breathing becomes more rapid, you get more breaths. If you're eating something, you stop digesting it because your stomach doesn't matter at that point.

Superfluous. Your blood pressure rises. Your liver releases sugar in the bloodstream so you can get some extra energy. You're ready to go, basically. It's like time for some action. Yeah, and that's why you drink that cup of coffee. You might feel tense, like you in the car.

Yes. Or agitated. Right. It's because your body thinks you're about to be in a big fight with the car next to you. Yeah. Which ends up, it's this weird reverse cycle that ends up causing that fight.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You'll also find if you drink a lot of coffee like me, a big knot develops in between your shoulder blades just below your neck. It's just yet another result of your muscles tightening and you being ready for action thanks to the fight or flight syndrome.

So your brain has been kept from getting drowsy. It's been sent into basically like a Lucy-esque assembly line of chocolates. The fight or flight syndrome has kicked in. That describes a significant amount of the effects of coffee, but there's a big one that's missing still that we haven't touched on, and that is its pleasurable effects. It makes you feel good. Yeah, because it's a stimulant and it's a drug,

and just like all the other illicit illegal drugs, this one is just accepted, but it has the same effect. It's gonna release dopamine, and that's the pleasure center activation center. Right? And it makes you want more of it, and so that dopamine's flowing, and your body's like, man, this is great.

Yeah, so it doesn't actually, it's like heroin and cocaine. It doesn't actually make you overproduce dopamine, but it keeps dopamine from being absorbed as quickly, so you get its effects longer and more than you would if you weren't under the influence of the drug. Just like heroin, just like cocaine, caffeine again, it uses the exact same mechanism. It's just to a weaker degree, which is why, again,

people aren't shooting caffeine, which is a bad idea. This, we should point out, varies from person to person. The effects of caffeine on the body because it metabolizes differently in everyone. So some people might be like, I don't get jittery at all. Or I can go right to sleep after coffee. Other people... I'd like to see those people in an espresso shot of Robusta. Yeah. I'll bet they wouldn't be singing the same song.

Other folks, I used to wait tables, and I would have people come in at like lunch and say like, no, no, no, I can't. Like their friend would get a cup of coffee after, they'd be like, no, no, no, I'll be up all night. Yeah. I'd be like, are you serious? Yeah. What? Did you say that to them?

No, I would just always think it was a little weird, but like I said, it may keep them up all night. That's their own jam. Those people know their bodies. So don't, just go with the decaf in that case. So there are plenty of negative effects like keeping you up all night, as well as positive effects with caffeine,

and we're gonna talk about those right after this. ["Dreams of a New World"] For so many people living with an autoimmune condition, the emotional toll is as real as the physical symptoms. Starting this May, join host, Martine Hackett, Living with an autoimmune condition, the emotional toll is as real as the physical symptoms. Starting this May, join host, Martine Hackett, for season 3 of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio Production, and partnership with Arginics. From myasthenia gravis, or MG, to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, also known as CIDP, Untold Stories highlights the realities of

navigating life with these conditions from challenges to triumphs. This season, Martine and her guests discuss the range of emotions that accompany each stage of the journey. Whether it's the anxiety of misdiagnosis or the relief of finding support in community, nothing is off limits. And while each story is unique, the hope they inspire is shared by all. Listen to Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women's sports.

Every day I'm bringing you the stakes, stats, stars and stories to keep you up to date. If you're new to women's sports, welcome. Can't wait to show you around. And if you've been around, let's make things nice and comfy for our new friends. We want Good Game to be just like women's sports. The best of the competition, teamwork and rivalries that we love, minus the toxic masculinity and drunken brawls. Where else but women's sports?

Do we see a player passing her ex-wife on the WNBA's all-time leading scorer list and then watch her new fiancee, teammate and MVP candidate talk about it afterward on SportsCenter? Shout out to DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas. The tea, y'all, the tea is so good. Good Game is where we go to celebrate, debate, and dissect those stories and all aspects of women's sports.

Join us, let's have some fun. Listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tom Slick, February 14th, 1958. We just heard it. The proof. Owen Wilson is Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter. To track the Yeti is an expectation of life and death, Mr. Slick.

It's a mystery that does not want to be solved. That's why I'm here. We're going to die! Nellis, when chance arrives, act! Act! Act! Act! Act!

God, I need my blood pressure checked after that. Mom, you don't have to listen to this if it's too much. These are my father's untold stories. I am listening. Join Claire and Liv Slick, played by Sissy Spacek and Skyler Fisk, as they uncover the truth behind a man they thought they knew.

Listen to my show, Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your most thrilling adventure stories. or wherever you get your most thrilling adventure stories. Late on the evening of March 8th, 1971, a group of anti-war activists did something insane. Holy sh-t, we are really here. This is really happening. They weren't professional criminals.

They were ordinary citizens, but they needed to know the truth about the FBI. Burglaries, forged blackmail letters, and threats of violence were used to try to stop anti-war marches. Even if that meant risking everything. I just felt like I was living in the heart of the dragon and it was just my job to stop the fire. I'm Ed Helms, host of Snafu, season two Medburg, the story of a daring heist that exposed J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI. If it meant some risks that were involved, well, that's what citizens sometimes have to do. Listen to season two of snafu on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha"]

["Hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha"] Alright, so you've got the one, two, three punch. Your body is enjoying the caffeine. It's blocking that adenosine, you're gonna feel alert and awake, it's got that adrenaline going and it's rewarding you with the dopamine. So it's gonna make you want to drink coffee but I mentioned the vicious cycle. It is a bit because after coffee comes the inevitable crash, like any stimulant drug, and you want more of it

to get back up again, so you're gonna have that fatigue and maybe even slightly depressed feeling, and then you have a little bit more of that caffeine, and it's gonna get you going again, and that's sort of the cycle that you find yourself in, which will eventually, even though you might not think it is, it's gonna affect your sleep patterns. Yeah, that cycle kind of continues on into the next day, right?

So, coffee has a half-life of six hours. Caffeine. Caffeine, yeah. I told you, I predicted this, Chuck. That's alright. Caffeine has a half-life of six hours, where if you drink a cup of coffee that has 200 milligrams of caffeine, at noon, at six p.m., you'll still have 100 milligrams of caffeine in your system.

So it's like at six, you drank a red bull and a quarter, right then, right? Not exactly what you want. And then at midnight, you would have 50 milligrams left, which is like more than a Coke that's like a Mountain Dew's worth of caffeine in you. Again, not really what you want. So as the authors of this article, including you,

point out, you may fall asleep, but that caffeine stimulation is probably gonna keep you from getting deep sleep, and deep sleep is what you really genuinely need. And I think after researching this, reading that sentence, I went, oh, because I think I'm basically like that. That is how I live my life is I don't sleep deeply.

Even though I sleep deeply, I don't think I get actual deep sleep. You know what I mean? Right, so then you wake up craving the caffeine again. Exactly, and that's where that cycle goes on and on, where it's really tough to quit it. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting.

If you are pregnant, there are some studies that suggest, and we should say there have been a lot of caffeine studies. Yeah, this article says like 19,000 since the 60s. I'm sure there's, it's 19,000 since the 60s. I'm sure there's it's 20,000 by now. You know. Easily. And they are somewhat conflicting so we always are gonna say like this study suggests because they aren't hard and fast rules. Right. But if you're pregnant some study suggests that 300 milligrams or more per day could lead to low birth weight in your little BB.

Kids, I read one article, like five experts talk about caffeine in children, and they all said, that's not great for kids. No, kids drink coffee these days. Do they? Yes, but in the form of those coffee drinks that are super sweet and creamy and everything. Oh man. But they drink, like walk around a mall.

You'll see eight year olds with like a coffee drink just walking around like it's nothing. I went to the mall the other day for the first time in probably five years. Yeah, how was it? It was awful. Was it? And I hated every minute of it and I'm not going back.

The mall's another place that, it's another thing that puts that like knot in my back. Just too many people in one place. Yeah, it's no good. And with the baby stroller, it's just like, I wanted to put a spoon in my ear. Which mall? I went to Perimeter.

Okay. I mean, there was a, we got new pillows, so I was like, I had to go to the mall to get pillows. You know? Yeah. Because you gotta put your head on it, even through the plastic case. Oh yeah, no, I know, I've been pillow shopping

a couple times. You know what I mean? Yep. New pillows are great, though. Oh yeah, no I know, I've been pillow shopping a couple times, yep. New pillows are great though. Oh yeah, if you get a good one. I've been on a bad run lately with pillows, where I've gotten, now that's two. I've got one, wasn't very happy with it, got a second one to replace it. It's better, but still not quite happy with it.

Do you just use one pillow? Uh huh. Really? One soft pillow. Wow. Yeah, anything else I'm like, with it. Do you just use one pillow? Uh huh. Really? One soft pillow. Wow. Yeah, anything else I'm like, oh my neck. I gotta have one under my head, I gotta have one behind my head

between my head and the headboard. And then one tied to your face? No, and then a clutch, you know, to hold onto. Okay. Like to wrap up with. Wow. It's the best. Yeah?

That's three pillows. Yeah. Yeah, that's three pillows Yeah, you sleep with three pillows. Well Emily and yeah six total Jerry Tell us in blinks how many pillows you sleep with? Three three as well. I think you're under pillowed. I guess so I've been sleep with one-third the pillows you do Here's a pillow tip though. If you're buying just wait for a Macy's one-day sale Oh, yeah, cuz pillows are expensive good ones. Yes, they are and 50% of worth it goes along Here's a pillow tip though, if you're buying, just wait for a Macy's one day sale. Oh yeah. Because pillows are expensive, good ones. Yes they are.

And 50% off. But worth it. Yeah, very much. Get your hands on a good pillow. Yeah, and Macy's does it twice a year I think. Maybe Memorial Day and Labor Day are their pillow sale days. Oh, they had one going on after New Year's. I am wrong.

There you have it. All right, so we were talking about sleep and the shopping mall where kids were drinking coffee It all comes together It does but all five of the of the experts said your kids shouldn't really be having too much or any caffeine Right and they didn't say like because of like the health effects Like on the basically it was just like just like sugar Mm-hmm Basically, it was just like sugar.

You don't want your kid's heart rate increased a lot and their blood pressure increased and it's just not gonna do yourself any favors as a parent to have a caffeinated child. But I genuinely believe that you can go through experiences like that as a younger kid and it'll make you a keyed up adult, a higher strung adult. Oh, you think?

I do, I have come to believe that, that experiences in childhood very prominently shape who you are as an adult, very much so, I've come to believe that. Yeah, I guess if you're 13 and drink a lot of coffee and you get anxious, you'd probably be an anxious adult. I believe that. Probably keep drinking coffee.

Probably to stave off the anxiety. When did you start drinking coffee? Or did you always drink a lot of soda too? No, I guess it was as more of a grown up for both. Oh really? Yeah, I drank a lot of Kool-Aid as a kid and like the straight up tons of sugar in the Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid.

Yeah. But, and I drank like some, we called it pop. Oh yeah. Like Fago and Pepsi and stuff up in Toledo. But I mean, I think it was like as an older person, 20s, 30s, that I started drinking like coffee and Ernest and Cokes. That's how it should be, I think.

Sure. I definitely didn't drink coffee as a kid. No. That was gross. Yeah. I did too, the taste of it was just really foul, I thought, but I really learned to love the taste of coffee. Yeah.

And I enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee on a camping trip or a cold day. Sure. I just never took up the regular habit. And not for any reason other than I just, I don't know, just never grabbed me that way. Never took it up? Yeah. It wasn't like a stand though, you know?

Like I'm not gonna start drinking caffeine. Yeah. And everybody who drinks coffee can rock. No. Because my brother-in-law and my mother-in-law drink more coffee than any humans alive. More than me? They're both wonderful. Yeah, they're like, let's brew a pot of coffee, not a cup of coffee.

Yeah? And let's just drink it until it's gone, then brew another pot. Uh-huh. Yeah, I know. But they get a lot done. They're very accomplished people. They sleep several inches above the bed. One of them's a general in the Marine Corps that shows you where he is. Yeah. Or actually that's my mother-in-law.

All right, how about some health benefits? Right. There are a lot, believe it or not. They've done a lot of studies and they found everything from helping out to not develop Parkinson's disease to dropping your risk of various cancers, cirrhosis, how about this, two cups a day supposedly will cause an 80% drop in the odds of developing cirrhosis. That's amazing.

Yeah. That's, I drink a little bit, so maybe I should drink coffee. I wonder if that has to do with stimulating the fight or flight syndrome, where your liver releases more sugar to give you more energy or something like that. Maybe.

But what's weird then, is so that would be more sugar in the bloodstream, right? Yeah. Too much sugar in the bloodstream can lead to diabetes, right? Right. Well, coffee actually is shown to reduce your risk of diabetes Yeah, there's this Harvard study that involved a hundred and twenty six thousand people over 18 years

They followed their call. That is a good study. It's a great study Unless they fudge the results but saying they didn't what they found Was that people who drink one to three cups of coffee a day are 9% less likely to contract diabetes, right? You think it ends there? It does not. So people who drank six or more cups of coffee per day, if you were a man, your chances of contracting diabetes were reduced by 54%.

And for women who drank six or more cups a day, their chances of contracting diabetes were 30% of developing diabetes, 30% reduction. I got another one. Four cups a day, 50% less chance of mouth and throat cancer. And I don't know if it was this Harvard study or another one said it could reduce suicide risk in adults even. Huh. Kind of makes sense I guess in one way.

Which way? I don't know. I was thinking, I don't know. I take that back. Well maybe you like run from self-harm even. Maybe. Like you flee or fight. Or if it just, you know, maybe it could battle your depressive systems by picking you up

or something. I don't know. Yeah. That's a much better explanation than mine. Mine was stupid. There's evidence that it prevents cavities actually. Oh really? Which is kind of surprising because that is if you're doing a study on coffee, that's if you don't put anything in your coffee.

Put cream and sugar in, yeah you're going to get your cavities on, right? You kind of do both, right, just depending on your mood? I typically go toward black. Right, but every now and then you'll throw a little vanilla creamer in there. Every once in a while, yeah. Yeah, if I want a treat.

Oh yeah, is that your special treat? Right, but caffeine can hurt your teeth in that it causes teeth clenching too. Well, which is one reason I'm losing teeth is I grind my teeth at night. Yeah. So maybe I shouldn't drink more coffee. It could be, yeah. But like you said, it giveth and it taketh away.

Do I want teeth or do I want my liver to hang in there? And no diabetes. Right. Yeah. Good point. Alzheimer's, the Bird Alzheimer's Institute in Tampa did some experimenting on lab mice, injecting them with caffeine, like you said earlier. And not only did it protect them against developing Alzheimer's, but it helped

reduce symptoms if they already had it. They haven't tried it on humans yet, but as it goes with mice, many times it goes with humans. Yeah, hopefully. We could all be injecting caffeine at some point. That to me is also counterintuitive too, because Alzheimer's disease is potentially a build up of plaques in your brain that's the result of not getting enough deep sleep. Because when you sleep, your glial channels expand and your brain is bathed in cerebrospinal fluid. That makes sense.

Cleans out those plaques, right? But it only happens when you're sleeping very deeply. But if you're not getting very deep sleep with coffee or caffeine, then I would think you'd be, there'd be a higher risk of Alzheimer's. It's befuddling. It is. And I've also found conflicting studies on memory. Johns Hopkins says that it's a memory enhancer, but I've seen other

studies that say it's... It's a memory de-hancer? Yeah, so again it's like it's tough to kind of get down to the brass tacks, you know? Yeah. When you have conflicting studies. If you exercise, coffee is your best friend, caffeine is. Yeah, I've heard of Olympic athletes that will shoot espresso right before a race.

Yeah, not only does it give you a jolt of energy and everything, but apparently it has ergogenic properties, which means that it delays fatigue, right? Yeah. And it helps your muscles use glycogen, their energy stores, more efficiently too. So it can help you run better. Interesting.

Yeah. As far as cognitive abilities, the one study I found from Johns Hopkins Medical School said that while you think it is increasing your cognitive abilities, what it's really doing is just taking you back to normal for a short period. That is chilling. Yeah. And then when it wears off, you're actually doing is just taking you back to normal for a short period. That is chilling. Yeah, and then when it wears off, you're actually below. Man. Yeah. I don't know.

I hate to think that. I don't want to quit coffee though. That sucks. No, you've quit smoking. Yeah. You lost weight. Yeah. Keep your coffee. That's another thing though I did during this break

is put some of that back on. We'll drink coffee and go exercise. All right. If you want to know more about caffeine, you can type that word into the search bar, how stuff works. And don't forget, in this case, the E goes before the I. Since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. This is from Madty in Virginia.

Hey guys, I'm a 22 year old college student in Virginia. I want to start out by saying thank you for the wonderful podcast. Oh, I like this email, this is a good one. You've seen this one? Let me explain guys how you've helped me. I'm a sufferer of extreme anxiety and depression. I've had these issues since,

to a varying degree, since middle school. However, events occurred in my life throughout the past few years that have made them much worse. Got to the point last semester where I was not able to go to class, do homework or play on my sports team. Thankfully, my family, friends, and my school, with their help, I was able to work everything out in a much better place. A very curious person and loved learning and acquiring knowledge.

This is where you guys come in. Though I had trouble going to class, I still had that thirst to learn. So whenever I was in a bad place mentally, I would throw in my earbuds, play stuff you should know, podcast, and zone out. During these bad days, the times when I would listen to you guys, there were some of the only instances where I would smile or laugh. Really want to thank you for putting in all the hard work, making a great show. I know that you guys help people

not only gain valuable knowledge, but you also improve lives and put smiles on many faces. I don't think you'll read this on the air. Psych! And I don't even know if you all will even receive this email. Yep. Double psych. But if you do, and it's right on the podcast,

I just want everyone listening to know if you're going through a tough time and are struggling, things will get better. There are always people who care about you and who will help you. Nice. That worms are cockles. Yep.

My friend. And hang in there. What a wonderful message. Those sound like trite things to say, you know, like. Yeah, unless you're going through some rough times. Time heals wounds and it's darkest before the dawn. But they're trite and true for a reason. Because they are, what?

Trite and true, I think you just. Trite and true. Yeah, but I think you just improved the phrase. Did I? Yeah, but they're not trite. They're true things. Hang in there, people. That's right.

That's one message. If you want to get in touch with us, you can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com and as always join us at our home on the web, the luxurious stuffyoshouldknow.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition like myasthenia gravis or chronic

inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the emotional toll can be as real as the physical symptoms. That's why in an all new season of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition from Ruby Studio and Argenics, host Martine Hackett gets to the heart of the emotional journey for individuals living with these conditions. To find community and inspiration on your journey,

listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Good Game with Sarah Spain"] Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women's sports. Every day I'm bringing you the stakes, stars, stats, and stories to keep you up to date. If you're new to women's sports, welcome. And if you've been around, let's make things nice and comfy for our new friends. Good Game is where we go to celebrate, debate, and dissect the teamwork, competition, and rivalries that we love to watch. debate, and dissect the teamwork, competition, and

rivalries that we love to watch. Join us. Let's have some fun. Listen to Good Game with Sarah Spayne on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Owen Wilson stars in Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter, an action-packed thrill ride based on the mostly true tale of explorer, scientific legend, and alleged spy Tom Slick. No one has been able to find the Yeti.

It's a mystery that does not want to be solved. That's why I'm here. Listen to my show, Tom Slick Mystery Hunter, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your most thrilling adventure stories.