Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

Hi all

I just read this and given the amount of air-time that the 'is caffeine an intoxicant?' question receives at other forums, I thought you might be interested!

Ladies and Gentlemen, get your reading glasses and form an orderly queue!

Hallucinating? Check the coffee count

January 14, 2009 - 11:53AM


Consuming the caffeine in seven cups of instant coffee a day leaves you more likely to see, hear and smell things that aren't there, UK researchers said.

People who drink at least 330 milligrams of the stimulant a day were three times as likely to have hallucinations as those who consumed less than 10 milligrams a day, Durham University researchers found in a study of 219 college students published today in Personality and Individual Differences.

The study, the first to link caffeine and hallucinations, explored the relationship between high caffeine consumption and an increased release of cortisol, a stress hormone believed to contribute to delusions, lead researcher Simon Jones said. It forms the first step toward examining nutrition as a factor in the occurrence of hallucinations, he said.

You read it here first you delusional coffee drinkers!
(A'hem, excuse my impertinent interjection!...Ben)

``Given the link between food and mood, and particularly between caffeine and the body's response to stress, it seems sensible to examine what a nutritional perspective might add,'' Jones said in a statement.

Researchers used surveys to assess daily caffeine intake and past experience with hallucinations. Cigarette smokers, known to be more sensitive to caffeine, weren't allowed to participate, and volunteers' stress levels and proneness to hallucinatory experiences were taken into account.

Nine of the 22 people in the highest-caffeine group reported hearing disembodied voices, compared with three of the 22 people in the lowest-caffeine group, Jones said. Participants also reported seeing things that weren't there and sensing the presence of dead people.

Bloomberg News

http://business.theage.com.au/business/ ... -7gln.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Be quiet, and get off my shoulder George....I'm reading......



(we need that "drinking coffee whilst at the PC" emoticon.....!!)

My name is not George!

[Deleted by poster]

I've seen several studies which suggest that there's no observable long-term effect of 1-3 caffeinated beverages a day.

Maybe i'm just seeing things, but didn't I read somewhere that caffeine is a drug? Baah, it was just a hallucination.

Individual wrote:I've seen several studies which suggest that there's no observable long-term effect of 1-3 caffeinated beverages a day.

Hi Individual and all

I think it would be interesting to have a look at the study. Quite often what happens is that a news agency's desire to turn a saleable story from cobling together some bits and pieces from an abstract or press release is often at the expense of the insights and groundbreaking knowledge that the study reveals.
Cheers

Ben

maaaaan i've sat around for hours just drinking coffe and talking with friends, like 8 hours straight, pots and pos of cooffee, and nothing , not one single halucination

i've been ripped off!

Hi JC
Are you sure your friends are real?
(I'm joking!)
Ben

Actually, a major study into the benefits of eating margarinetook place many years ago, and results showed, through diligent scientific research, that eating margarine was of far more benfit to consumers, than eating butter. Research had taken place over 2 years, and a cross section of society, numbering 5,000 people had been closely monitored.

The research was sponsored by a major manufacturer of - Margarine.

Now there's a surprise.

find the source/sponsor.

Then you'll get your whys and wherefores.

Depends on the coffee - two tiny cups in a French café can give me the shakes for the rest of the morning. Several gallons of the muck that comes out of automatic machines has no effect on me at all.

And my psychiatrist tells me that my voices have nothing to do with coffee ... they're because I'm mad. Pity, would have been a nice excuse.

And who do you think introduced Fédé to George? Hm?

Fede wrote:Be quiet, and get off my shoulder George....I'm reading......



(we need that "drinking coffee whilst at the PC" emoticon.....!!)

while i

seems some of this would have to do with personal metabolic levels. my grandfather wasn't a caffeine addict by any means- one small cup in the morning- one in the afternoon- and he drank a small cup of espresso at night to help him sleep.

jcsuperstar wrote:maaaaan i've sat around for hours just drinking coffe and talking with friends, like 8 hours straight, pots and pos of cooffee, and nothing , not one single halucination

i've been ripped off!

Are you sure you had 8 hrs worth of talking to do?



P.S. That first smile should be 2 smiles. 1 of the (err...my left) right hand to go before the quote and the the second of the head and (err...my right) left hand to go after the hand. Ohhhh wait, never mind..... Its just the caffeine talking.

Hi all,

In this thread, I asked this question:

... if a substance existed that could boost any one or all of the mental factors without impeding any of them, would it be good practice to ingest this substance regularly?

And although I drink coffee regularly, it's still not clear to me where exactly to draw the line for the application of the 5th precept when it comes to substances other than alcohol. Maybe the question is irrelevant. Anyone else wonder about this?

You might hallucinate, but maybe you won't lose your marbles...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/healt ... offee.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;