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Caffeine and Smoking
Name: Susan
Status: Other
Age: 30s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
I read someone elses question on the "Affects of Caffeine".
I recently quit smoking, but I am still a very big coffee drinker.
I've noticed that now when I drink my coffee, I tend to get very agitated,
uptight and tense.
My question to you, would be can nicotine draw caffeine out of a bodies
system, or lesson the affects of caffeine on the body?
I have not intentions of going back to smoking, but I am puzzled by the
caffeine situation I am having now.
I only seem to be totally strung out and uptight, and almost inraged after
two cups of coffee, whereas before I could drink up to 2 pots if I
wanted to.
Replies:
I'm not a physician, but here's my theory. Nicotine and caffeine are both
stimulants. Maybe by using both (presumably throughout the day) you were
keeping your body constantly a little buzzed. Without the cigarettes in
between the coffee, you might just be noticing the highs and lows of
caffeine when you drink it and as it wears off. Try decaf?
Christine Ticknor
Ph.D. Student
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
I contacted a friend in the Pharmacology Dept. and here are his
observations:
The symptoms described are clearly xanthine [the family of pharmacologically
active ingredients related to and including caffeine] excess related.
Recommendation: cut back on coffee.
Two reasons for the lack of symptoms during nicotine use:
1. Smoking masked some of the symptoms via carbon monoxide intake that
blunted the senses.
2. Nicotine may have induced caffeine metabolism. Caffeine half-life
decreases in smokers.
Hope that helps, though it may be more than you actually wanted!
Cheers,
Dr. C. Dinsmore
Rush Medical School Chicago
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Update: June 2012
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