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Originally posted by YTNUKLR
Caffeine is a vaso-constrictor, which is very good for relieving headaches (in the right dose of course). Your body "mediates" this heavy stimulant by trying to keep the blood vessels at more of a normal size while on caffeine--like it has a tolerance. When the caffeine is not present the blood vessels dilate to the point where you get a splitting headache...then it is relieved by caffeine which constricts them. Caffeine is obviously a poison and isn't *great* for you but it's definitely not as pressing as cigarettes or heavy alcohol use.
Caffeine has a therapeutic index of about 100, which means that the LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of the population) is 100x what you would normally drink for the effects. 70-90 cups of coffee and you're probably dead. It is not a hard and fast rule, Rousseau drank ~72 cups of coffee every day after he'd built up a tolerance!  Caffeine doesn't directly improve mental processing function--look to something like ephedra, adderall, etc. (amphetamine) for something that does. Caffeine just makes you more awake so your recall is faster, ideas seem to come quicker, etc. I, too, feel like I'm about to go back to bed unless I have a latte or some strong tea in the morning.
Chemical/brain interaction is fascinating...
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Very good post. Awhile ago, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ran a cover story about caffeine (was probably about 9 or 10 months ago). Stuff like this is very interesting to me as well... but then again I have an ecclectic group of interests: European sports cars, sabermetric baseball, postmodern literature, wines and microbrew beers...
Thanks for the post, though. Very informative.