Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 11/6/2005

Question
My name is Lacy, and I researching caffeine addiction.

I was wondering if you could tell me what a caffeine addiction is, what the signs of having one are, and what someone might do to "beat" an addiction.

Thank you in advance for your help.  

Answer
Like any other addiction, caffeine addiction involves sugar metabolism.

Caffeine is a stimulant that will trigger the release of adrenaline, which in turn triggers the conversion of glucose stores in our body into glucose.

In other words most addictions are due to a fault in the sugar metabolism.

A steady supply of glucose to the brain is necessary for it to manufacture the feel good neurotransmitters such as serotonin and others.

If for some reason or other the brain is deprived of its steady supply of glucose it will release stress hormones, such as adrenaline to increase glucose blood levels.

You will find that after caffeine ingestion you will feel good for a while, but soon you get a hypoglycemic reaction, that will drive you to take caffeine again.

Although each addiction has a slightly different mechanism, they all seem to involve our blood sugar levels.

An abnormal blood sugar levels are usually caused by Insulin Resistance, or hypoglycemia.

Read:

What is Hypoglycemia? at:

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/what_is_hypo.html

The answer is going on a hypoglycemic diet. Also if you are at our web site search for GLYCERINE as an temporary measure to beat the cravings for sugar or caffeine.

Jurriaan Plesman, BA (Psych) Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
For more articles see
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au