Re: How and why does caffeine tolerance arise?

Question: How and why does caffeine tolerance arise?
From: jess
Grade: 10-12
City: London, State/Prov.: Surrey Country: England
Area: Medicine Message

Hello jess.
Caffeine intoxication has been thoroughly studied by scientists and they 
have come to the conclusion that consumption of 350/gm/day of caffeine 
can cause addiction. 

In an experiment performed, a number of persons were divided into two 
groups. One was given caffeine and the other place-bos. The ones given 
caffeine were addicted to it and developed a tolerance. After a few 
months, the dose was switched. The addicted people showed signs of 
caffeine addiction like headache, etc due to the effects of the caffeine. 
However, this was not observed in case of the place-bos. This experiment 
proved that the addiction caused is directly related to the caffeine and 
not a psychological problem like ‘I got addicted because I know that I am 
taking caffeine.’

How the tolerance is caused is still a mystery because the effect of 
caffeine varies from person to person and to make things worse also 
depends upon the time of the day it is taken, the mood of the person, 
etc. 
It just can be said that tolerance to caffeine is like the body 
getting ‘used to’ it and not doing anything against it. The tolerance 
part is directly related to how the CNS (Central Nervous System) functions 
to do so. As far as I can say is our body has its way of adapting to the 
environment. For example, if you go to a place where there is a strong 
smell. First you will be able to smell it. If you stand there for 2 or 3 
minutes, you will  find that the smell is no longer there. Does this mean 
that the smell has gone? NO. it only means that your body has got adapted 
to it. Hence, though your nose is picking up the smell, your brain is not 
considering it as a primary issue. Similar is the case with caffeine or 
for that matter any other drug.

Well that’s all. You may check out the following two links. They have 
nicely compiled information about effects of caffeine. http://www.xs4all.nl/~4d
avid/caffeine.html http://w
ww.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html

From,
Abhishek Dey Das.
Bholananda National Vidyalaya (Sc section).
Homepage: http://deydas.co.nr