Recently teachers at SHS have been discouraging students from consuming unhealthy amounts of caffeine before and during school. SHS Administrators have included videos in the morning announcements that warn students about the side effects of drinks that contain caffeine. This isn’t news to students, considering that students have been taught that caffeine is addictive and can be harmful for your body since such a young age. Now various studies have shown that caffeine can also have positive effects on your body and brain.

Caffeine, especially coffee, is the go-to stimulant for high school and college students working hard to earn their education.  Studies have shown that caffeine can cause heightened anxiety and panic, especially in teens. Individuals with anxiety are shown to be at risk for panic attacks and bad withdrawal symptoms. According to Mayo Clinic, drinking or consuming more than 300 mg of caffeine, or two cups of coffee, can cause increased heart rate, severe insomnia and even muscle tremors.

Caffeine, classified as a stimulant, is considered a drug by many people, but that’s not scientifically accurate. Commonly abused drugs are typically characterized by an increase in cerebral (brain) activity and a dopamine release in the shell of the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is the part of the brain responsible for motivation, incentive and addiction. Caffeine, however, leads to an increase of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for personality expression and decision making. Although caffeine shares the same type of dopamine release as amphetamine and other drugs, it does not affect the structures in the brain that are related to addiction.

According to a John Hopkins’ series of studies, caffeine can actually have a positive impact on your brain. A recent study conducted by Michael Kassa, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins and his team of scientists shows that caffeine can enhance your long term memory. This study also shows that frequent consumers of caffeine have a reduced risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This study was accepted and published by the journal Nature Neuroscience.  
One thing is for sure: there are both negatives and positives to consuming caffeine, just like anything else, and whether you consider the benefits to outweigh the negatives is really up to you.