Is it healthy to drink coffee as refreshing as taking too much medicine?

Coffee drinkers are puzzled by the recent claim that coffee pick-me-ups equate to taking too many pills. Everyone drinks coffee in large groups to help refresh themselves and concentrate better on work and study. A new study shows that these drinks aren't as potent as their sobering effects. In fact, the practice relies on caffeine to eliminate fatigue, mental fatigue and headaches, such as "caffeine addiction" symptoms, experts say, always drinking coffee and tea is actually a manifestation of drug addiction.

"People who consume caffeine regularly end up dependent on it, and if you keep them away from caffeine, their performance will be lower than normal." Peter Rogers, a professor of biopsychology at Bristol University in the UK and a leading expert on caffeine, said: "Without the help of this drug, their behavior cannot be sustained. If it's your first cup of tea or coffee of the day, it does get you back to normal, but if it's more, you don't get any more stimulation."

Coffee pick-me-up equals overdosing.

Professor Rogers has been studying coffee and its effects for more than 20 years, and he and the rest of his research team have given up caffeine. "Overall, caffeine didn't particularly help. It triggers caffeine withdrawal symptoms and increases blood pressure, which are not good. I sometimes feel like the biggest impact of my research is in my unit, where four or five of my colleagues have given up caffeine and we all drink decaf."

Dependence on coffee has the opposite effect. It has no refreshing effect.

The idea that caffeine doesn't activate the brain may sound fanciful, but that's what Professor Rogers found. In one pivotal study, about 300 volunteers were assigned to moderate or low caffeine intakes and given 16 hours without coffee before being randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or coffee. The results were interesting. Although the regular coffee drinkers had improved spirits after drinking coffee, their alertness levels were consistent with those of the placebo group. This means that drinking coffee doesn't make you any more awake than not drinking coffee. The study was published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.