ocal
THE BATTALION Page 7
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1980
tudents often abuse stimulant
the Bi
Warn
he show
affeine may be addictive, harmful
Tsityoflt,
ing”at4p,
By DEBBIE NELSON
Battalion Staff
jng ... an alarm goes off It’s 6
Oh, your pounding head!
ou stumble to the kitchen. Heat
|ter, dump sparkling brown crys-
into a cup. Pour, drink, inhale.
mv JCofi'ec — first cup of the morning.
t 1 " 1 iurheadache slowly goes away.
11 MtCfts lj ounc i f am iliar? Maybe you’re
‘MU Wo® Elided to caffeine. Evidence indi-
<i- atSt. Jhg that caffeine — contained in
he, tea, chocolate, cola drinks
fi even some analgesic and pain-
jjief drugs — is addictive and poss-
harmful to your health,
he May 1980 World Press Re
said, “Caffeine dependency
[mifests itself through mood
nges, sleep disruptions and with-
wal symptoms that occur when
* substance is stopped ... irritabil-
] rapid or skipping heartbeat and
itheadedness.’’
arious medical studies have
wn possible linkage between caf-
intake and incidence of birth
jeffects, anxiety and fibrocystic
ast disease, which causes benign
buit painful breast nodules!
e ■Yarning labels on products con-
fl Biing caffeine are now being dis-
■Vigder’s Guide to Over-the-
Co iter Drugs questions the pre
sence of caffeine in pain relievers and
Hdgesic drugs when it has not been
■ven safe and effective,
orps dogsiBvigder says: “If the FDA permits
■ inclusion of caffeine ... the least
knives, abprotection that consumers should
avebeen enjoy is a warning such as: Warning
s as!
police (rate
! feature wj|
• at 200311
-gricultte.
t
:e from
horities
sheriffs ini
ch wamntl
brown niji
icre Mrs
This Medicine Contains Ingre-
jnts That Have Not Been Proven
Active For Pain Relief,
azel Wallace, consumer affairs
erfor the FDA regional office in
lias, said labeling of all products
taining caffeine is still specula-
but added, “It’s my personal
ing that these warnings will be
heDepartB re; it’s just a matter of time.”
tic laborato
dence, ak|
11 be flow
usbandi
17 durint
laker told i j
eft home as
Dr. Susan Robinson, assistant pro
fessor of medical pharmacology at
Texas A&M University, said, “I’m
afraid if you start putting warnings on
things, people won’t heed them, un
less it s shown to have a clear-cut bad
effect. You can’t warn people not to
overeat.”
The November 1978 Science
Digest said a lethal dose of caffeine
for a man is 10 grams. Overdose is
nearly impossible.
“An attempt to kill oneself by
drinking tea or coffee would be an
almost impossible feat requiring the
very rapid consumption of 80 to 100
cups (of coffee),” Science Digest
said.
Amounts of caffeine contained in
varous products are: coffee — 100-
150mg per cup — cola drinks — 35-
55 mg per bottle — tea — 100-150
mg per cup — cocoa — 50 mg per
cup — certain analgesic or allergy
tablets — 15-30 mg per tablet.
Robinson said, “Caffeine isn’t an
extremely harmful drug, though it’s
a stimulant, a legal stimulant.”
Dr. Kelly Hester, also an assistant
professor of medical pharmacology at
Texas A&M, said, “Any caffeine is
not good for your system, even in
moderation.”
But he added, “The majority of
people consider that caffeine is not
bad.”
People with heart trouble or
ulcers should limit caffeine intake,
Robinson siad, as it can raise blood
pressure and produce acid in the sto
mach.
Pregnant women should also be
wary of caffeine, she said, because
tests with rats have linked caffeine
use with birth defects in the
offspring.
Hester said caffeine use is “just
like being stressed — just like a
stressful situation. If you are under
stress and do drink caffeine, then
what you’re doing is compounding
the situation.”
Coffee and other foods are not the
only source of caffeine. Over-the-
counter stimulant tablets contain the
drug, typically consumed by stu
dents trying to stay awake to study
for exams.
Dr. C.B. Goswick, director of the
University’s A.P. Beutel Health
Center, said he sees two or three
students each semester around finals
time who have taken too many sti
mulants.
“We see a fair amount, nothing
serious,” Goswick said. “They’re aw
fully jittery, nervous and high. We
let them down gently,” he said.
“Letting them down,” means
administering a mild sedative or
simply waiting for effects of the drug
to wear off.
“Sometimes they end up missing
the test they stayed up to study for,”
Goswick said.
Caffeine within the body is meta
bolized within three to five hous, the
World Press Review said. So most of
its effects are gone overnight.
Hester said of student stimulant-
takers: “A lot of people do really well
in those situations -— habitual cram
mers who work well under pressure.
“It’s better than an ampheta
mine,” he said.
Goswick said of the tablets, “Some
people have the idea that if one is
good, two is better. And if two is
better, four is wonderful.”
He added, “It’s a case of people
taking one or two, not getting the
desired effect, so they take a couple
more and it slips up on them.”
World Press Review said 20 per
cent of North American adults take
in 500-600 mg of caffeine daily. Ten
percent may consume 1,000 mg per
day, which could have damaging re
sults.
iddy defends ‘kill’ intent
dicine prts
condition,
i earlier kaJ:
ssa,
ly a
ople, inclui
d reporteli
; Mrs. Baki
s snowstonj
United Press International
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For-
|r Watergate figure G. Gordon
dy said he conspired to kill Jack
lerson because the columnist had
ten “people killed” by exposing
nameofaU.S. intelligence agent
jrking abroad.
fThere is responsible public dis-
ing hoursa* rse anc ] q iere are irresponsible
■lie acts, ” Liddy said Tuesday
at t ^ ie University of New Mex-
nd hadasMB ‘jf j s one to have a differ-
s doing. :e of opinion. It’s another thing to
• business, r e people killed.”
replied, dddy spoke about 90 minutes to a
ocery stoid st V student audience as part of
ig a worn® na l!°nal tour promoting his auto-
ription. graphy “Will. ”
i said the* P es Poke only briefly of his Water-
sons area* F activities in 1972, saying the
ath indfaii P^'n was a political intelligence-
wa s to lx r er ' n ? operation and had nothing
to do with national security. He said
it was “something that had been
done in this country every four years
for a very long time.”
He criticized the military and the
all-volunteer army saying the United
States’ most sophisticated tank per
forms well “only on the freeway.”
Liddy said, “It is not fair to expect
people of that mental ability (volun
teers) to be able to perform with
modern sophisticated, advanced
weaponry.”
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