If you're like many Americans, you might rely on a cup of coffee or tea to wake in the morning or re-energize in the afternoon. While caffeine makes you feel alert, however, it can have a number of uncomfortable side effects as well. These include indigestion and heart flutter.
Caffeine
In colloquial parlance, caffeine gives you "energy." In reality, however, cellular energy comes only from macronutrient compounds -- proteins, carbohydrates, and fats -- that you eat in food. Your cells burn these compounds to fuel their activities. Caffeine does, however, make you feel more attentive and alert. It does this because it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which also causes your heart rate and respiration to increase, and changes your blood flow patterns.
Indigestion
Unfortunately, caffeine can also increase your risk of indigestion, explains the Cleveland Clinic. This is because caffeine increases your stomach's production of acid. If you don't eat something along with your coffee or tea, there's an increased risk that the excess acid will reflux up through the cardiac sphincter -- the ring of muscle that separates the stomach from the esophagus -- and cause acid stomach. Alternately, caffeine could make you feel a little nauseated.
Heart Flutter
According to National Institutes of Health online medical encyclopedia Medline Plus, heart flutters -- sometimes called heart palpitations -- increase in prevalence when you consume caffeine, particularly if you're a heavy user. Heart palpitations aren't generally dangerous, particularly if it's caffeine that is responsible for causing them, but they can feel uncomfortable and may make you nervous. Heart flutters feel as though your heart is beating rapidly for a short period of time, or you may feel as though your heart is skipping beats.
Guidelines
While caffeine can make you uncomfortable, using it in moderate amounts appears to be quite safe, explains Dr. F. Greenway in a 2003 article published in "Obesity Reviews." If you have any concerns as to whether caffeine is negatively affecting your health, talk to your doctor. Even if caffeine isn't having a long-term negative health effect on you, however, you may wish to cut down on your consumption or eliminate it if it's making you uncomfortable.
References
- Cleveland Clinic: Indigestion
- Medline Plus: Heart Palpitations
- "Obesity Reviews"; The Safety and Efficacy of Pharmaceutical and Herbal Caffeine and Ephedrine Use as a Weight Loss Agent; F. Greenway; 2001
