Ahhhhh, coffee: a beverage beloved around the world. I personally LOVE coffee, and consume 2-3 cups every day (which might be a tad too much, but alas, I will continue to consume that for many years to come). Please see below for a photo of me enjoying my coffee 🙂
As you likely know, coffee contains caffeine, a CNS stimulant (structure shown below). Caffeine, with its bicyclic ring structure (containing two conjoined rings) along with its polar carbonyl groups, is both semi-polar and partially hydrophobic, meaning it is water-soluble and lipid-soluble; as such, it is able to cross the blood brain barrier and exert effects on the CNS along with the rest of the body (1, 3).
From source (2)
Caffeine’s major mechanism of action is via antagonism (inhibition of action) of adenosine receptors, which are found throughout the body. The effects of this antagonism include increased wakefulness and blood pressure, as adenosine signaling on its receptors usually induces sleepiness. Although there is evidence that caffeine is helpful in reducing your risk of diseases like Type II diabetes, there are also negative effects of caffeine, such as cardiovascular issues, anxiety, and gastrointestinal problems (1, 4). Therefore, it is important to check with your own medical teams about what level of caffeine is okay for you.
Works Cited
(1) Evans, J., Richards, J. R., & Battisti, A. S. (2023). Caffeine. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519490/
(2) PubChem. (n.d.). Caffeine. Retrieved August 2, 2023, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/2519
(3) Tavagnacco, L., Corucci, G., & Gerelli, Y. (2021). Interaction of caffeine with model lipid membranes. The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, 125(36), 10174–10181. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c04360
(4) Kolb, H., Martin, S., & Kempf, K. (2021). Coffee and lower risk of type 2 diabetes: Arguments for a causal relationship. Nutrients, 13(4), 1144. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041144
Science with Mandy 
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