Caffeine how long stays in body

The half-life is the time it takes for your body to eliminate half of the drug. The remaining caffeine can stay in your body for a long time. The average daily consumption of caffeine by adults in the U. This is about three times higher than the world average. But it is still only half of the caffeine consumption in heavy tea-drinking countries such as England and Sweden.

Caffeine is a product that has both positive and negative effects. These effects depend on the amount of caffeine you consume and when you consume it:. Caffeine is considered a moderately effective alerting agent. It can have a positive effect on your reaction times, mood and mental performance. A normal dose of caffeine is about 50 mg to mg.

Caffeine works best when you take it on an intermittent, off-and-on basis. Higher doses can have much more potent effects. A dose of mg or mg of caffeine can affect you much like a low dose of an amphetamine.

When you consume caffeine daily, it is less effective as a stimulant. Your body builds up a tolerance to it. Caffeine can have a disruptive effect on your sleep. The most obvious effect of the stimulant is that it can make it hard for you to fall asleep. One study also found that caffeine can delay the timing of your body clock.

These effects will reduce your total sleep time. Caffeine also can reduce the amount of deep sleep that you enjoy. The effects of caffeine can occur even when you consume it earlier in the afternoon or evening. One study found that consuming caffeine 6 hours before bedtime reduced total sleep time by 1 hour. These effects also can be stronger in older adults. It takes their bodies a longer time to process caffeine. Regularly consuming high doses of caffeine may cause complications during pregnancy.

Withdrawal symptoms can occur when you stop taking caffeine after using it regularly for a long time. These symptoms include:. Some retailers sell pure caffeine powder in bulk. It is marketed as a dietary supplement. And among some the half-life is of course shorter or longer than average. But for some it can be as little as a half hour. Amongst those whose bodies are slower in this respect it can take up to ten hours. For them, a cup of coffee at noon could cause problems falling asleep at 10 or 11 in the evening.

They have so much caffeine left in their bodies they are still being stimulated by it. Enzymes in the liver are what determine how fast the caffeine breaks down. Enzymes are proteins which are found in multiple variations throughout the body and are involved in the chemical reactions going on inside us. Concentrations of these enzymes vary between individuals. The professor says that women who are pregnant or use contraceptive pills experience a much slower metabolization of caffeine.

This contributes to higher concentrations of it and side-effects such as agitation, the jitters and heart palpitations. So a smoker needs more coffee to get the same stimulating effect from caffeine. When a person quits the nicotine habit, this decomposition starts going slower again. Many then find they have a lower tolerance of coffee and they have to reduce their intake of it to avoid getting too high a dose.

Other substances that you take into your body can impact how you metabolize caffeine and change the half-life of caffeine in your own body. For example, hormonal birth control can slow down how quickly you process caffeine, making you more sensitive to its effects. By contrast, regular smokers have a caffeine half-life of about three hours, making them less sensitive to the effects of caffeine. Other drugs can also impact how you process caffeine, so look up how caffeine interacts with any prescription drugs or other substances you are taking.

Feeling the caffeine jitters? Are you anxious, panicked, or nauseated? Can you speed up your body's processing of caffeine to make yourself feel better? In short, not really. There's not actually a reliable way to speed up the processing of caffeine in your liver in the short-term. However, here are some things you can do to help you feel better while you process the caffeine:. Drinking water won't "flush" your system of caffeine, in spite of the commonsense wisdom. However, caffeine is a diuretic, which means that it can cause dehydration.

Drinking plenty of water will help minimize dehydration and help alleviate some of the symptomatic effects of the caffeine jitters. Caffeine can suppress your appetite, so you may feel the impacts of low blood sugar, including nausea and headache, if you don't make a conscious effort to eat.

Taking your caffeine with a meal will also slow down your processing of caffeine, which will make you less likely to have the jitters. While exercise won't make you metabolize caffeine any faster, it will help you to burn off some of the extra energy caused by caffeine's adrenaline release. This may help you feel better. How long does caffeine stay in the body?

Well, the average person will experience the half-life of caffeine at about hours. But how long does caffeine stay in the body such that you still feel its effects? This depends on a few factors:. There's no way to actually process caffeine any faster in the short-term. But if you've had too much and you're uncomfortable, these things might help you feel better:. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process.

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