Hello and welcome to mind of Mike today on mind of Mike. It's part four of the story

about the world's caffeine addiction. It's a time to give it up. We're about to get to

part four of this piece. The invisible addiction is a time to give up caffeine.

It makes us more energetic, deficient, and faster. But we've become so dependent on it

that we need it just to get to our baseline. We've learned a lot about the history of caffeine,

specifically in coffee and tea. And now we move on to the conclusion. But before we do,

a reminder you should subscribe to my newsletter. Mike is ready to the week. It's free.

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you can find me on Instagram at Michael Weiner, M-I-C-A-H-W-I-E, in New York.

So how exactly does coffee and caffeine more generally make us more energetic,

efficient, and faster? How could this little molecule possibly supply the human body energy

without calories? Could caffeine be the proverbial free lunch, or do we pay a price for the mental

and physical energy, the alertness, focus, and stamina? The caffeine gives us.

Alas, there is no free lunch. It turns out that caffeine only appears to give us energy.

Caffeine works by blocking the action of addocene, a molecule that gradually accumulates in the

brain over the course of the day, preparing the body to rest. Caffeine molecules interfere with

this process, keeping addocene from doing its job and keeping us alert. But addocene levels continue

to rise. So when the caffeine is eventually metabolized, the addocene floods to the body's

receptors and tiredness returns. So the energy that caffeine gives us is borrowed, in effect,

and eventually the debt must be paid back. For as long as people have been drinking coffee and tea,

medical authorities have warned about the dangers of caffeine. But until now, caffeine has been

...