Starbucks and Peet's Coffee have gotten rich dispensing the world's mostpopular drug. But caffeine--or 1,3,7,-Trimethylxanthine, as it's scientifically known--does more than keep coffee-houses perking. It's used to treat apnea, migraines, even acne. And it reduces the number of fatal car accidents.
So varied are caffeine's uses, in fact, that few blinked when a team of Harvard researchers recently suggested that a jolt of java might prevent suicide. Female nurses who drink coffee are far less likely to commit suicide than those who don't, reported Ichiro Kawachi, M.D., and colleagues in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In fact, the more coffee a nurse consumes, the less likely she is to take her own life.
But not so fast. Psychologist worry that amid the flood of praise from scientific circles, coffee's dangers will be ignored. Caffeine, they note, tricks the body into that state of alert know as" fight or flight." The heart races blood pressure jumps, and--for serious mainliners of mud--hands tremble and muscles twitch. This may be a mere annoyance in emotionally healthy folks, but it can complicate treatment for psychiatric patients, notes the University of British Columbia's Arnold Kruger, Ph.D. Chronic anxiety, panic disorders, and depressions can all be exacerbated by terfere with tranquilizers like Valium.
