By Bae Ji-sook in Seoul/The Korea Herald | Asia News Network
Seoul (The Korea Herald/ANN) - Koreans are definitely caffeinated: They love coffee, cola and chocolate as well as foods that contain a large amount of the stimulant.
Though it has been less than two decades since global coffee shopfranchises were introduced to the country, industry insiders said about 37 million cups of coffee are sold every day, which means that 24 million economically active people drink more than one cup of coffee a day.
"I love coffee. I started with easy 'coffee mix,' powdered coffee extract with powdered cream and sugar. But now I am addicted to brewed coffee, which smells and tastes better. I drink about 4-5 cups a day," said Kim Seo-yeon, a 32-year-old office worker. "Right after I wake up in the morning, after I have my lunch, during an afternoon break and while I watch TV at night, I always sip coffee."
In addition to the frequent consumption of cola and chocolate, caffeinated energy drinks are gaining popularity among teenagers, who struggle to stay up at night to study.
However, experts warn that excessive caffeine intake could be harmful, especially since they are disguised with flavors, making easy to consume too much.
Caffeine is known for its short-term relief of fatigue or drowsiness since it stimulates the brain and nervous system. It is also known to speed up the dissolution of fat, which may lead to weight loss.
Usually, caffeine leaves the body through the urine system hours after it has been consumed, so there is not much to worry about in regards to intake. But if excessively consumed, it could lead to a fast heart rate, anxiety, depression, difficulty in sleeping, nausea, restlessness, tremors, frequent urinating or vomiting. It even has some reported withdrawal symptoms of drowsiness, headaches, irritability, nausea and vomiting.
"About 400 milligrams of caffeine is tolerable for adults, 300mg for pregnant women, or 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of weight," said Dr. Seo Jeong-wan of Ewha Womans University Medical Center. "It is equivalent to three-four cups of brewed coffee. But it could easily be filled by drinking 250 milliliters of cola, one canned coffee and 1 gram of chocolate, too. Therefore, people should watch what they are eating."
Seo said teenagers should be extra alert about caffeine intake since they are in a critical stage of bone formation.
"If you drink caffeinated drinks instead of dairy, the facilitation of urination will take away the essential calcium and curb the growth of bone. If you are an adult, osteoporosis could be forecasted, too," he added.
He advised teenagers to not rely on caffeine to overcome drowsiness.
"It could lead to insomnia if you take it for too long. Open the window, do stretching and eat food that are abundant in vitamin C such as citrons and other fresh fruits," he said.
A study published in the British medical journal BMJ has discovered that taking a sleeping pillmight increase your risk of early death significantly, according to U.S. News. A link was found between people who took sleeping pills and what researchers labeled "excess deaths" throughout the country.
How do sleeping pills cause early death?
Researchers were unable to determine exactly how the pills affect a person this way, although they did find what appears to be a preliminary link between sleep aids and an increased risk of developing cancer, according to WebMD. Among those they studied, people who took sleeping pills had a 35 percent increase in their rate of cancer development.
There were other risks as well that researchers labeled "associated factors." These included depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, mixed drug overdoses and several others.
How was the study conducted?
Scientists working through the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania studied 10,000 patients who took sleeping pills for at least 2 1/2 years, according to MSNBC. They built controls into the study to account for individual health, age, weight, preexisting conditions and a host of other factors so as to be able to evaluate everyone who participated on an equal basis.
What has been the response to the study?
The maker of Ambien, Sanofi-Aventis, were quick to defend its product. Sanofi said the product is safe but should always be prescribed according to packaging directions and taken as directed. The company also questioned the validity of the study, saying it had limitations and was therefore inaccurate, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Other critics, including Nancy Snyderman, who is the chief medical editor at NBC, pointed out the study was based on prescriptions. That doesn't mean the person who was prescribed the sleep aid actually took it. She also pointed out the relationship between sleep aids and an increased risk of death appears to be associative, not cause-and-effect.
What will researchers be looking at next?
Daniel F. Kripke, who co-authored the study, wants to expand it. He intends to look into the factors involved in taking sleep aids and the link to major health issues to try to figure out how sleep aids can influence a person's overall health.
What have the authors of the study said about the results?
Robert D. Langer, one of the co-authors of the study, said in a statement quoted by CBS News that the team was "shocked" when it discovered the correlation between the drugs and major health issues. He recommended trying to find alternate methods of treating sleep issues and to use sleep aids sparingly.
Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.
A new study has linked popular sleeping pills such as Ambien and Restoril with a nearly five-fold increased risk of death.
Researchers at Scripps Health, a nonprofit health system in San Diego, estimate that in 2010, sleeping pill use may have contributed to up to 500,000 "excess deaths" in the United States. Heavy users aren't the only ones at risk--even people who took fewer than two pills monthly are three times more likely to die than non-users, researchers say.
"We were pretty startled by the findings," says Robert Langer, one of the authors of the study, which was published in BMJ, a British medical journal owned by the British Medical Association. "Since we started trying to qualify the results of this analysis about a year ago, I'll tell you, my prescription bottle for Ambien has sat on the shelf unopened."
The study followed 10,000 sleeping pill users and 23,500 non-users in Pennsylvania between 2002 and 2006. About 1 percent of non-users died during that time, compared to 6 percent of sleeping pill users. Since the medical records available for the study didn't include the cause of death, it's unclear how sleeping pill use contributed to the higher death rate.
Langer says the team's algorithm considered both users' and non-users' age, race, body mass index, and reported alcohol and tobacco use to determine if any other conditions were contributing to the mortality rates. The team also examined death rates in users and non-users who had a secondary condition, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or asthma. No matter how the team sliced it, sleeping pill users had higher death rates.
"We thought maybe sleeping pills are being prescribed for sicker people, so we tried to take that out of the mix in several different ways," Langer says. "The risk was the same whichever way we looked at it. To me, that was the most startling finding. It blows things like high cholesterol or diabetes out of the water."
Sleeping pills are among the most widely prescribed medications in the United States--it's been estimated that as much as 10 percent of American adults use them at least occasionally. Some studies link sleeping pill use with higher cancer rates. Langer's team found that heavy users had about a 35 percent higher risk of developing a major cancer during the study, but that pales in comparison to the 450 percent increased mortality rate, Langer says.
Representatives from Sanofi, who makes Ambien, say the Scripps study is flawed.
"Sanofi believes the limitations of the analysis go further than what the authors indicate in the article and that the conclusions drawn based on the data presented are highly questionable," the company said in a statement. "Ambien has more than 17 years of real-world experience and is safe and effective when prescribed and taken according to its labeling."
Jack Cox, a spokesman for the company, added that trouble sleeping is often a symptom of other disorders. "People taking the medicine should discuss what's causing them not to sleep and address those issues," he says.
The Scripps team is exploring potential follow up studies that would examine causes of death. "We're starting to contact places about other populations we might look at," Langer says. "It's important to try and understand what the causes of death are."
The team is exploring potential follow up studies that would examine causes of death. "We're starting to contact places about other populations we might look at," he says. "It's important to try and understand what the causes of death are."
Langer says sleeping pill users can wake up in a "hangover" state, where they are at a higher risk for falls or car accidents. Overdose and drug interaction-related deaths were also likely, Langer says.
The short half-life of Zolpidem (Ambien) and Temazepam (Restoril) means they leave a users' body within a couple hours, leading many to believe they are safer than longer-lasting drugs. Langer says his study shows that's not the case.
"People think these newer, shorter-acting sleeping pills are safer because they're out of your body relatively quickly," he says. "That's not true. There are meaningful risks associated with even occasional use."
Young Man Nude by the Seashore by Flandrian Hippolyte
“It was not really alarming at first, since the change was subtle, but I did notice that my surroundings took on a different tone at certain times: the shadows of nightfall seemed more somber, my mornings were less buoyant, walks in the woods became less zestful, and there was a moment during my working hours in the late afternoon when a kind of panic and anxiety overtook me…” – William Styron, Darkness Visible
Sometimes the Depression Self-Screening Tests are just too clinical, and the symptoms don’t really “click” with you. Some of the criteria are general, and if you’re suffering from depression, specifics are easier to understand. I know that I might not have diagnosed myself with depression just on the basis of those symptoms. I had no change in appetite, and no sleep problems (getting out of bed was what was difficult). Below are some un-clinical symptoms.
Things just seem “off” or “wrong.”
You don’t feel hopeful or happy about anything in your life.
You’re crying a lot for no apparent reason, either at nothing, or something that normally would be insignificant.
You feel like you’re moving (and thinking) in slow motion.
Getting up in the morning requires a lot of effort.
Carrying on a normal conversation is a struggle. You can’t seem to express yourself.
You’re having trouble making simple decisions.
Your friends and family really irritate you.
You’re not sure if you still love your spouse/significant other.
Smiling feels stiff and awkward. It’s like your smiling muscles are frozen.
It seems like there’s a glass wall between you and the rest of the world.
You’re forgetful, and it’s very difficult to concentrate on anything.
You’re anxious and worried a lot.
Everything seems hopeless.
You feel like you can’t do anything right.
You have recurring thoughts of death and/or suicidal impulses. Suicide seems like a welcome relief.
You have a feeling of impending doom – you think something bad is going to happen, although you may not be sure what, and/or…
…You have a very specific fear that torments you constantly.
In your perception of the world around you, it’s always cloudy. Even on sunny days, it seems cloudy and gray.
You feel as though you’re drowning or suffocating.
You’re agitated, jumpy and and anxious much of the time.
Your senses seem dulled; food tastes bland and uninteresting, music doesn’t seem to affect you, you don’t bother smelling flowers anymore.
Incessantly and uncontrollably into your mind comes the memory of every failure, every bad or uncomfortable experience, interview or date, like a torrent of negativity.
Note: I wrote this a few years ago, and it has made its way around the Net uncredited. If you want to reproduce it in any way, please look at the terms of the Creative Commons license at the bottom of the page.
Please feel free to post your comment about what depression feels like. Don’t post:
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Comments on how you think it should be managed, including finding God.
Requests for other people to email you.
Your depression “biography”.
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You can only spend so many hours a day in bed. Between work, kids, keeping house and managing our lives, the days of carefree afternoons to laze around between the sheets with your lover are probably long over.
In fact, most of us spend too few hours in bed every night. At that point, what we do with those hours becomes a trade-off: sex vs. sleep. For one out of four Americans, sleep wins. At least according to a new study by the National Sleep Foundation, reported in the New York Times.The sleep foundation was looking for differences in the types of sleep problems different ethnic groups experience. They found some.
Whites are more likely than any other ethnic group to be diagnosed with insomnia, with in 1 in 10 receiving the diagnoses. Blacks have cornered the market on sleep apnea, a condition diagnosed in 1 in 7 African-Americans. Hispanics, according to this study, are more likely than their peers in other etnic groups to lose sleep to worry. 3 out of 8 said they stay up thinking about problems with money, health, relationships or work.
Asian-Americans are apparently sleeping better than everyone else, with 5 out of 6 saying they get at least a few good nights sleep each week.
But across the board, the numbers for choosing sleep over sex were about the same: a quarter of us frequently eschew sex for sleep at the end of the day. I’m surprised that number wasn’t higher.
I’ve been conducting my own sleep-deprivation experiments since having my first child six years ago, and like a lot of parents I know full well how sweet dreams can become. Even sweeter than some one-on-one time with your partner. Who, if yours is anything like mine, is probably snoring by the time your head hits the pillow anyway.
Sometimes, when my husband and I have been Way Too Tired For Sex, we have literally made a “dream date”. Let’s do it in our sleep, we say, as we drift off holding hands.
Do you value sleep more than sex these days? Do you see that changing as your kids grow, or is this just the new status quo? How do you keep the sparks alive?
