Caffeine is highly addictive. Reported to be the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance on earth, 90% of Americans report using caffeine on a daily basis. Now in a new study, it seems that two genes have been potentially identified to contribute to Starbucks’ profitability so to speak.
Caffeine lovers visited Starbucks Corp. more often and spent more money than ever according to an early 2011 report that stated earnings of $241.5 million, or 32 cents per share, for the three months that ended in late December 2010.
Dr. Neil Caporaso, branch chief of genetic epidemiology at the National Cancer Institute explains:
“It’s really an incredible story. People don’t really suspect it, but genetics plays a big role in a lot of behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. And now it turns out that it has a part in how much caffeine we drink.”
The two genes under examination are labeled CYP1A2 and AHR. The former has previously been linked to the process by which caffeine is metabolized, while AHR regulates the activity of CYP1A2.
Caporaso continues:
“Now, it’s been known for a few decades that this particular CYP1A2 gene is what metabolized caffeine. But using new technology, what we now showed for the first time is that this gene appears to be responsible for the inherited differences in how people drink coffee.”
The study, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, noted that more than eight in 10 American adults who consume caffeine are coffee drinkers. Globally, caffeine is the most popular psychoactive substance, with 90% of people in the world consuming some form of it.
The findings about the genetic underpinnings of coffee consumption stem from a highly complex mapping of specific inherited traits alongside caffeine intake patterns involving more than 47,000 Americans of European descent in five different studies.
The authors say:
“The point here is that the way we drink caffeine is not just random. It’s related to the genetic hand of cards you were dealt. And that means that now we can dissect people into fast metabolizers and slow metabolizers: people who have just one small coffee and feel well-caffeinated for a day, and people who have two large ones and then another Coke a little later in the day to get the same effect. It’s also the case that these observations actually go beyond caffeine, because one of the genes we identified wasn’t put there just to metabolize caffeine. It does a lot of other stuff, like metabolize compounds of cancer and also a whole long list of drugs.”
The fact is that caffeine consumption causes the lack of mental alertness the habitual drinker is prone to. It is far from normal to have the peaks and sags of attention and energy that is the hallmark of a caffeine addict. Without repeated administration of caffeine, energy drops and mental sharpness flags. Just like other addictive drugs, caffeine creates its own problems, and just like other drugs, the “cure” for those problems is more of the drug.
In conclusion:
“So now, we have some clear genetic markers that we can go and test to see how they might affect a host of metabolic processes. But meanwhile, people should think of caffeine as generally very safe. So enjoy yourself. In fact, go read about this research while sipping a cup of coffee.”
Sources: PLoS Genetics and MyAddiction.com
Written by Sy Kraft