I drink a lot of coffee lately to keep awake. But lately coffee just doesn't have that "kick." I think I may be stuck in a vicious cycle, or to put it another way I have reached the point of diminishing returns with the use of coffee.
Why do I think its coffee (more specifically caffeine) that's causing my chronic fatigue? Well, I wont bore you with an elaboration of my symptoms, but suffice it to say I normally get very tired during the day around noon or thereafter and am able to sleep for a few hours if allowed but sleep tends to be unrefreshing. This is troubling. I have noticed that since school started back I have been tired despite the lack of strenuous physical exertion. I drink a coffee in the morning and then maybe a couple at night.
Thankfully the Internet provides many fine technical/scientific answers that elaborate my predicament.
As I understand it Caffeine inhibits the decomposition of cAMP (Cyclic adenosine monophosphate) into AMP. cAMP is an important analog of ATP (and we should all know what that stands for by now).
According to wikipedia's fine article on cAMP:
"cAMP is a second messenger, used for intracellular signal transduction, such as transferring the effects of hormones like glucagon and adrenaline, which cannot get through the cell membrane. Its main purpose is the activation of protein kinases; it is also used to regulate the passage of Ca2+ through ion channels."
As can be inferred from the above the inhibition of so critical a substance in the human body over a prolonged period of time must surely result in changes both gross and subtle. One idea is that by inhibiting the breakdown of cAMP into AMP intracellular calcium stores become prematurely depleted, resulting in a cascading effect. Calcium dependent secondary messenger processes become less effective as a result. This is just one possibility, in fact there are many. In any case a good reason to take a break from coffee for a week and see if energy levels don't bounce back.
