Does caffeine consumption (excessive or otherwise) have any long term effects?

Factual Questions
1

A friend of mind claimed that (after seeing me drink my third coffee of the day) that my indulgence in the stimulant would doom me to schizophrenia, Parkinson’s and other such unpleasant disorders later in life.

Is the something to this, or is he (or someone else he’s parroted) just BSing?

2

No, in fact there was a study recently on how Alzheimer patients are helped by caffeine. Decent short article on caffeine in general here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/healthy_living/nutrition/healthy_caff.shtml

3

As a person who worked overnights for many years, the only thing caffeine did to me was give me an enormous headache when I tried to quit. :o)

I think being a stimulant caffeine would make things like Parkinsons and schizophrenia worse but not be a causal agent.

Caffeine is such a universal substance and has been consumed for such a long time that by now we certainly would see paterns if it was a cause of such conditions. That said, I’m not saying caffeine is good for you or doesn’t worsen said illnesses but I have seen no actual proof of cause.

4

I’ve never heard that caffeine causes schizophrenia. There’s some evidence that it might actually lower your risk of developing Parkinson’s.

If you have depression as one of the symptoms of schizophrenia (as some people do), then caffeine might actually make you feel better.

5

According to my ENT doc, caffeine can irritate the stomach and thus is a contributor to GERD, which is associated with things like laryngitis, vocal cord polyps (I speak from experience), and esophageal cancer.

6

I’ve also been recently told that Coffee can cause some problems with people with Thyroid/Metabolic disorders, namely the alkaloids in coffee can cause drops in Calcium or Potassium levels for them. It’s just something to watch for if they’ve got Thyroid problems as it may cause some side effects.

And yeah- Caffeine withdrawals are certainly not fun to go through. Though I got mine from nearly daily Sodas in college and then trying to go cold turkey whenever I came home for the summer.

7

This relatively recent article may be of some interest.