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Smart Drugs & Nutrients:

How to Improve Your Memory and Increase Your Intelligence Using the Latest Discoveries In Neuroscience

VOLUME 1 in the Smart Drugs Series

by Ward Dean, M.D. & John Morgenthaler
$12.95 - 224 pages, softcover (Out of Stock)

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Sec 5: Other Cognitive Enhancers

Acetyl­L-Carnitine (ALC) | Caffeine | Centrophenoxine (Lucidril) | Choline & Lecithin | AL721 (Egg Lecithin) | DHEA | DMAE | Gerovital (GH­3) | Ginkgo Biloba: A Nootropic Herb? | Ginseng | Hydergine | Idebenone | Phenytoin (Dilantin) | Propranolol Hydrochloride (Inderal) | Thyroid Hormone | Vasopressin (Diapid) | Vincamine | Vitamins | Xanthinol Nicotinate

Caffeine

Caffeine is widely used for its stimulant properties. Most people think of caffeine as improving their ability to think clearly, but a great deal of the research shows that it actually does not improve human memory in a variety of psychologi­cal tests.

One study administered 100mg doses of caffeine to normal, healthy college students and found that their ability to remember lists of words that they had just heard was diminished when they were given caffeine (Terry, 1986). In another study, college students were given either 0, 2, or 4mg of caffeine for every kilogram of their body weight. At the 2mg rate, that would be 127mg for a 140 lb. person. A 5 oz. cup of coffee can contain from 40 - 180 mg caffeine. Female students had a more difficult time of remembering lists of words that were read to them slowly when they were given caffeine, and otherwise no memory effects, good or bad were noted by the researchers (Erikson, 1985). Thirty‑two normal, healthy men were randomly given 0, 125, 250mg of caffeine and then given a recall test, a reaction time test, and a Stroop color word test that involves confusing data. They performed poorly with the high dose on the Stroop test. The researchers wrote, "Caffeine may have a deleterious effect on the rapid processing of ambiguous or confusing stimuli..." (Foreman, 1989). This sounds like a description of modern life.

A 1983 study found that combining caffeine and alcohol actually slowed the reaction time of 8 subjects. The caffeine and alcohol combination made the subjects more drunk than alcohol alone (Oborne, 1983). So much for the popular myth that giving a drunk some coffee is a good way to get him or her back on the road.

Coffee contains many chemicals other than caffeine. There are at least three opiate‑like compounds in coffee. This probably accounts for coffee drinkers describing coffee as relaxing. These opiate‑like compounds, which are found even in decaffeinated coffee, may also in part account for coffee's addictive qualities.

People desiring a mild, non‑toxic stimulant that improves memory and cognitive functions should consider the nootropics, described earlier in this book.

References:

Baer, R. "Effects of Caffeine on Classroom Behavior, Sustained Attention, and a Memory Task in Preschool Children." Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 1987, 20 (3) pp. 225‑34.

Erikson, G.C., Hager, L.B., Houseworth, C., Dungan, J., Petros, T., Beckwith, B.E. "The Effects of Caffeine on Memory for Word Lists." Physiology and Behavior. 1985, 35 (1), pp. 47‑51.

Foreman, N., Barraclough, S., Moore, C., Mehta, A., Madon, M. "High Doses of Caffeine Impair Perfor­mance of a Numerical Version of the Stroop Task in Men." Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior. 1989, 32 (2) pp. 399‑403.

Oborne, D., Rogers, Y. "Interactions of Alcohol and Caffeine on Human Reaction Time." Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medi­cine. 1983, 54 (6) pp. 528‑34.

Terry, W., Phifer, B. "Caffeine and Memory Performance on the AVLT." Journal of Clinical Psychology. 1986, 42 (6) p.86­0.