Watch out! Even one cup of coffee a day can be addictive

It's something coffee drinkers have known for years and now, research confirms it. As little as one cup of coffee a day can produce a caffeine addiction.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 57 studies on caffeine and nine surveys over 170 years. They found research agrees: When people don't get their usual dose of coffee, they can suffer a range of withdrawal symptoms that include headache, fatigue and difficulty concentrating.

They can even feel like they have the flu with nausea and muscle pain.

The researchers found that withdrawal symptoms kick in after abstinence from doses as low as 100 mg/day. That's about one 8–oz mug of coffee.

"Caffeine is the world's most commonly used stimulant, and it's cheap and readily available so people can maintain their use of caffeine quite easily," said Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience.

Experiments have shown that 50 per cent of people get headaches when they're cut off from caffeine and 13 per cent can be sick enough to lose time at work.

Griffiths' team found coffee drinkers often choose to keep getting their caffeine fix, rather than go through symptoms of withdrawal.

Griffiths and his team are urging that caffeine addiction to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the bible of mental disorders.

The research is published in the October issue of the journal, Psychopharmacology.

In North America, 80 to 90 per cent of adults drink caffeine regularly. Almost two–thirds of Canadians say they drink coffee every single day.

A television survey earlier this year found that the amount of caffeine in takeout coffee ranges considerably, depending on where the java is bought.

For example, the survey found 25 per cent more caffeine in coffee from Timothy's and Tim Horton’s Coffee compared to samples from JAVA Stop and Country Time. Coffee from Starbucks and Second Cup had more than double the caffeine.

Caffeine raises your heart rate, and may be linked to high blood pressure and osteoporosis. It's also been linked to miscarriage. What's more, the cream and sugar we add to our Canadian–style double–doubles can fatten our waistlines.

But scientists say there are ways to break your caffeine addiction. You just have to wean yourself slowly over time to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.

That can be done by gradually replacing regular coffee with decaf or with tea.