I’ve just read that a 250mg dose of caffeine can reduce blood flow to the brain by 22%-30%.
It seems counter intuitive to me that a chemical that restricts blood flow to the organ responsible for all mental operations actually improves our mental functioning.
There’s probably a simple answer but 22-30% seems like it would significantly impair the brain’s functioning
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250mg of caffeine is more than three shots of espresso. At that level of caffeine unless you’re a caffeine addict it will reduce your mental functioning.
But at lower dosages it can improve functioning in certain situations by turning off parts of your brain – it improves your ability to keep doing repetitive tasks by reducing your ability to feel tiredness, and making you less curious and distractible.
For the most part that’s how drugs that “improve” your mind tend to work – they temporarily break bits of your brain that you don’t want active given what you’re doing.
You don’t want self-consciousness when you’re socialising? Try some alcohol.
You don’t want to acknowledge your exhaustion when you’re working? Caffeine.
You don’t want to feel stressed by your stressful life? There are an array of options – although if we’re going with legal ones, this is Nicotine.
Of course, in all three of those cases the drug in question is addictive and will ultimately make your problems worse if you use it a lot. Caffeine overuse will mean you’re always tired and grumpy unless you have caffeine helping you ignore it. Alcohol will give you aches and pains, in addiction to crushing feelings of guilt for things you did while disinhibited that you can only quiet by drinking more alcohol.
Nicotine is the most addictive, and will make you CONSTANTLY stressed unless you’re actively smoking. It’s almost impossible to use in moderation, so don’t try. Alcohol and caffeine can be part of a healthy life, but nicotine just isn’t.
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