Longer Lasting Caffeine 51
falser writes "Caffeine addicted geeks everywhere may rejoice that scientists have discovered a protein that appears to be responsible for amplifying the caffeine buzz. It also makes the effects last longer. Just one question: how soon until we have a new generation of ultra powerful caffeine products?"
Hyper-caffeinated products? (Score:3, Interesting)
From the article it seems that the proteine is already in the human (or mice's) brain, and that it prolonges the effect of caffeine, but the effect of adding such proteine in the body directly aren't clear. Maybe it has more or less the same effect of caffeine, maybe if you take it together with caffeine the body feels that there is already enough of it and you have the (gulp!) opposite effect. So one of the few researchs that could have helped caffeine-addicted people ends helping those sad "decaffeinated" people out there, and this is not good. :)
Me, I'll just stick to real coffee and use chocolate to enhance the effect of caffeine.
By the way, I wonder whether the big number of people in favour of "caffeinated" as opposed do "decaffeinated" in the pool has something to do with people from slashdot. :)
So THAT'S why coffee has so little effect on me (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps I have a genetic mutation that causes this protein to not be present. Researchers also said that it may play a role in enhancing the effects of cocaine and amphetemines. If coke's reputation weren't so dangerous, it might be worth snorting a small line to see if I was immune to that too (though I do not indulge in illicit drugs for recreational purposes). Of course the U.S.'s "War on Drugs" makes such research practically impossible. Perhaps people with an excess of this protein are more likely to become addicted to coke. Certainly formal research in this area might go a long way toward understanding the chemical basis for certain drug addictions.