Why Caffeine ☕ is Not for Everyone, Genetically Speaking

The Secrets of Coffee and the COMT gene…

Coffee…

How many hundreds of cumulative years of deep, sleepless work have been fueled by its stimulating effects?

How many thousands of cumulative years of deep human conversation have been driven by its intoxicating euphoria?

But did you know that, at one point, coffee was used not to fuel deep work and deep human conversation, but to drive deep prayer and deep conversation with the divine?

Coffee found its first widespread use among the monks of the deserts of Arabia, where they would consume coffee to help them resist the pangs of sleep and stay up at night in prayer and self-examination.

We’ve gone a long way from that.

Now, coffee is used to fuel long, stressful days at work under fluorescent blue lighting blaring from above.

Its user—the coffee drinker—intends to vanquish every last molecule of adenosine (the sleep-inducing molecule) left over from a night of 6 measly un-rejuvenating, restless hours of sleep.

That coffee allows him to just barely hold on to one last shred of catecholamine-driven wakefulness—all so that he can continue to slave away at his 8 to 5, overfed but unnourished, overworked but unfulfilled.

A long desert night of prayer and self-examination sounds much better.

But in any case, the point is that:

Coffee is not being used as it should.

And this is problematic for everyone, but it is especially so for people with specific genetic variants.

Let me explain:

Coffee’s stimulatory effects work through two main mechanisms:

1. It reduces adenosine.

   • Adenosine is the brain’s sleep-inducing molecule. Adenosine builds up over the course of the day until it reaches a certain threshold by the evening (if all goes well) and makes you feel sleepy, fueling a deep, restful night of sleep.

2. It activates the sympathetic nervous system.

   • The sympathetic nervous system is your body’s “fight or flight” mode. It’s what makes you feel activated and energized when something exciting or stressful is happening. Coffee creates that stimulating effect without you having to experience anything exciting or stressful (but not for everyone—more on this in a future article).

Let’s focus in on the second mechanism.

What does caffeine’s (and coffee’s) sympathetic nervous system activation entail?

It entails increased catecholamine levels. Catecholamines are activating neurotransmitters (chemicals that transmit signals in the brain and the rest of the nervous system). This includes:

• Epinephrine (adrenaline),

• Norepinephrine (noradrenaline),

  and

• Dopamine.

By increasing the levels of these catecholamines, caffeine (and coffee) makes you feel more alert and, sometimes, happier.

However, it’s not so simple, because excess catecholamines—especially epinephrine and norepinephrine (the adrenaline molecules)—can have some important negative effects on a variety of the organs of the body, especially the heart.

In fact, catecholamines put more stress on the heart by causing it to work harder in response to this greater perceived “stress.” Your blood vessels constrict, increasing the pressure that your heart has to work against, and your heart rate and contractile force increase.

And that stress increases the likelihood of things like heart attacks.

Now, that’s not a problem for most people who are using caffeine reasonably. But there are certain genetic variants that increase the likelihood of damage to your heart from caffeine and coffee.

How the COMT Gene Affects the Way Your Heart Responds to Coffee

As a quick review:

Remember that the COMT gene is involved in breaking down catecholamines—including the stimulating adrenaline molecules epinephrine and norepinephrine and that you can have either:

• a “Slow” COMT enzyme, which can predispose you to things like OCD, obsessiveness, anxiety, addictions, difficulty “moving on,” etc. (Check out my previous articles on this).

  or

• a “Fast” COMT enzyme, which can predispose you to things like ADHD, difficulty maintaining focus, difficulty persisting on one task for long periods of time, etc. (I’ll be talking about this more in depth in future articles).

If you have a “slow” enzyme variant, you are predisposed to building up those stimulating catecholamine molecules. This increases the work that your heart has to do in response to anything that increases catecholamine levels.

And that includes caffeine—and, by extension, coffee.

So coffee is more likely to be detrimental to the heart—and to one’s overall being (due to a resulting dysregulated stress response)—in people with “slow” COMT variants.

In fact, multiple studies have even found a higher rate of myocardial infarction (heart attack) in heavy coffee drinkers with the “slow” COMT variant.

And of course, no health issue exists in isolation. This negative affect on your heart function translates into effects on other realms of your health, as the underlying factors are the same—namely, catecholamine overload.

For People with Other Genetic Variants, Coffee May Actually Be of Some Benefit

I’ll be writing more about this in future articles…

And if you’d like to work with me one-on-one (and live in one of the US states in which I am licensed), feel free to reach out.

Keep in mind that this is not official medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is established through this article or through any other information provided on this website.