| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 49 sec.) ; 161931356 bytes |
| Summary |
Don't drink, smoke, or do drugs? Think you've got no vices? Think again. If you drink coffee, tea, cola or indulge in the occasional piece of chocolate, then you're using a drug. Believe it or not, caffeine has the same pharmacological effects on the body as many of the substances we associate with doing harm. Of course, coffee is so well integrated into our culinary culture that we barely give its health effects a second thought. Apart from being highly addictive and causing unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if we stop drinking it suddenly, research shows that even a little bit of coffee may reduce fertility by damaging sperm. It's also bad news if you're pregnant. Caffeine seems to affect the amount of time the baby spends resting, which could lead to abnormal behaviour later on.But every cloud has a silver lining. Ironically, caffeine is being administered to pre-term babies to help them breathe. It also appears to increase alertness and improve performance under some circumstances. To drink or not to drink? That is the question . . |
| Event |
Broadcast 2007-04-10 at 09:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Caffeine -- Health aspects.
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Caffeine -- Physiological effect.
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Caffeine -- Toxicology.
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Drug abuse.
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Coffee drinking.
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Australia.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Campbell, Richard, director
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Burchfield, Geoffrey, host
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