Why some people are immune to the stimulation of caffeine

 

    Caffeine is a stimulant that is widely used all across the world for its taste, but more so for its stimulating effects. Caffeine is able to block other neurotransmitters that promote sleep, which creates that feeling of alertness after a cup of coffee, or tea. With that being said, not everyone is able to have those same stimulating effects, because of genetics. The gene CYP1A2 is a gene that is responsible for breaking down, and metabolizing caffeine from the body. What specific gene you have of this depends on how quickly (or not) your body can feel the stimulant effects. The feeling that caffeine brings is purely based on a persons metabolism, based on that gene.

    As someone who consumes coffee, or tea on a daily basis, I personally feel more awake every time caffeine is consumed. However, the more you consume caffeine regularly, the more you’ll become resistant to its effects, considering it is a drug. 

Link to article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/10/10/caffeine-sensitivity-coffee-heart-genes/#

    

    

The genes of a coffee drinker

A NatGeo article explains how genes might have a lot more to do on how caffeine affects your body than you think. Most people consume caffeine in one form or another, sometimes without even knowing their foods or drinks contain it. The most conscious about caffeine consumption are those who are affected negatively by it. It is impressive how some people can manage to have a cup of coffee every hour of the day and be just fine, while others will not be able to sleep all night just by looking at them drink it (figuratively speaking). The reason for this lies in the way we metabolize certain substances, which comes from our genes. 
CYP1A2 codes for an enzyme that canalizes metabolism of certain drugs including caffeine, AHR determines how much of that enzyme is produced. These two genes work hand in hand to regulate the caffeine in your bloodstream, determine how much and for how long it will stay there. If your parents passed the "fast" metabolism genes down to you, then caffeine might not be in your body long enough to stimulate the brain in a drastic way, whereas people with slow metabolism or low amount of the caffeine metabolic enzyme will have the effects for longer.
There are some who do not drink coffee just because they do not like the taste. Well, this is also due to the activity of genes involved in taste perception that allow us to taste the bitterness of substances. People who have the more active genes, are able to taste better the bitterness of caffeine and more likely to enjoy a cup of coffee, while people with less active genes do not perceive intensity of bitter tastes and will prefer a cup of tea instead. 

Java Genes

Have you ever wondered how some people could make it through a whole day running on one cup of coffee while others could drink a gallon and still need a nap?  Well I have since I'm one of those people who probably consume a typically dangerous amount of caffeine on a daily basis, and it turns out that it is actually linked to your genes.  Researchers have found several variations of a gene that controls caffeine metabolism.  Some people carry a variation where they metabolize caffeine more slowly than others who have a different variant.  The slower your body metabolizes it, the less the person feels the need to drink it, while the faster a person's metabolism is, the more caffeine they can tolerate at a time.  This is why some people feel jittery or anxious after one cup as opposed to others who just feel more happy and energized.  In addition to a link to caffeine metabolism, scientists also noted that those same genes also coded for how the body metabolizes other drugs in the body, like nicotine.  This finding in the study could be very important to the future of medicine if they can link these genes controlling metabolism of other drugs as well, which could hopefully lead to new, more precise treatments of numerous diseases.