CP450 makes you digest coffee faster.
caffeine doesn’t actually “give you more energy”, it just feels like it. Energy comes from cellular ATP and caffeine barely touches that, instead, caffeine blocks adenosine receptors. Adenosine is part of what makes us feel tired, it’s produced as a by-product of expending ATP energy throughout the day. Caffeine is a similar shape to adenosine and can block the receptors that pick up adenosine and make us tired. The blocked adenosine doesn’t disappear, and so when the caffeine finally falls away from the receptor, the adenosine latches on and in comes the “caffeine crash”.
caffeine is primarily metabolised in the liver through the cytochrome P450 enzymes, which, if you’ve been in any health spheres, you’ll have heard of. There’s so much about how important it is to increase our CYP P450 and stop doing things that decrease it. Why? because it’s the primary way that our liver processes drugs and supplements as well as our metabolic waste. Basically, this family of liver enzymes keep us clean.
amongst those drugs and supplements that we like to ingest is caffeine. Those who have -amongst their CYP P450 family- the gene CYP1A21A are FASTER caffeine metabolisers, those who have the CYP1A21F are SLOWER caffeine metabolisers. It’s not clear why there are 2 variations of this same gene, but it might have to do with different ancestral environments requiring different capacities to process toxins / infections etc..
can you alter the gene you have? not really, but you can do things to increase or decrease the effect of the whole CYP P450 family.
things that increase CYP P450
cruciferous vegetables
charcoal grilled meat
unsaturated fatty acids
liver function
things that decrease CYP P450
grapefruit juice
general liver function
vitamin c / calcium / magnesium
caffeine is an alkaloid (often bitter tasting substances that evoke quite extreme responses in the human body) it evolved in a few different plants around the world (cacao, cola, tea, some holly’s, and the leaves of some citrus) as a way of paralysing tiny insects. Theobromine (the alkaloid in cacao) is the biochemical step before the synthesis of caffeine.
