How coffee causes exhaustion, fatigue and addiction, Pt 5

“Adrenal fatigue”

The caffeine connection has been hidden by the fact that treatment for adrenal dysfunction disorders tends to be shortsighted and one-dimensional. As I have explained before, understanding the health effects of caffeine requires a long view, perhaps encompassing most of one’s lifetime. And from that long-term view, a two-phase phenomenon is revealed.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 205

Another concern is that caffeine addiction often occurs along with other substance abuses, nicotine and sugar most commonly. Caffeine, like sugar, over stimulates the adrenals and then weakens them with persistent or chronic use. First, sugar stimulates and weakens the adrenals, which creates fatigue. Then we use caffeine to keep us aware and awake, further depleting our adrenals, to which many respond by drinking more caffeine with sugar. In addition, people who overuse caffeine tend to need more tranquilizers and sleeping pills to help them relax or sleep.
Staying Healthy With Nutrition by Elson M Haas MD, page 937

Reduce or eliminate caffeine from your diet. Caffeine puts additional stress on your adrenal glands.
Enhancing Heart Health by Matthew budoff MD FACC, page 61

But caffeine overstimulates the nerves and glands. It drains the adrenal system, damages the thyroid, and can trigger heart arrhythmias. In female and male menopause, caffeine plays a role: Breast cysts and lumps are common in women, while men suffer from caffeine-induced prostate problems.
Food Swings by Barnet Meltzer MD, page 56

In Phase 1 of the caffeine/adrenal relationship, stress hormones are pumped out in excessive amounts. This action suppresses immunity and increases risk for a number of health disorders, especially cardiovascular disease. It also lowers production of DHEA, a hormone critical to the optimum functioning of your immune, cardiovascular, reproductive, and nervous systems.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 208

The active ingredient in kola nut is caffeine. It is used both for its stimulating action as well as its flavor and color in various soft drinks. Its use for depression and fatigue, therefore, is purely symptomatic. A continual reliance on such symptomatic treatments as this and others such as coffee or tea (Camellia sinensis) for tiredness and fatigue is bound to deplete further the body’s reserves, setting one up for more chronic degenerative conditions. Fatigue and tiredness usually have a cause that should be discovered and treated at a deeper level with diet, herbs and appropriate physiotherapy and lifestyle adjustments.
The Way Of Herbs by Michael Tierra, page 150

Although acute caffeine consumption provides stimulation, regular caffeine intake may actually lead to chronic fatigue. While mice fed one dose of caffeine demonstrated significant increases in their swimming capacity, when the dose of caffeine was given for 6 weeks, a significant decrease in swimming capacity was observed.
Textbook of Natural Medicine Volumes 1-2 by Joseph E Pizzorno and Michael T Murray, page 433

Caffeine depletes the body of B vitamins, which you need for proper brain and nervous system functioning and for converting food to energy, says Michael Murray, N.D., a naturopathic physician in Seattle and author of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Getting Well Naturally. To make matters worse, it also prevents iron absorption, says Dr. Murray, which can lead to anemia, a condition in which you have too few oxygen-carrying red blood cells and which is a major contributor to fatigue.
The Complete Book Of Alternative Nutrition by Selene Y Craig, page 389

“After prolonged ‘caffeinism,’ your body enters a state of adrenal exhaustion”

Habitual caffeine use ultimately leads to Phase 2, what has been called adrenal insufficiency or adrenal exhaustion. This condition bears more than a casual resemblance to the post-traumatic stress syndrome experienced by soldiers returning from combat. In effect, the adrenal glands simply wear out from chronic stimulation.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 206

But with caffeine, we don’t provide the glands anything to make that hormone out of—we just cry “emergency” and force them to figure it out, one way or another. So the body reaches down into its reserves and makes more hormone because it thinks it is the right thing to do. Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don’t have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups a day and it’s barely keeping them awake. That’s severe adrenal depletion.
Herbal Defense by Ralph T Golan ND, page 280

Another concern is that caffeine is often consumed along with other substances such as nicotine and sugar. Like sugar, caffeine overstimulates the adrenals and then weakens them with persistent or chronic use. A cycle develops where first sugar stimulates and weakens the adrenals, creating fatigue to which we then respond by drinking caffeine to stay awake. In addition, people who overuse caffeine tend to need more tranquilizers and sleeping pills to help them relax or sleep. Caffeine is a lifetime drug for many. We begin at a young age with hot chocolate or chocolate bars, move into colas or other soft drinks, and then add coffee and tea.
The New Detox Diet by Elson M Haas MD, page 30