为什么咖啡会让人上瘾

卡莉.薇茵曼 写于  2011 年10月29日   早晨八点

Many of us are addicted to coffee for reasons that go beyond aroma and taste, whether we're willing to admit it or not. Consider this:   

许多人喜欢喝咖啡不是因为迷恋它的香味和口感，不管你是否愿意接受这种说法。其实是：

The caffeine in coffee taps into the brain's dopamine stores, mimicking the euphoric effects commonly associated with harder drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.

咖啡中的咖啡因能作用于大脑增加了多巴胺的含量，其作用原理与可卡因和兴奋剂类似。

And if that's not enough to convince you of the drink's powerful effect, know that coffee activates a system in our brains that secretes marijuana-like chemicals that control, among feelings of hunger and feeding, levels of happiness and euphoria.

如果这还不足以让你相信这家伙的威力，那么让我告诉你，咖啡会刺激大脑分泌类似大麻的化学物质，这种物质可以控制人的饥饿感，食欲和快感。

These reasons, offered up by Dr. Gary L. Wenk, a neuroscience professor at Ohio State University, in a post at Psychology Today, help explain why 38% of workers say they couldn't live without coffee.

以上是由俄亥俄大学神经系统科学教授加里. 温克博士发表在《今日心理学》上的，这让我们理解了为什么38%的上班族离不开咖啡。

And while coffee's caffeine is not remotely as damaging to us as hard drugs, it does alter how our bodies work. Wenk explains:

尽管咖啡里的咖啡因不会象毒品那样有害身体，但是它的确能改变身体的工作机能。温克解释道：

When you first started drinking coffee, the arousal was all you wanted and also all that you got.  Still, being more attentive and vigilant was all you needed to get through the day. As you continued drinking coffee your liver compensated for the additional chemicals in your diet by becoming more efficient at metabolizing the caffeine. Your brain also made some adjustments. Ultimately, you needed more and more coffee each day to achieve the same level of arousal and vigilance.

当你刚开始喝咖啡，你只是想提一下神，它也确实能起到提神的作用。所有你需要做就是保持更高的警觉性，注意力更集中地度过这一天。如果你继续喝咖啡，肝脏就会更快地代谢咖啡因来补偿食物中多余的化学成分。大脑也会做出调整。最终，你每天需要越来越多的咖啡来达到平时的工作专注水平。

"Coffee makes us feel so good because it is able to tap into virtually every reward system our brain has evolved," Wenk writes. When it comes down to it, coffee certainly isn't going to kill you. Plus, it's a cheap and easy way to boost workers' performance and office morale.

"喝咖啡使人感觉很好是因为它能刺激大脑已进化的每一个奖赏系统" 温克写道，当然，归根结底喝咖啡不会致命。而且，还是一种实惠方便的方法来提高工作效率，鼓舞办公室士气。