Yahoo Health: How The Effects of Caffeine are More Personal Than You May Think

UNO in the news: Yahoo Health credits a UNO zebrafish study with helping explain why caffeine affects everyone differently. The findings add to the existing evidence that our biology influences how our bodies react to caffeine more than we may think.

Why it matters: With more than 80% of adults consuming at least 135 milligrams of caffeine daily, it is important to know how it affects you individually. Here’s why:

• It takes caffeine anywhere between six to twenty hours to digest depending on your levels of adenosine. Without knowing this, you may consume more caffeine than necessary before the first dosage has fully impacted you.
• Other factors such as medications, smoking, and pregnancy can alter how fast you metabolize caffeine and change your tolerance.
• Generic advice on when to stop caffeine consummation is not a one-size-fits-all. "A blanket of hard-and-fast rule isn't helpful because it doesn't really allow for the intricacies and the individualization of what's really going on,” explains Dr. Lindsay Browning, sleep researcher.

Zoom in: The research for the zebrafish study was done by former UNO undergraduate student, and current graduate student at the University of Washington, Sydney Klucas. Her research explaining how caffeine effects vary based on an individual's biology was published in the Brain and Behavior.

• Klucas was awarded a grant from the Fund for Undergraduate Scholarly Experiences (FUSE) and completed the research under UNO Associate Professor Ryan Wong, Ph.D.
• Wong was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award, Teaching - 2025 and continues his research on understanding the causes and consequences of variation of complex animal behaviors.

Read the full article on Yahoo Health.