3 ms·
The graph titled "Caffeine Accumulation With Long Half Life" is weird. Isn't that not how half-life works? A higher blood level should mean faster elimination,
by raccoonDivider 3y ago
The graph titled "Caffeine Accumulation With Long Half Life" is weird. Isn't that not how half-life works? A higher blood level should mean faster elimination, but here it acts like the baseline changes each day. No matter how slow the user's clearance is, the ratio should always take the same time to get halved.
Edit: actually this graph implies that people like the author would end up poisoned by a lethal dose of caffeine after a few weeks to months. Maybe these people exist but it can't be common.
- tlb 3y agoCaffeine elimination, like all metabolic processes, isn't quite linear. At low levels the elimination rate is proportional to the caffeine concentration, so you get the "half life" exponential decay curve. But at high levels, elimination is limited by liver enzymes and decay is approximately linear. So yes, there is some level of caffeine intake that exceeds the max rate the liver can remove it and concentration would increase indefinitely.
- raccoonDivider 3y agoHow high a level are we talking? Is it common to have so few enzymes that a non-insane dose of coffee per day overwhelms the liver?
- gls2ro 3y agoSay you drink 2 cups of coffee every day. Is there any time T where there is zero coffee in the organism? If the answer is there is no Tm then is there an N=number of days, where there are dangerous levels of coffee accumulated in the organism? or are we more in an equilibrium state?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]