The Safety of Ingested Caffeine: A Comprehensive Review.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review of safety literature without systematic review or meta-analytic methodology
PubMed 28603504 · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00080
What was done
The authors reviewed research literature on the safety and safe intake doses of ingested caffeine (both natural and synthetic) across healthy adults and potentially vulnerable populations, including pregnant and lactating women, children, adolescents, young adults, and individuals with heart conditions or mental illness.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, effect sizes, or dose thresholds. It qualitatively notes that caffeine consumption is relatively safe for healthy adults, but identifies potential harms in vulnerable groups, specifically impairments in cardiovascular function, sleep, and substance use.
Why it matters
It emphasizes that general adult caffeine safety conclusions cannot be uniformly applied across vulnerable demographic and clinical subgroups who face elevated risk of adverse effects.
Limits
The paper is a narrative review with no systematic search criteria, quality appraisal, or quantitative synthesis described in the abstract. Specific dose-response limits and effect sizes are omitted.
Cited by
- context Ninety percent of adults in the world consume caffeine daily.