What do coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks and chocolate all have in common? They contain caffeine. And according to scientists at Oregon State University, if you consume these items frequently, caffeine may be running through your blood.
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Researchers purchased 18 batches of “pure” human blood serum from multiple donors. They tested the samples for caffeine, and all 18 tested positive. Test results showed that many of the samples also contained traces of cough medicine and anti-anxiety drugs. The findings suggest that “pure” blood samples may not be so pure after all, and showcase the very real possibility that your blood may be contaminated with the drugs you take.
Researcher Luying Chen explained, “From a ‘contamination’ standpoint, caffeine is not a big worry for patients, though it may be a commentary on current society, but the other drugs being in there could be an issue for patients, as well as posing a problem for those of us doing this type of research because it’s hard to get clean blood samples.”
The study, published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, suggests that if you ever need a blood transfusion, chances are high that you’ll also receive caffeine and other drugs, such as cough medicine and anti-anxiety drugs.
Researcher Richard van Breemen explained, “The study leads you in that direction, though without doing a comprehensive survey of vendors and blood banks we can only speculate on how widespread the problem is.” He added, “Another thing to consider is that we found drugs that we just happened to be looking for in doing the drug interaction assay validation – how many others are in there too that we weren’t looking for?”