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Caffeine is a kind of drug
called a stimulant. Stimu-
lants speed up your nervous
system. They make you feel
excited and alert and full of
energy. This sounds like a
good thing—but stimulants
can be dangerous.
Caffeine is also a psychoac-
tive drug. This means that it’s
a chemical that crosses the
blood-brain barrier
.
It gets inside the brain and
the
central nervous
system
. It changes the
way the brain works.
Caffeine is actually
a chemical that’s
made up of atoms
of carbon, oxygen,
nitrogen, and hy-
drogen.