Fueled by Caffeine: It’s Benefits and Drawbacks.

Now a days, people can’t function optimally without a cup of caffeine to start their day. Making the analogy, gasoline is to cars, as caffeine is to people—a perfect statement to describe the importance of caffeine. Below are some of the benefits and disadvantages of adding caffeine to your diet.

Caffeine: Beneficial or Harmful?

Caffeine is widely known for its ability to reduce fatigue, increase performance, elevate drowsiness, and improve alertness and focus.

Several academic studies suggest that caffeine has the ability to help elevate one’s mood and help prevent illnesses such as several cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and Parkinson’s disease to name a few. [1]

Although caffeine proves to be an effective drug with several short term and long-term benefits, its disadvantages are rarely talked about. The drawbacks brought by caffeine are usually only experienced for a couple of days and aren’t as harmful as other psychoactive drugs such as nicotine and cocaine[2]. However, it is still better to consider and be aware of how your cup of caffeine affects your body.

When the body constantly ingests caffeine at excessive amounts, it causes the brain to develop more of the receptors that cause drowsiness and reduces the stimulants that occur naturally in the body, making you reliant on caffeine. [3]

Other disadvantageous effects of the excessive intake of caffeine range from: insomnia, dehydration brought about by increased urination due to caffeine, to caffeine dependency and withdrawal – with symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, depression and difficulty in concentrating.[4]

Everything in Moderation: Drink up! a cup or two won’t hurt.  

Your daily dose of caffeine may be beneficial to your daily performance but take heed when drinking beyond the prescribed consumption rate per day. Removing the harmful effects of caffeine from the body isn’t as fast as removing chemicals off a coffee maker – How to descale a Keurig? Easily done, how to rid the body of built-up stimulants? Now, that takes some time. So, drink up! But remember to do so in moderation.

Moderate amounts of caffeine prove to be beneficial but remember that even medicine when taken in excess can be poison.

More about coffee: Getting to know the beans in your cup.

Caffeine intake differs per person, how much is yours?

References:

[1] Whiteman H. (2015). Caffeine how does it affect our health?

Retrieved from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271707.php

[2] Department of Chemistry, the University of Kansas (n.d.) Caffeine: the chemistry behind the world’s most popular drug, pp. 5. Retrieved from: https://chem.ku.edu/sites/chem.ku.edu/files/docs/CHEM190/caffeine.pdf

[3] Department of Chemistry, the University of Kansas (n.d.) Caffeine: the chemistry behind the world’s most popular drug, pp. 5

[4] Department of Chemistry, the University of Kansas (n.d.) Caffeine: the chemistry behind the world’s most popular drug, pp. 6

Your Daily Dose of Coffee Is Safe For Your Arteries

For many coffee lovers, there’s a little shadow of a doubt that their daily cup of coffee is actually bad for their health. But there is one thing they know, coffee completes their day and keeps their body awake throughout the day. There’s some kind of conflict of what information we get about coffee. Some say it is bad that it could hurt your body specifically your arteries and some say that it is good as coffee is filled with antioxidants that help repair body cells. So which one is actually true? A new study in the UK shows that consumption of coffee, even up to 25 cups, seems to have no effect on the arteries.

A New Study on Arterial Health and Coffee Consumption

Research sponsored by the British Heart Foundation and conducted in Queen Mary University in London examined more than 8,412 people for arterial health and coffee consumption behavior. Participants are divided into those who drink less than one cup a day, 1-3 cups a day, and 4-25 cups a day. Those who drink 25 or more cups a day are excluded from the study considering that they could be too nervous for the examination. Participants underwent an MRI scan of the heart and an infrared pulse wave to examine atherosclerosis.

Prior studies have shown that drinking coffee is linked with arterial stiffness. This is a state of the body which could cause stress on the cardiovascular system and can increase the probability of strokes and heart attacks. Nevertheless, after adjusting for other points such as smoking, drinking, height, weight, eating plan, sex, race and blood pressure, coffee consumption has not been shown to affect arterial health. The study was demonstrated at the British Cardiovascular Society meeting.

“We observed that drinking three cups of coffee or more each day didn’t considerably raise the rigidity of the blood vessels in comparison with people who drank fewer cups of coffee each day,” Kenneth Fung, a leading analyst of the research, on an interview with CNN’s Amy Woodyatt. “The primary message from this study is that coffee could be enjoyed while in a healthy way of life, and coffee lovers could be reassured with this result when it comes to stiffness blood vessel findings.”

So next time you are going to brew your next cup of coffee with Keurig coffee makers (learn how to descale a Keurig), know that your next cup of coffee is actually good for your health. So sit down, relax, and enjoy your freshly brewed cup of coffee.

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