Has your mother ever told you to stop drinking so much coffee all the time? If not then you're lucky, but if she has told you then this blog will tell you how to convince her to let you drink coffee. BUT if you drink more than 400 mg of caffeine a day, [about 4 cups of coffee, but can vary depending on the coffee you're consuming] then your mother is right to scold you. Why is she right? Continue reading to find out!
How does coffee work?
Coffee is not necessarily the thing keeping you awake, its a compound called caffeine that is doing all the hard work. Normally, when you feel tired, a chemical called adenosine binds to receptors in your nervous system which will cause you to drowse. But since caffeine has a similar structure to adenosine, when you have caffeine in your body, after consumption, the caffeine binds to the adenosine receptors instead and so the adenosine cannot bind and hence cannot cause you drowsiness anymore. Only when the effect of caffeine wears off will it unbind and then give adenosine a chance to bind.
Caffeine also helps release adrenaline, which is a hormone(chemical) that makes your brain more alert and raises blood sugar levels to give you more energy. How it happens is described in the diagram below:
Benefits
Coffee can do the following good things:
-it can help improve memory
-it can help you focus when doing lengthy tasks
-it reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes ~ kind of unbelievable but the antioxidants in coffee do this
(does not apply to if you already have type 2 diabetes)
-it contains antioxidants which are molecules that can help your body fight off harmful free radicals, which have been linked to health conditions like diabetes (told you above) and cancer
-it lower's the risk of cancers all because of the antioxidants
-it prevents drowsiness just due to the way it works ~takes about 200-400 mg of coffee to keep you awake
-it increases cognition[the process of acquiring knowledge, thinking, etc.]
~ it's especially helpful for those with ADHD as it causes increases in dopamine levels, which is the happy hormone, hence stress and anxiety is reduced, mood is improved, AND concentration increases (ADHD stakeholders have a hard time in concentrating and focusing)
-it improves mood by delaying dopamine reabsorption in the brain
-it lowers the risk of heart failure for regular consumers
Drawbacks
Four cups a day is the recommended limit of coffee for adults; for children it's one cup a day. Drinking more than the recommended limit is sure to cause you drawbacks; it's as if you're overdosing on caffeine. But if you stay within the limit, you're good.
Some bad things about coffee include:
-people with kidney issues should consume much less as coffee can have a straining effect on the kidneys, due to too much water loss as it causes repeated urination; hence dehydration puts strain on the kidneys
-subsequently it could increase chronic kidney disease, due to the short but sudden increase in blood pressure
-it can increase stress levels; release of adrenaline causes stress as anxiousness or nervousness is increased from adrenaline due to increase in blood glucose levels(that's why it's the fight or flight hormone, prepares you for emergency situations when you need energy urgently)
-it can cause insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, when drinken at the wrong time of day, or when too much is drinken, as it is meant to get rid of sleep
~people who had decaffeinated coffee(coffee without caffeine) improved in sleep magically, proving insomnia right
-the half life of coffee is 5 hours so drink it before noon to prevent disturbances in sleep; half life means that if you had 200 mg of coffee at 10 am, after 5 hours, you'll have 100 mg in your body, then after another 5 hours, 100 halves to become 50 mg of coffee, and after every 5 hours the level halves from the last value
Recommended coffee for students
Black coffee is more effective as the concentration of caffeine is less spread out; when milk is added, it takes more time for the caffeine to have its effect. So for a quicker effect, have black coffee.
Expressos are stronger doses of caffeine; if you really think you need an instant boost of focus, then have this as it's stronger and more concentrated than black coffee.
Dark roast coffee is really good as it has more phenylinades than normal roast coffee; these compounds contribute to boosting memory cells!
Besides that, iced coffee is also better than hot coffee as cold drinks are automatically refreshing and will wake you up!
Conclusion: is coffee good or bad?
When considering coffee, timing really matters. The time you drink the coffee should be right before when you need to do a task with a lot of focus. If you don't consider the time, you are disturbing your sleep and when you're not sleeping well, stress and anxiety will be sure to increase.
Limit the intake and keep it within the safe range or less; overdosing on coffee can also reduce the overall effectiveness coffee has on your focus since your body has become addicted to it or it has developed caffeine resistance, when your body will no longer be affected by the presence of caffeine. It's like even if you drink coffee before bed, you'll have no problem falling asleep. Or when you miss a cup of coffee, you'll start to experience anxiousness, which is your body telling you it needs a dose of coffee, since it has become an addiction.
To really use coffee the right way, you need strategy. Avoid drinking it 8 hours before bed so your sleep is not disturbed and at least half of the caffeine has been used up. Don't just drink it when you wake up; drink it before doing strenous work, or when you're losing focus that you need to regain in that moment.
Sometime when you have a huge dose of coffee, afterwards you get to experience withdrawal effects in which you are extremely tired and in a worse condition than before you had coffee, and you don't want that; it will just cause you to drink more coffee and keep this cycle going, of fatigue and energy.
To conclude, yes, coffee has more benefits than drawbacks. It's really good for memory, thinking, focus and to keep yourself awake. But when you overdose, it becomes just as deadly. So to drink coffee without worrying, keep it safe and drink all you want - WITHIN THE SAFE RANGE.
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