Do You Dip Your Brain In Coffee?
November 15, 2007 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
I got a late start today, but that’s alright on several levels.
One, I work from home so starting at 10 a.m. rather than 9 a.m. is no big deal. Two, I’ve been getting a lot more sleep lately, and I’ve noticed that no matter what time I start working, my mind is much more alert and I’m way more productive than I ever was starting work in the early hours of the day. Three, my first cup of coffee tastes grand, regardless of the time of day I wake up and have it.
I love coffee. I love everything about it. I love shopping for coffee and all its “extras” – creams, sweeteners, etc. I enjoy the time it takes to browse the flavors and strengths, and I feel liberated when I can switch from French Vanilla creamer to Hazelnut in a moment’s notice. Setting my coffee pot at night is a delightful ritual, and my day wouldn’t carry out correctly if the first thing I did in the morning wasn’t pouring my first cup of coffee.
Before I moved, my breakfast nook was decorated like a cafe.
Naturally, I wonder about the mental benefits of coffee. Or, perhaps I should say caffeine. Of course, I wonder about the negative mental effects of caffeine, too.
Interested in my findings?
Mental Advantages of Caffeine:
- Women can help keep their minds sharp by drinking coffee (Caffeine Aids Golden Girls’ Mental Health).
- “Caffeine stimulates the brain, elevates the mood and postpones fatigue. It also enhances performance at simple intellectual tasks [...]” (Do You Know… Caffeine).
Mental Disadvantages of Caffeine:
- “Too much caffeine can give you a headache, upset your stomach, make you nervous and jittery and leave you unable to sleep. Some people feel these effects even with a very small amount. Larger doses of caffeine, especially when consumed by people who don’t usually take caffeine, can cause rapid heartbeat, convulsions and even delirium” (Do You Know… Caffeine).
- “While coffee addicts have little to fear from their vice–it causes few side effects–Kendler points out that caffeine is not as benign as it seems. “Coffee is now seen as haute couture,” he says, ‘but I see a touch of hypocrisy in people who drink four cups of coffee as they preach the evils of drugs or alcohol’” (Addicted to Java).
In other words: Drink up if you can! But, use your brain about it – no pun intended. You know best how coffee affects you. If it gives you a welcoming boost, great! If it makes you nervous, acts as a trigger, and brings on emotions such as anger, be careful.
Coffee puts the system under the strain of metabolizing a deadly acid-forming drug, depositing its insoluble cellulose, which cements the wall of the liver, causing this vital organ to swell to twice its proper size. In addition, coffee is heavily sprayed. (Ninety-two pesticides are applied to its leaves.) Diuretic properties of caffeine cause potassium and other minerals to be flushed from the body.
All this fear went away when I quit, and it was a book that inspired me to do it called The Truth About Caffeine by Marina Kushner. There are five things I liked about this book:
1) It details–thoroughly–the ways in which caffeine may damage your health.
2) It reveals the damage that coffee does to the environment. Specifically, coffee was once grown in the shade, so that trees were left in place. Then sun coffee was introduced, allowing greater yields but contributing to the destruction of rain forests. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else.
3) It explains how best to go off coffee. This is important. If you try cold turkey, as most people probably do, the withdrawal symptoms will likely drive you right back to coffee.
4) Helped me find a great resource for the latest studies at CaffeineAwareness.org
5) Also, if you drink decaf you won’t want to miss this special free report on the dangers of decaf available at http://www.soyfee.com
Thanks for the info, Sheila!
There is much research available about the negative physical effects of caffeine. Positive physical effects, too – caffeine is reported to be somehow beneficial to diabetics. I didn’t dive into any of that, though, because mental effects are more the forte for this blog. Does the book deal with those kinds of effects? If so, I’d be interested in checking it out.
As for environmental concerns, #2 is actually fairly common knowledge. The negative environmental impact caused by the way some coffee is grown is one of the first things I learned when I began researching vegetarian, vegan, and “greener” lifestyles. Fortunately, it is still possible to purchase “organic” coffee that has been grown in the shade.
As will probably always be the case with stuff like coffee, soda, etc., moderation is the key. And there are always going to be factors such as age, pregnancy, weight, and a person’s predisposition to be “hyper” without caffeine, to take into consideration. As long as I don’t overdo it, I always experience a sort of “mental sharpening” with coffee, and have yet to have any physical problems due to it. Of course, that’s me – everyone has to know themselves, and talk with their doctors, before making a decision about whether or not they’re acting safely for their bodies.
I know I have a caffine problem,especially fountain pop. I have tried to cut back and even quit. About a year ago I decided to try coffee. I now drink that with splenda and flavored creams. The problem, I still drink the Dt.coke and now the coffee. I worry about my health and even more so my “cavity free” teeth. I need to quit!! Will reading “The truth about caffine by Marina Kusher help be my motivator to quit?
Hmm…I’m not familiar with the book, hopefully Sheila will pop back up and can provide you with some information.
In the meantime, however, I can say that I’ve found that when you educate yourself thoroughly about something, it does help make it much easier to take action – in this case, quit caffeine. For example, when I decided to become a vegetarian, I read everything I could get my hands on regarding meat: how the animals are “raised,” killed, prepared, etc. After that, and learning I could have a very well-rounded diet as a vegetarian, it was so easy for me to quit eating meat cold-turkey. So, the book would probably provide some help.