Wake Up Your Brain With Coffee Aroma

I keep no secrets about my love affair with coffee; however, I know lots of folks steer clear of coffee because of the negative mental and physical effects it has on them such as making them nervous, jittery, unable to sleep, speeding up their heart rates, and in some cases even causing convulsions and delirium.

I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was…hmm…almost 20 years old, I believe, but I like to think in the last six years I’ve become quite seasoned. I know what brands I like and don’t like, I know the store chains with which I can trust my coffee addiction, and I know that while they’re pretty and do a lot of neat things, a fancy-shmancy coffee maker doesn’t really make a better tasting cup of joe than my $12 set up from Wal-Mart.

And, like most people, I also know how much coffee my brain and body can handle.

If the amount of coffee your brain and body can handle is very little – or zilch – you may still want to venture down the coffee aisle during your next grocery store run. According to studies conducted by an international group of researchers, just the aroma of coffee “orchestrates the expression of more than a dozen genes and some changes in protein expressions, in ways that help reduce the stress of sleep deprivation.”

Of course, Han-Seok Seo, one of the researchers, notes that this is the first study to deal with coffee aromas and the brain, and it is being conducted on rats, but, still – I always tend to feel a bit more alert when I get a whiff of fresh brewing coffee.

I doubt many folks will run out and buy coffee makers and cans of coffee just for the brain-boosting effects of the aroma, but…do I see a market for coffee incense? Room spray? Those little smell-good-hang-down-things for the rear view mirrors of cars?

Haha.

Image: Newscom

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