Is Coffee Unhealthy?
67% of the American population or 229 million Americans drink coffee daily thinking it's harmless, making you more awake and productive.
Unfortunately, the research does not agree.
From a human perspective. People react to toxins by vomiting, getting fevers, and feeling sluggish. Those signals are the human feedback loop that teaches your neurons something is wrong inside your body or from external physical trauma.
Not to get exposed to harmful things that might end your life.
But in the case of coffee. There are a few negative feedback loops to inform you it might be bad except for getting the shakes. Instead, the caffeine molecule blocks the Adenosine molecule, which makes you tired, from binding to the Adenosine receptors. Thus tricking you into believing you're awake when you’re not.
The Adenosine molecules do not disappear as many think they do. Instead, they linger until the caffeine molecules are broken down. Around 2:30 pm the Adenosine molecule starts to bind to the receptors and give you a feeling of wanting to sleep.
This is more or less a common belief and many know this is happening to them.
Most people can live with this side effect since it allows them to sleep a bit longer and wake up quicker.
This has resulted in people worshiping coffee as the fountain of youth.
After all.
Coffee makes you:
Happy
Awake
Creative
Motivated
Social
Or does it?
Coffee does not make you happy, awake, creative, motivated, or social
Coffee creates more dopamine receptors but not dopamine itself.
Coffee made me even more extroverted and talkative.
My friendly elderly neighbor Michael asked me.
"The last two times we have spoken you have been different."
I smiled and asked in what way I was different since I knew why.
"You do not talk as loud and intense as before."
I told him I had quit drinking coffee and caffeinated drinks altogether.
My brain produces a lot of dopamine as it is my personality. With more dopamine receptors I talked even more. Talking too much due to dopamine is a common problem and it also blocks you from listening and reasoning.
As Dr. Iain McGilchrist explains in his book "The Master and His Emissary".
Speech resides in the left frontal lobe.
Listening to see how things implicitly stick together (Gestalt) and reasoning with yourself is located in your right hemisphere. Once your left hemisphere is focused on speaking, your brain sedates your right hemisphere with the signal substance GABA so you don't become insane. The signal goes extremely fast from right to left hemisphere but very slow from left to right.
Your right hemisphere also has increasingly more myelin encapsulating the neurons to speed up the signal. It is your crystalline IQ which is located in your right hemisphere.
Dopamine also has a sharp rise and drop as a neural substance in your brain.
It is especially your left dogmatic hemisphere that responds best to dopamine.
Speech produces dopamine and makes people interrupt and talk even more.
You quickly become happy followed by a sharp decline that surpasses the level where you started into a state far below the original happiness levels.
You see.
The quick fix coffee gives you is followed by a sharp decline in happiness. You become less happy than before the cup of coffee. People seldom put those two together since many have a left dominating hemisphere and are low in Interoception.
Meaning they have a hard time sensing what goes on inside of them.
Not drinking coffee or caffeinated drinks makes you a balanced intelligent human being
Stop drinking coffee or caffeinated drinks is something you can start with today. You will notice a headache that persists for three days due to the capillaries in your brain relaxing. Blood rushes up into your head increasing the intracranial pressure.
That is one of the bad side effects coffee has to make you drink more coffee.
Not to mention that 1 ounce of coffee today requires 1 ounce of coffee tomorrow and then some to give the same effect. This holds for three days and then it's over.
If you're lucky, the next hurdle is less motivation and less energy for about 6 months or less. But once you pass those timelines.
The positive effects are:
Calmer
Balanced
Not reactive
Better sleep
Better listener
Less stressed
Less aggressive
Spend less money
You drink less Aflatoxin
You drink less Ochratoxin
You drink less Acrylamide
You normalize your heart rate
You reduce your blood pressure
You reduce the risk of osteoporosis
Wake up earlier and awake
People are taking back their lives beyond coffee addiction
"Coffee borrows tomorrow's happiness."
More people are becoming increasingly aware that coffee contains carcinogens like Acrylamide and molds like Aflatoxin and Ochratoxin. Certain women with a specific genetic sequence get osteoporosis in the spine which interferes with vitamin D receptors that are crucial to your immune system in fighting cancers.
The caffeine molecule inhibits your opioid receptors rendering substances like morphine and other painkillers useless. Caffeine increases pain in your body which in turn makes you neurotic, anxious, aggressive, and irritated.
Not to mention poor sleep and increased blood pressure giving you heart conditions at older age.
Quitting coffee today is becoming a trend awakening many to the hidden dangers of drinking coffee (tea and energy drinks). Save your money, and shape your future healthy habits to become more loving. Create lasting relationships with people who want to socialize because you are balanced.
Good luck on your journey.