Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: Some quick facts about modern coffee
consumption. Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the
modern world with around 90% of Americans drinking this
naturally occurring compound on a regular basis. If you're a
coffee drinker, do you really know what you're drinking?
Here's some facts about your morning pick me up, the
stimulant that people have been drinking for countless years.
Coffee gives your body a boost when you're low on energy. And
for many people, it's socially acceptable form of addiction.
Coffee in moderation is fine for healthy but adults, but can have
a variety of effects if you take too much, or if you're
unhealthy. It can also increase blood pressure, heart rate,
anxiousness, and even road rage. So how much are you drinking and
what effects is it having on your body?
Is caffeine actually good for you? There are some arguments
about whether caffeine is good or bad for your body and it has
a number of effects on your body, your brain and your mood.
Caffeine can improve your mood and alertness, enhance your
memory, improve liver health, help you perform better,
athletically, slow Parkinson's disease development, and help
reduce hunger pangs. And basically, caffeine can be
beneficial for some people in some situations, but not others.
It all depends on your overall health and lifestyle, especially
if you have adrenal fatigue that the benefits do not outweigh the
risks.
How to drink coffee safely? Well, the research is mixed.
Consuming too much coffee can produce effects like behavioral
problems, general toxicity, developmental and reproductive
problems, cardiovascular issues, lower than normal calcium
absorption which affects your bones. So generally speaking, a
healthy adult can safely consume around 400 milligrams of
caffeine a day. is about four, eight ounce coffee cups of
brewed coffee. This amount is lower for pregnant woman at
around 200 milligrams a day. And for children, two and a half
milligrams of caffeine per kilo of body weight a day. However,
the effects of caffeine vary from person to person. And if
you have adrenal fatigue, you have to be more mindful about
your caffeine intake as it can stimulate the adrenal.
The often ignored dangers of drinking coffee. There are
numerous dangers to drinking coffee, and particularly if
you're using it to cover up feelings of fatigue. Everyone
knows you wake up a little tired and you just reach for that cup
of coffee, not thinking about the consequences. But here are
some of the negative effects caffeine can have on your body.
It can cover underlying health issues which can then turn into
illnesses. It's important to find out why you're tired rather
than just covering it up with some coffee. If you have adrenal
fatigue, it will increase your body's demand for cortisol. It
may actually worsen your adrenal glands function because it's
stimulating. Stopping consumption can actually put you
into withdrawal if you're used to drinking it daily. It can
also call the caffeine crash along with symptoms like
excessive fatigue. It stimulates your heart so can worsen any
cardiovascular issues. And as you age, your body becomes more
and more sensitive to caffeine, the effects of it may worsen. So
caffeine also sometimes has psychoactive effects, as it can
interfere with your body in unexpected ways. That's why it's
always best to use caution when dosing yourself with caffeine on
a regular basis.
How to safely and effectively cut back on caffeine. If you're
concerned about your caffeine intake, then you need to cut
back. However, caffeine is addictive, so you need to do
this very carefully in a way that does not negatively impact
your health. Here are some tips on how you can do that. Keep a
logbook of your coffee intake. Then identify situations that
make you crave coffee and work to avoid those situations.
Locate all caffeine sources in your diet, whether it's tea,
chocolate, energy drinks and coffee, and then cut back
gradually. Reducing your intake little by little each day. Use
substitutes like decaf, or green tea or if you're used to doing
coffee and then come down to black tea even doing black tea
come down to green tea. So it's a very gradual reduction. You
can also make sure you sleep more to relieve the fatigue
naturally. Eat a healthy balanced diet to fight adrenal
fatigue. Drink more water to detoxify your body. Exercise
more as is a natural stimulant and you get that dopamine from
that and relax with meditation, yoga and massage. Thanks for
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