Coffee is like taking excessive medication. What are the pros and cons of drinking coffee?

A scientific study in the UK shows that drinking coffee to refresh yourself is equivalent to taking excessive medication. Many people have the habit of drinking coffee in their daily lives, but drinking too much coffee is not good for the body. So what are the pros and cons of drinking coffee? Let's follow the editor to learn about it!

Coffee for energy is like taking too much medicine

According to British reports, a new study found that people who drink coffee do not become more awake than those who do not drink coffee. Not only that, drinking coffee frequently can also lead to drug dependence.

Every morning, millions of people choose to drink coffee or tea, which is said to refresh the brain and make people concentrate. However, according to British reports, a recent study shows that these drinks do not have such a strong awakening effect. In fact, this practice only relies on the caffeine in them to eliminate the symptoms of "caffeine withdrawal" such as fatigue, mental fatigue and headaches. Experts say that always drinking coffee and tea is actually a manifestation of drug dependence.

“People who consume caffeine regularly eventually become dependent on it, and if you take them away from it, their performance will be below normal,” said Peter Rogers, professor of biopsychology at Bristol University in the UK and a leading expert on caffeine. “Without the help of this drug, their behavior cannot be maintained. If this is your first cup of tea or coffee in the day, it can really get you back to normal levels, but if you have more than that, you won’t get more stimulation.”

Professor Rogers has been studying coffee and its effects for more than 20 years, and he and other colleagues in the research team have given up caffeine. "In general, caffeine is not particularly helpful. It triggers caffeine withdrawal symptoms and increases blood pressure, which are not good. I sometimes feel that the biggest impact of my research is in my unit. Four or five of my colleagues have given up caffeine and we all drink decaffeinated coffee."

It may sound a bit absurd that caffeine does not make the brain active, but this is the result of Professor Rogers' research. In one of the key studies, about 300 volunteers were divided into two groups, one with medium to high caffeine intake and the other with low caffeine intake. They were arranged not to drink coffee for 16 hours and then randomly divided into two groups for testing, respectively, to get a placebo or coffee. >>> What is the best way to store coffee beans?

The results were very interesting. Although people who drank coffee regularly were more alert after drinking coffee, their alertness was the same as that of the other group who received a placebo. This means that drinking coffee does not make people more awake than not drinking coffee. The research report has been published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Another study by Professor Rogers on 300 volunteers showed that drinking coffee does not make people more awake, focused or react faster, it just keeps you awake. "I drink coffee and drive across Europe, and I know it will keep me awake. But if I have to write a scientific paper late at night, coffee will not keep me focused or clear-headed."

Caffeine blocks the action of a chemical in the brain called adenosine. Normally, adenosine slows the body down, and since caffeine blocks the chemical from getting to cells, it's like a speeding car without brakes. But after a few hours, when caffeine withdrawal sets in, people start to experience flu-like symptoms. With so much adenosine constantly hitting the body, people feel tired, and many even get headaches. Professor Rogers explains that this is because caffeine narrows the blood vessels in the brain, so when you stop drinking coffee, blood flow increases, causing headaches.

Professor Rogers said: "Sometimes, when I drink coffee for a few days, if I don't drink it, I will feel unwell, as if I have a cold. But then I realized that this is the symptom of so-called caffeine withdrawal."

Scientists point out that if drinking coffee can wake you up, this effect means that you have become addicted to coffee, and you need to stop drinking coffee. >>> How to drink coffee healthily

In addition to causing physical dependence on drugs, are the other effects of caffeine beneficial or harmful to health? There are different opinions. This week, there may be a report saying that caffeine is good for people, and another week's report saying that it is not good for human health. Experts have completely opposite views on this.

“It’s well established and reliable that caffeine raises blood pressure,” said Jack James, a psychologist at Reykjavik University in Iceland. “Although the increase is small, if you continue to consume caffeine throughout your life, the impact could be clinically significant. I think caffeine consumption will one day be recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”

Another paper by Professor James in the Journal of Caffeine Research pointed out that people who regularly consume caffeine are 14% more likely to die prematurely from coronary heart disease and 20% more likely to die from stroke.

A few weeks ago, a study by Austrian scientists said that the chemical chlorogenic acid in coffee increases the risk of diabetes and even causes the body to store excess fat. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. After the researchers injected mice with chlorogenic acid equivalent to drinking five or six cups of coffee a day, the mice's bodies became unable to control blood sugar, became insulin-resistant, and had difficulty losing weight. >>>Taste of coffee The choice of cup is important

Other studies have shown that regular coffee and tea drinking can reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease, and can also prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. In fact, Harvard University researchers conducted a large study that analyzed the results of five studies with 140,000 subjects and proved that moderate coffee drinking (4 cups a day) can reduce the risk of heart failure. The research paper was published in the journal Circulation.

Professor Rogers pointed out that in fact, the benefits of coffee and tea come from the antioxidants in them, which can reduce the body's inflammatory response. Inflammation in the human body is considered to be one of the key factors causing many diseases, including stroke, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the antioxidants in tea and coffee can reduce the risk of these diseases. Therefore, Professor Rogers drinks decaffeinated tea and coffee every day, about 5 cups of tea and one cup of coffee a day.

However, Professor Rogers reminds people that other caffeine-based functional drinks cannot achieve similar effects, and the increasing number of caffeine products will only increase people's drug dependence. "The compounds in tea and coffee have beneficial health effects, but other beverages, such as energy drinks, do not have this natural compound to balance the negative effects of caffeine."

The pros and cons of drinking coffee

Benefits of drinking coffee

Coffee contains certain nutrients. Coffee beans contain carbohydrates, protein, fat, niacin, potassium, crude fiber, water and other nutrients.

Coffee is good for your skin. Taking a bath with coffee powder is a thermotherapy that helps with weight loss.

Coffee can help sober you up. Drinking coffee after drinking alcohol will cause the acetaldehyde converted from alcohol to be rapidly oxidized, decomposed into water and carbon dioxide and excreted from the body.

Coffee is anti-depression. A small amount of coffee can make people feel refreshed, happy and relieve depression.

Coffee can improve constipation. Coffee can stimulate gastrointestinal hormones or peristaltic hormones, produce a laxative effect, and can be used as a quick laxative.

Coffee has antioxidant and heart protecting effects, strengthens muscles and bones, benefits the waist and knees, stimulates appetite, eliminates fat and accumulation, benefits the orifices and removes dampness, promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis, and calms wind and stops spasms.

Disadvantages of drinking coffee

Coffee may increase the risk of heart disease.

Causes nervousness. For people prone to anxiety disorders, caffeine can make symptoms such as sweaty palms, palpitations, and tinnitus worse.

Inducing osteoporosis Caffeine itself has a good diuretic effect. If you drink coffee for a long time and in large quantities, it is easy to cause bone loss, which will have an adverse effect on the preservation of bone mass.

Caffeine can increase stomach acid, and continued high-dose intake can lead to peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Caffeine intoxication includes addiction and a range of adverse physical and psychological reactions, such as nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremors, muscle twitches (hyperreflexia), insomnia and palpitations.

Conclusion: After reading this article, I believe everyone must have understood the scientific research result that coffee is equivalent to excessive medication. In our daily life, we must pay attention to drinking coffee in moderation. Excessive coffee drinking is very harmful to human health. So be careful when drinking coffee!