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Are you a Coffee Addict?

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For many Brits, the day starts with a cup of coffee and is followed by a regular supply. Coffee comes in many guises and everyone has their favourite fix.

It’s common knowledge that caffeine produces a high, but did you know that it also has the potential for adverse health effects?  Like alcohol, many experts consider coffee to be a legal drug. People get addicted to the aroma, taste and caffeine buzz. Just a waft from a coffee shop or a wave of tiredness is usually enough to prompt you to order your fifth cup of the day. Like alcoholics, serious coffee drinkers find that they just cannot function without their daily dose, which might seem harmless but is nonetheless a sign of physical addition. If you drink excessive amounts of coffee throughout the day, have you actually considered how it affects your body and consequently your health?

When it comes to understanding the health effects of coffee drinking, it is a confusing issue. On one hand, there are studies that tout the benefits of coffee, on the other hand you only have to note the reaction that it has on your own body to realise that the coffee that you drink is having a marked physical effect.

The next time your drink a cup of coffee, pay a little attention to your body. It wakes you up, it makes your heart beat faster and it makes you wee more often. It does this because coffee over-stimulates your heart, kidneys, adrenal glands and other glands and organs in your body. Like any other stimulant drug, this can’t be that good for you.

It is a known fact that coffee is an addictive stimulant. Some of the common negative side effects of this stimulant include insomnia, indigestion, heartburn, headaches, nervousness, anxiety and fatigue. It may seem to give you more energy when you drink it, but in the end, it exhausts the adrenal glands and wears you out.
Coffee can cause even bigger problems than causing indigestion and headaches. Some of the more serious side effects include elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and elevated triglycerides, the fat swimming around in your blood.

Coffee is also believed to linked with atherosclerosis - the building up of fat and cholesterol plaque in the arteries and veins. If it is linked to the clogging up of the blood vessels in the body, it follows suit that coffee could well contribute to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, though many other lifestyle factors will be involved.  Along with animal protein, sugar, salt, alcohol, cigarettes and lack of exercise, coffee is known to leach calcium from the bones, ultimately resulting in an increased risk of the bone dissolving condition osteoporosis. Other studies have also linked coffee with rheumatoid arthritis and some cancers.

Not only can coffee be detrimental to your body and your health, if you fill up on coffee, a common tradition in the mornings, then often you don’t have the appetite to eat foods loaded with good nutrition, such as fresh fruits and whole grain cereals. If you fancy a coffee at 11am and 4pm, your body would really rather have a piece of fresh fruit for a natural, healthy pick-me-up.

If you are suffering any negative side effects from your heavy coffee drinking, be aware that cutting out coffee will cause a few nasty withdrawal symptoms, including jitteriness and headaches. This is just like any withdrawal from an addiction to a stimulant. Not so much cold turkey but cold coffee.

Picture caption: People get addicted to the aroma, taste and caffeine buzz. Just a waft from a freshly brewed cup is usually quite enough to prompt you to order your fifth cup of the day.



 
MyVillage 19th October




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