How harmful is caffeine to the human body?

Psychological guide: in the impression of most people, caffeine can increase the excitement of our brain, but does caffeine stimulate the brain as we think? the truth may surprise you.

"in the 3rd-8th century BC, a careful shepherd named Caldi started a legend with a small discovery in Ethiopia. Caldy found that every time his sheep ate the fruit of a wild shrub, they couldn't help getting excited and couldn't sleep at night. Later, he told the monks in the nearby monastery, who tried to grow the first batch of coffee, discovered and recorded the refreshing function of the coffee. " (smithatal,2004) from then on, local people began to chew coffee beans and drink coffee with water. This trend began in Ethiopia and spread to Arab countries. It soon captivated sentient beings and became a favorite drink. The effects of caffeine are strange, even self-contradictory. In many cases, caffeine has a far greater effect on our brains than we expected. I hope you can find at least one or two things you didn't know about coffee in this article.

1. Caffeine does not affect sleep shepherd Caldy's findings that apply to his sheep, but not necessarily to humans. Although there has been a variety of discussions about the relationship between caffeine and pre-sleep, there is little evidence that there is a link between the two. The study found that most people already know how to properly consume caffeine, which is not complicated, as long as you don't drink double espresso in the middle of the night. Even so, in some experiments, when researchers unknowingly ingested caffeine before going to bed, a surprising scene occurred, which apparently did not have a significant effect on their sleep.

two。 People always blame caffeine. People always think that caffeine is a little bad for the body, so in addition to sleeping uncomfortably, they also blame caffeine for many other symptoms such as headaches and nervousness. Sometimes subjects were given a placebo but told they were injected with caffeine, and the subjects said they had poor sleep and headaches. But because they don't actually consume caffeine, these symptoms can only be attributed to people's expectations of the effects of caffeine.

3. Coffee + nap =? We generally think that only crazy people will have a cup of coffee before taking a nap, but in fact, if you don't get enough sleep, it might be a good idea to have a cup of coffee and take a nap. In one experiment, tired subjects were injected with 200 milligrams of caffeine (about one or two cups of instant coffee) and asked to take a nap. The results showed that the combination of caffeine and nap had an unexpected effect. In other words, caffeine improves the quality of naps. You can try drinking a cup of coffee and taking a nap for 5-15 minutes to see how you feel. Even people who don't like to take a nap can find the beauty of this combination.

4. Caffeine can help you increase sustained attention many people feel refreshed after a cup of coffee, but are they really more alert than usual? The results of scientific experiments show that this is true in some cases, but most of the time it is not. The greatest advantage of caffeine is continuous attention and sharpness, which is essential for you to accomplish less challenging, relatively routine tasks. This also explains why coffee is so helpful to our work: it allows us to stick to the boring things that have to be done. This finding applies especially to people who don't get enough sleep, that is, most people in today's society. But when we study other areas of psychological activity, such as reaction time, learning and memory, the results are not so clear. Caffeine sometimes improves performance, sometimes it doesn't make much difference, and sometimes it even makes the results worse. Overall, caffeine intake had little effect on pure mental work.

5. Two is just right, and five is bad, just as the wisdom of life tells us that everything goes too far, and caffeine is no exception. In the above study, it was mentioned that subjects could benefit when they consumed between 200 and 300 milligrams of caffeine. This is about three times the amount of caffeine in a cup of espresso or two or three cups of instant coffee. When the intake is more than 500 mg, people will be negatively affected instead of improving their performance. Thus it can be seen that we need to consume the right amount of caffeine. But the effect of caffeine on everyone has something to do with his usual intake, because, like other drugs, the body adapts to caffeine.

6. No withdrawal reaction during withdrawal? If you plan to stop using coffee and are prepared to wait for withdrawal reactions such as headaches, irritability, fatigue and anxiety that may occur within 12 to 24 hours after your last cup of coffee. Is it really going to be what you expected? The withdrawal response to caffeine withdrawal is at least partly due to our expectations. Although there are few studies in this area, we speculate that this symptom will not occur in people if subsequent withdrawal reactions are not expected. This may be why some people don't have withdrawal reactions when they stop taking caffeine. So quitting coffee may not be as difficult as you think.

7. It feels good that no regular coffee drinker needs me to tell him that drinking a little coffee can make them feel good, but too much can be counterproductive. Therefore, finding the right dose is the key. However, the quality of specific intake is also affected by your usual intake and genetics. If your parents can drink three times as much espresso without stress, you should also have a good acceptance of caffeine. But even if you are born with caffeine sensitivity, you can develop a certain degree of tolerance through unremitting drinking.

8. Coffee relieves pain. research results suggest that caffeine may help relieve pain. For example, if you have a severe headache, taking acetaminophen and a cup of coffee will relieve your pain better than just taking painkillers. Not only does caffeine not cause migraines, it has even been shown to cure migraines in one trial.

9. Caffeine sharpens our senses Coffee can improve our acuity in many interesting ways. For example, studies have shown that after one or two cups of coffee, people can see things more clearly at night. The degree of improvement is 20% to 38%. After drinking a cup of coffee, people can better identify and distinguish different colors. Caffeine helps us ignore dispersed stimuli in the environment.

10. Caffeine may not be addictive, either in terms of the way caffeine works in the brain or from the fact that most people stop using caffeine and do not produce withdrawal reactions, caffeine does not cause strict addiction. Although a small number of people do seem to be addicted to coffee, when you compare them with people who are really addicted to drugs, such as cocaine and heroin addicts, you will find that caffeine is obviously not an addiction.

Source: spring.org