The other day I wrote about milk and acne. Another drink that we readily consume is coffee.
Coffee is the number one drink in America with six out of 10 adults drinking it every day. This consumption is not limited to adults as teenagers use a total of 25% of the total caffeine consumption. It’s estimated that 30% of Americans take between 500-600 mg of caffeine per day while 10% use more than 1000mg per day.
Wow that’s a lot of caffeine. Caffeine enters all the organs and tissues of the body within a few minutes of ingestion with a whopping 90% of it being absorbed. But that’s not the half of it.
The effects of caffeine stay in your body for longer than you may think. The average half-life of caffeine in an adult body is 3.5 hours. For example if you consume 200 Mg of caffeine at 3:00 p.m. there would still be 100 Mg in your system on average after 3.5 hours.
That means that after 14 hours there would still be 25 Mg of caffeine left in the body from the original 200 Mg consumed! No wonder people can suffer from caffeine withdrawal.
Following are just a few of the many negative effects of caffeine.
In children, it may cause damage to the brain and central nervous system development.13% of pregnant women (over 400,000) drink 5 or more cups of coffee a day causing thousands of birth defects.Caffeine causes anxiety neurosis, nervousness, irritability, muscle tension and trembling, headaches, shaky hands, and even hallucinations.Caffeine relaxes smooth muscles and increases contractions of your skeletal muscles. (“Knots” in your back ring a bell?)Caffeine destroys Thiamine (vitamin B1). Lack of B1 causes nervous exhaustion, fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of memory, depression, constipation, inability to concentrate, lethargy, and intense drowsiness.Caffeine is the principle cause of “restless leg syndrome”. This results in insomnia and an uncomfortable feeling caused by involuntary movement of the legs. Too many parents cannot figure out why their children cannot sleep when the reason is probably caffeine consumption.Coffee increases blood fats and cholesterol.Caffeine causes heart palpations and lightheadedness.Caffeine causes rapid heartbeats and irregular heartbeats.Caffeine can cause coronary disease, heart disease and high blood pressure.There is a 60% increase in heart attacks associated with consumption of 1-5 cups a day. Yet, some coronary care units still serve coffee, tea, and cola drinks.Coffee increases the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This then causes a “burning sensation” that is heard from ulcer patients.There is a 72% chance of developing ulcers in coffee drinkers. Caffeine also aggravates the symptoms of a peptic ulcer.Coffee drinkers are twice as likely to develop cancer of the pancreas. This deadly form of cancer take the lives of 20,000 Americans annual. Cancer of the pancreas is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Fewer than 1% survive more than five years.Caffeine affects how your body absorbs iron, leading to anemia.Caffeine accumulates in the body in liver disease.Caffeine stimulates the excretion of the small intestine and also water secretion. Then this causes nausea and loose stools.Caffeine cause a hypoglycemic response in the presence of glucose, and it elevates blood glucose.Caffeine causes rapid breathing and shortness of breath.Caffeine aggravates many other health conditions especially if other factors like cigarette smoking are present.A study at Harvard showed a correlation between coffee and cancer of the bladder.Caffeine is a diuretic which causes frequent urination.Caffeine crosses the placenta to the baby and even gets into the breast milk.Birth defects from caffeine include: cleft palate, finger and toe defects, joint defects, absence of a jaw, blood tumors, club feet and delayed skeletal development.Caffeine may cause miscarriages.Caffeine is a stimulant of thyroid hormone secretion.Caffeine decreases the body’s resistance to infection.Caffeine predisposes women to fibrocystic breast disease which involves lumps, thickenings, and modules in the breasts, and it increases the risk of cancer in that area.Caffeine free coffee and soft drinks are no better. A chemical used in making decaffeinated coffee (TCE-trichloroethylene) has been known to cause Liver Cancer.As you can see the effects of caffeine on the body are many. Bottom line… you should consider curtailing your intake of caffeine if you are a daily user. Everything in moderation.
Perhaps even consider consuming a health giving aloe vera drink. Now there’s an idea!!
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