www.sott.net/article/234696-The-Coffee-Illusion-What-the-Magic-Brew-Really-Does-to-Your-Brain
read the last comment for opposing viewpoint.
Damn, coffee is awesome.
Except, of course, much of this is an illusion.
The truth is, once you've been drinking coffee for a while, the feeling you are getting after a cup isn't the difference between the normal you and the super you, it's the difference between the addict before and after a fix.
Ok, this is a very simplified explanation:
Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist. This means it prevents adenosine from doing its job.
Your brain is filled with keys which fit specific keyholes. Adenosine is one of those keys, but caffeine can fit in the same keyhole.
When caffeine gets in there, it keeps adenosine from getting in.
Adenosine does a lot of stuff all throughout your body, but the most noticeable job it has is to suppress your nervous system. With caffeine stuck in the keyhole, adenosine can't calm you down. It can't make you drowsy. It can't get you to shut up.
That crazy wired feeling you get when you drink a lot of coffee is what it feels like when your brain can't turn itself off.
To compensate, your brain creates a ton of new receptor sites. The plan is to have more keyholes than false keys.
The result is you become very sensitive to adenosine, and without coffee you get overwhelmed by its effects.
After eight hours of sleep, you wake up with a head swimming with adenosine. You feel like **** until you get that black gold in you to clean out those receptor sites.
That perk you feel isn't adding anything substantial to you - it's bringing you back to just above zero.
In addition, coffee stimulates your adrenal glands, which makes you feel like you could take a bullet and eat glass. When the adrenaline runs dry, you feel like you've been running a marathon, which leads you to look for more coffee to get those glands pumping again.
After a few rides on the adrenal roller-coaster, you crash.
You might think all of this probably takes a while, but it takes about seven days to become addicted to caffeine.
Once addicted, you need more and more coffee to get buzzed as your brain gets covered in receptor sites. Neurologists report seeing patients regularly who drink two or three pots of coffee in one sitting before starting their day.
Coffee also releases dopamine, the feel-good chemical in the brain which is released when you have an orgasm, win the lottery and shoot heroin. A similar addiction cycle with dopamine leads to depression and fatigue when you aren't hitting the beans.
Finally, caffeine takes about six hours to leave your system. So if you drink coffee six hours or less before going to bed, you won't reach deep sleep as often. This means you wake up less rested, and need more coffee.
I'm addicted enough to the morning coffee, I have to go in search for the cafe/dealer that makes it just right for me, if the first one doesn't work, I''l have a second and then I can start the day, with me the thing that gets me depressed is dealing with clients
Same thing can be said about just about everything...
Tea, sugar, infomercials, big titted women and playing with yourself....
I could go on, but at the thought of big tittied women I feel the urge to go play with myself...
Point is everything is a vice and every ones got one...
and research published last week showed many people who hang for a cup of coffee in the morning could not tell the difference between real stuff and decaf.
Much of it is placebo effect / habit
A doctor was telling me that the main problem with coffee is that it takes the place of real food that has vitamins and proteins, such as OJ and a solid breakfast. Basically the place it takes won't be filled with actual food.
Dunno how much is true, but sorta makes sense.
Who cares if it is good for you?
Nothing and I mean NOTHING, smells better than freshly ground and brewed coffee first thing in the morning. And oh, the taste of good coffee ......
My rules for life. Almost everything in life is OK for you provided it is in measured quantities and is well balanced with other things. ie. A good coffee in the morning with a delicious lamington is not going to kill you provided you get a little exercise and eat healthy for the rest of the day.
We live for such a short time, it would be a tragedy to miss out on the little things like ice cream, coffee, cake, beer, chips etc All things in moderation ![]()
DM
This is my rig. The thought of it gets me out of bed in the morning. Hell, the thought of it sends me to bed the night before just so I can get out of bed and have a cup in the morning. ![]()
This is my rig. The thought of it gets me out of bed in the morning. Hell, may explain spelling police tantrums, L L L L L L Lack of SSSleep
Tell me petermac, do you use a monitor? Did you ever? Do you KNOW how many rays come out of those things? They're little x-ray machines. They'll fry your nuts without you even realising it while you're sitting there in your undies checking out porn.
Come to think of it, much the same can be said for a computer in general. The things'll kill ya dead, sure as taxes.
Now... HOW much time do you spend checking out youchoob and such?
^^ I use to work in drafting office where one of the guys used a gardening glove with the mouse and put his keyboard in a cardboard box. He said the rays from the monitor were heating up his hands. the ohs guys really didn't know how to deal with it.
Re coffee
I recommend the nespresso coffee system. 69c per shot plus the rig.
One hit before starting work and one at morning tea keep my brain ticking for the day.
I switch to black tea with milk and sugar for afternoon. If I go to three coffees then I wont sleep.
hey petermac you know what's worse for you than coffee, canola, alchohol etc?
worrying about everything that's bad for you.
My rig:
Coffee addict. Can't quit. I can compare having 3-6 cups one day for a few months, and the suddenly none the next, to being very similar to a big night out on the xo. In fact if you are quitting I'd recommend not going cold turkey. It hurts.
"Those that don't drink and smoke die healthy"
I love coffee.
After graduating from one cup per morning to two, and watching the guys at work who have 4 or 5 in the morning I decided to go cold turkey.
Hard for the first few days, then it was just like normal - exactly like petermac said.
Now I don't drink coffee on weekdays (to help reduce my tolerance to it) and only have a cup on the weekends - I can actually feel the buzz now as opposed to needing coffee to restore me to normality.
I recommend trying it - no coffee for two weeks and you'll realise that you never needed it all along and feel better without it. And then when you do have a coffee it's almost like taking drugs.
all you coffee drinkers, please have a load of mints before having conversations with people after drinking it. I feel like vomiting when my coffee drinking coworkers come talk to me...