According to the Sleep Foundation, caffeine blocks adenosine receptors. To explain what adenosine is simply, it is a chemical that is sleep-promoting. Once the caffeine in your coffee starts to work, this blocks the adenosine and its process which helps keep us awake.
Effects of Coffee
Coffee in general has good and bad effects on the body.
Good Effects
Caffeine helps a person to be more alert and reactive. It also impacts your mood and caffeine in coffee can be considered as a feel-good chemical dopamine. Coffee can also help out when you’re planning to lose weight and reduce fat. Since coffee contains magnesium and potassium, it helps your body use insulin and regulate your blood sugar levels. The two chemicals will also reduce your craving for sugar while caffeine helps break down body fat.
A study on Cancer Research also found that caffeine may help prevent a certain type of skin cancer. There is also research saying coffee helps reduce the risk of stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Coffee also contains many antioxidants that help protect your body.
Bad Effects
Similar to everything else, too much coffee and caffeine are not good for anybody. Granted coffee has a lot of health benefits, it also has a lot of bad effects. For example, if your coffee is not of good quality, it may have an immediate effect on your body as it is directly in your system through drinking.
Another common effect of coffee is it has the possibility of causing insomnia, says Mark. As it is usually used to keep you awake, it would serve its purpose in the evening as well. Each person has different levels of safe caffeine intake. This means even though you only drank one cup today if that is too much for your body, it will still cause you not to fall asleep for a period of time.
A big dose of coffee in a short span is very lethal. Granted no one would drink 50 cups in one day, there is still a risk for anyone technically overdosing with coffee. For pregnant women, it isn’t recommended to drink more than one cup of coffee in one day as there have been studies finding it can have an effect on the fetus.
Coffee beans also contain two ingredients that can raise LDL cholesterol levels which are cafestol and kahweol. If you or someone you know have high cholesterol levels, you must choose filtered coffee to reduce the risk of a high cholesterol attack.
Conclusion
There is no denying drinking coffee and caffeine has a lot of health benefits. Drinking coffee may help to reduce likelihood of certain diseases but there are also other bad aspects with regard to your body and health. Too much of anything is always bad. This is the same when it comes to drinking coffee.
