If you want to be in tip-top mental health, stay away from stimulants. This is doubly important for those with mental health problems because too much caffeine can, in some, produce symptoms that lead to diagnosis of schizophrenia or mania. This may happen because high caffeine consumers can become both allergic to coffee and unable to detoxify caffeine. the net effect is serious disruption of both mind and mood.
Heres how you can give it up:
Coffee contains three stimulants: caffeine, theobromine and theophylline. Although caffeine is the strongest, theophylline is known to disturb normal sleep patterns and theobromine has a similar effect to caffeine, although it is present in much smaller amounts in coffee. So decaffeinated coffee isnt exactly stimulant free. Many people are cleared of minor health problems such as tiredness and headaches just from cutting out their two or three coffees a day. The best way to find out what effect it has on you is to quit for a trial period of two weeks. You may get withdrawl symptoms for up to three days. These reflect how addicted you've become. After this, if you begin to feel perky and your health improves, thats a good indication that you're better off without coffee.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Caffeine makes you tired.
Here's the irony. The reason that people get hooked on drinking coffee, particularly in the morning, is because it makes them feel better, more energised and alert. But does coffee actually increase your energy and mental performance, or just relieve the symptoms of withdrawl? Coffee is addictive and drinking it relives the symptoms of withdrawl.
Not only is coffee addictive, but also it worsens mental performance. Moderate and high consumers of coffee were found to have higher levels of anxiety and depression than abstainers.
Caffeine blocks the receptors for a brain chemical called adenosine, whose function is to stop the release of the motivating neurotransmitters dopamine and adrenalin. With less adenosine activity, levels of dopamine and adrenalin increase, as does alertness and motivation. Peak concentration occurs 30 - 60 minutes after consumption.
The more caffeine you consume, the more your body and brain become insensitive to its own natural stimulants, dopamine and adrenalin. You then need more stimulants to feel normal, and keep pushing the body to produce more dopamine and adrenalin. The net result is adrenal exhaustion - an inability to produce these important chemicals of motivation and communication. Apathy, depression, exhaustion and an inability to cope set in.
Coffee isn't the only source of caffeine. There's as much in a cup of strong tea as in a cup of regular coffee. Caffeine is also the active ingredient in most cola and other energy drinks such as red bull. Chocolate and green tea also contain caffeine, but much less than these drinks.
Not only is coffee addictive, but also it worsens mental performance. Moderate and high consumers of coffee were found to have higher levels of anxiety and depression than abstainers.
Caffeine blocks the receptors for a brain chemical called adenosine, whose function is to stop the release of the motivating neurotransmitters dopamine and adrenalin. With less adenosine activity, levels of dopamine and adrenalin increase, as does alertness and motivation. Peak concentration occurs 30 - 60 minutes after consumption.
The more caffeine you consume, the more your body and brain become insensitive to its own natural stimulants, dopamine and adrenalin. You then need more stimulants to feel normal, and keep pushing the body to produce more dopamine and adrenalin. The net result is adrenal exhaustion - an inability to produce these important chemicals of motivation and communication. Apathy, depression, exhaustion and an inability to cope set in.
Coffee isn't the only source of caffeine. There's as much in a cup of strong tea as in a cup of regular coffee. Caffeine is also the active ingredient in most cola and other energy drinks such as red bull. Chocolate and green tea also contain caffeine, but much less than these drinks.
Stimulants
Sugar is only one side of the coin, as far as blood sugar problems are concerned. Stimulants and stress are the other. As you can see from the figure below if your blood sugar level dips there are two ways to raise it. One is to eat more glucose, and the other is to increase your level of the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol. There are two ways in which you can raise adrenalin and cortisol. Consume a stimulant - tea, coffee, chocolate or cigarettes - or react stressfully, causing an increase in your own production of adrenalin.
Knowing this, you can see how easy it is to get caught up in the vicious cycle of stress, sugar and stimulants. It will leave you feeling tired, depressed and stressed much of the time.
Here's how it works. Through excess sugar, stress and stimulants you lose your blood sugar control and wake up each morning with low blood sugar levels and not enough adrenalin to kick-start your day. So you adopt one of two strategies:
Either you reluctantly crawl out of bed on remote control and head for the kettle, make yourself a strong cup of tea or coffee, light up a cigarette or have some fast releasing sugar in the form of toast, with some sugar on it called jam. Up go your blood sugar and adrenalin levels and you start to feel normal.
Or you lie in bed and start to think about all the things that have gone wrong, coulod go wrong, will go wrong. You start to worry about everything you've got to do, haven't done and should have done. About ten minutes of this gets enough adrenalin pumping to get you out of bed. If this sounds like you, your caught in that vicious circle, with all its negative effects on your mind and mood.
Knowing this, you can see how easy it is to get caught up in the vicious cycle of stress, sugar and stimulants. It will leave you feeling tired, depressed and stressed much of the time.
Here's how it works. Through excess sugar, stress and stimulants you lose your blood sugar control and wake up each morning with low blood sugar levels and not enough adrenalin to kick-start your day. So you adopt one of two strategies:
Either you reluctantly crawl out of bed on remote control and head for the kettle, make yourself a strong cup of tea or coffee, light up a cigarette or have some fast releasing sugar in the form of toast, with some sugar on it called jam. Up go your blood sugar and adrenalin levels and you start to feel normal.
Or you lie in bed and start to think about all the things that have gone wrong, coulod go wrong, will go wrong. You start to worry about everything you've got to do, haven't done and should have done. About ten minutes of this gets enough adrenalin pumping to get you out of bed. If this sounds like you, your caught in that vicious circle, with all its negative effects on your mind and mood.
Water
It is an astonishing fact that the human body is basically two-thirds water. Without it most people are dead in four days. In normal circumstances in twenty-four hours we lose 1.5 litre of water in urine, 750ml through the skin, 400ml in the breath, and 150ml in faeces. Thats a total of 2.8 litres a day. A simple equation would suggest that this is what you need to drink.
Water has many roles throughout the body other than flushing the kidneys, including dissolving minerals, and acting as a delivery system, a lubricant and temperature regulator.
Even very mild dehydration can lead to constipation, headaches, lethargy and mental confusion, while increasing the risk of urinary tract infections and kidney stones. When just 1 per cent of body fluids is lost, body temperature goes up and concentration becomes more difficult.
The thirst mechanism kicks in when we've lost between 1 and 2 per cent of body water. However, the thirst reflex is often mistaken for hunger. If we ignore it or mistake it for hunger, dehydration can continue to around 3 per cent, where it seriously affects both mental and physical performance. Sports nutritionists have found that a 3 per cent loss of body water results in an 8 per cent loss in muscle strength.
Water has many roles throughout the body other than flushing the kidneys, including dissolving minerals, and acting as a delivery system, a lubricant and temperature regulator.
Even very mild dehydration can lead to constipation, headaches, lethargy and mental confusion, while increasing the risk of urinary tract infections and kidney stones. When just 1 per cent of body fluids is lost, body temperature goes up and concentration becomes more difficult.
The thirst mechanism kicks in when we've lost between 1 and 2 per cent of body water. However, the thirst reflex is often mistaken for hunger. If we ignore it or mistake it for hunger, dehydration can continue to around 3 per cent, where it seriously affects both mental and physical performance. Sports nutritionists have found that a 3 per cent loss of body water results in an 8 per cent loss in muscle strength.
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