{"id":3193,"date":"2018-08-24T09:45:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T07:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2018-08-26T20:49:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-26T18:49:49","slug":"caffeine-natural-supplements-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/supplements\/natural-supplements\/caffeine-natural-supplements-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Caffeine & Coffee \u2013 Natural Supplements Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages on our planet. It’s how many people start their days and get things rolling. the warmth of the cup, mixed with the smell of freshly brewed coffee puts a smile to more people than just me. But it’s not the coffee that is working as this kickstarter in our lives, but caffeine that we consume with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine has a very stimulating effect on our central nervous system. This makes caffeine the most widely consumed psychoactive drug<\/a> on the market. Luckily to all of the “junkies”, it’s a legal, but mostly unregulated, drug.\u00a0This article wants to highlight how caffeine works in us and what the general benefits are, how it might potentially be harmful and how to make caffeine work best for your needs and goals.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"caffeine<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In this\u00a0natural supplements series<\/strong><\/a> article, we will deep dive into this highly valued compound and establish how beneficial<\/g> it might be for your health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spoiler Alert: Coffee and caffeine are very healthy and describe many other potential benefits while being very minimal on the potential negative impacts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Caffeine: Mechanics<\/h1>\n\n\n
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\"Caffeine<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There are many different things that happen in your body when you add caffeine to the system. The most important thing that does happen is that caffeine docks on adenosine receptors<\/a>. Usually, the body doesn’t just let anyone thing dock or unlock a receptor unless you have the right key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine can do this because it is very similar in structure to adenosine. Normally, when adenosine attaches to its receptors your neural activity would slow down and you’d feel sleepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activating or rather blocking those receptors with caffeine will increase the activity of your sympathetic nervous system (you might know as fight-or-flight). That’s why drinking coffee may give you more energy, lets you feel more awake and overall just ready to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Effects of Caffeine<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

As we just saw above, caffeine can be a great stimulant to our central nervous system. To make this even better, caffeine consumption has been linked to many positive health effects<\/a> too, while the negative health effects are existent but not too impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive Health Effects of Caffeine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The list of positive (health) effects is very long, I’ll focus on the most important ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We scratched this in the initial part of the article already, that caffeine can improve alertness and your attention<\/a>. This seems to be especially true for people who usually don’t administer caffeine to their system, but is also true – to a lesser extent – for people who have built up a tolerance already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lack of sleep<\/a> usually makes people less productive in their tasks, especially if they need to focus a lot. With higher dosages of caffeine<\/a>, this can be temporarily remedied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine for strength, endurance and performance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine can increase your strength, overall power output and your endurance. That is great to hear for all the athletes out there. The increase in performance doesn’t stem from actually making your stronger, but rather because with caffeine in your system you can perform at a higher level<\/a> (higher speed, more weight, longer training session).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> showed that caffeine consumption can lower your pain perception in tests of muscular endurance. To get to those effects you have to consume 5 mg\/kg prior to your workout (around 60-90 minutes). That’s 375 mg for a 75 kg human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"strength\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Staying in the realms of fitness. Post workout consumption of caffeine has been shown to increase your carbohydrate uptake<\/a>. This means you would be able to refuel your muscle glycogen better and faster if you consume caffeine with your post-workout carbs.<\/g><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This<\/g> is especially important if you train more than once a day or want to get as ready as possible for the upcoming training session the following day. If you don’t train the next day, consuming caffeine post workout is not necessary at all. Your body will recover in time on it’s on (if your lifestyle is good enough).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please also consider that caffeine doesn’t only raises awareness for a couple of hours, which might inhibit your sleep – especially if you train late afternoons or in the evening – it also raises your cortisol levels<\/a>. After your training, your cortisol levels are already high<\/a>, because any form of stress (training is stress), raises those levels already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine for weight control<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are many people in the gym’s in the world who train with the purpose to lose weight. As we just saw, caffeine can work as a pre- and post-workout supplement, but it can also help to prevent weight gain<\/a> or help at weight loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different studies<\/a> found that having coffee or caffeine helps to break down stored body fat in the different test subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"weight<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The required dose can be achieved with 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day. So you might add this to your routine, with a coffee mid-morning (not first thing in the morning!), after lunch, pre-workout and maybe post-workout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine for a better memory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another positive effect caffeine seems to have is that it can enhance memory. Regular coffee users showed an increase memory recall<\/a> than the low users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar study<\/a> showed those increased memory recall abilities too, with the limitation that the coffee managed to positively influence the memory only short term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet another study<\/a> confirmed this but limited the increase in memory recall to relatively simple tasks especially when performing under sub-optimal alertness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine for a healthier brain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This makes you think: as caffeine is a potential cognitive enhancer, is it possible also healthy for your brain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"healthier<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And again 3-5 cups of coffee seem to have positive effects or rather protect against dementia<\/a>. The good news goes further. It seems as though caffeine can even suppress amyloid levels in our body<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amyloids cause inflammation in the brain and lead to Alzheimer’s disease. While this has only been shown in mice, let’s be hopeful that it extends to humans too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeine to combat cancer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are many big studies out there that looked into the effects of coffee and caffeine on different types of cancer. These studies showed that 4-6 cups of coffee can have plenty of beneficial<\/g> health impacts. Caffeine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n