COFFEE

COFFEE

Coffee Increases Brain Performance: Myth or Fact?

With more than 2.25 billion cups enjoyed worldwide every day, coffee is the planet’s single most valuable traded food commodity. 

Coffee has been both praised and mocked for centuries. It has been blamed to cause impotence and madness, other times a cure for laziness or “gift from heaven”. It’s one of the age-old medical flip-flops: First coffee’s good for you, then its not, then it is - - you get the picture.
Coffee’s effectiveness as high-performance brain fuel makes it liquid gold, and its not surprising that coffee’s prime active ingredient, caffeine, is the globe’s most commonly used psychoactive drug.

When caffeine hits the brain it suppresses a neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine influences attention, alertness, and sleep. It builds up in your brain as the day goes on, like mercury rising in a thermometer. When adenosine hits a certain level, your body decides it’s bedtime. You have trouble staying awake and paying attention. When you sleep, adenosine resets, the thermometer drops back to zero during the night, and you wake up in the morning alert and ready to go.

Caffeine competes with adenosine. It binds to certain receptors in the brain like a key fitting into a lock. If caffeine is in the lock, adenosine can’t bind, and it can’t make you sleepy. By blocking adenosine, caffeine keeps the cell running, and keeps you awake.

When caffeine blocks adenosine, stimulating brain chemicals like glutamate and dopamine join the party and flow more freely — giving you a surge of energy, improving mental performance, and slowing age-related mental decline. Caffeine also increases serotonin, a major mood influencer. The boost makes you feel more positive, and it’s strong enough to measurably affect depression. That’s right: a morning cup of coffee can make you a happier person.

“Caffeine is a stimulant and 20 minutes after drinking a coffee you can start to feel more alert, with increased concentration, and are less likely to make mistakes. A recent study showed that coffee could enhance your memory 24 hours after consumption. This may not appear to be long, but most memories are lost within a few hours after learning.”
-DR BRIAN

Studies also show that caffeine improves learning by up to 10%. Caffeine can even relieve headaches and migraines by constricting blood vessels in the brain that are opening too wide. That makes drinking coffee one of the easiest brain performance hacks ever.

New studies have shown that regular coffee drinking decreases risk of Parkinson’s disease by 25%. There’s evidence that coffee causes activity in the part of the brain affected by Parkinson’s.

High caffeine levels in your blood reduce the risk of Alzheimer disease. It also lowers risk of dementia.

Coffee lovers rejoice! There are more studies than ever encouraging you to sip for your good health. Cheers! 

As long as there is coffee on the world, how bad could things be? 😅

For more information go to:
The Benefits of Coffee: What Your Brain Does on Caffeine
Coffee is Practically A Health Food: Myth or Fact
Health Effects of Coffee: Where Do We Stand?