Does drinking lots of coffee affect ones's health?
465590
First of all, let me start out by saying that caffeine is found in nature, such as in green tea or guarana. When drunk in smaller quantities such as is found in these herbs, it has an energizing & healthy effect on the body. However, when consumed in larger quantities, the caffeine has an acidifying effect on the body. Any time the body is ill, the acid/alkiline balance has been disrupted. By restoring the alkiline balance, the body is restored to a healthier state & it can heal quicker. Coffee keeps the body in a more acidic state. Caffeine has also been linked to calcium loss. Also, it is associated with decreased bone minerals in women.\nAlso, if you use an automatic drip with the white filters, they use bleach to make the filters white. You're consuming that bleach along with your coffee. Go for the brown or unbleached filters.
730070
It really depends on your body, as others have said... different people metabolize caffeine differently.  You'll just have to experiment and see what works (or doesn't) work for you.\n\nA couple of things to think about, though -- drinking coffee on an empty stomach will cause it to be absorbed more quickly, and the effects to seem stronger, than if you have some food in your system when you drink it.  Also, you'll want to consider that coffee will cause you to need to urinate much more than normal (it causes your body to flush out all excess water in your bloodstream, and it also physically irritates the lining of the bladder) -- and so, unless your bladder is *really* strong, drinking coffee too late in the evening may result in needing to get up to visit the bathroom one or more times during the night, which can also affect the quality of your sleep.  Even if you don't wake up to urinate, trying to sleep through the night with a really full bladder can make some people toss and turn a lot, and "hover" near wakefulness so you never quite get to the most restful deep sleep cycles... just something to think about.
130696
Yes, Coffee has a much higher total in-vitro antioxidant activity than other commonly consumed beverages. This is due in part to intrinsic compounds of coffee such as chlorogenic acid, in part to compounds formed during coffee bean roasting such as melanoidins and in part to as yet unidentified compounds. It is widely believed that antioxidants protect against the development of chronic diseases including heart disease and cancer but whether the antioxidants characteristic of coffee have such effects remains to be determined .
1036152
Coffee really doesn't contribute to hypertension or the development of heart disease according to the most recent studies, but it certainly will cause palpitations if consumed in excess.\n\nThat said, tea is probably still healthier because of the antioxidants that it contains.
1167474
Of course it does. You feel more active now that you have 200% of caffeine RDA. Depending how you react to the pills, it could increase your stress with the increase reaction or you can be extremely happy but i guess also freaky with all that energy packed in, like a kid on coffee if you will.
36911
Here are some of the benefits and risk of drinking coffee.\n\nBenefits\nCoffee increases the effectiveness of pain killers—especially migraine medications—and can rid some people of asthma. Some of the beneficial effects may be restricted to one sex, for instance it has been shown to reduce the occurrence of gallstones and gallbladder disease in men. Coffee intake may reduce one's risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 by up to half. While this was originally noticed in patients who consumed high amounts (7 cups a day), the relationship was later shown to be linear (Salazar-Martinez 2004).\n\nCoffee can also reduce the incidence of cirrhosis of the liver and prevent colon and bladder cancers. Coffee can reduce the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, a variety of liver cancer (Inoue, 2005). Also, coffee reduces the incidence of heart disease, though whether this is simply because it rids the blood of excess fat or because of its stimulant effect is unknown. At the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2005, chemist Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton presented his analysis showing that for Americans, who as a whole do not consume large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, coffee represents by far the largest source of valuable antioxidants in the diet.[4]\n\nCoffee contains the anticancer compound methylpyridinium. This compound is not present in significant amounts in other food materials. Methylpyridinium is not present in raw coffee beans but is formed during the roasting process from trigonellin, which is common in raw coffee beans. It is present in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, and even in instant coffee. 6\n\nCoffee is also a powerful stimulant for peristalsis and is sometimes considered to prevent constipation; it is also a diuretic.\n\nMany people drink coffee for its ability to increase short term recall and increase IQ. It also changes the metabolism of a person so that their body burns a higher proportion of lipids to carbohydrates, which can help athletes avoid muscle fatigue.\n\nSome of these health effects are realized by as little as 4 cups a day (24 U.S. fl oz, 700 mL), but others occur at 5 or more cups a day (32 U.S. fl oz or 0.95 L or more).\n\nSome controversy over these effects exists, since by its nature coffee consumption is associated with other behavioral variables. Therefore it has been variously suggested that the cognitive effects of caffeine are limited to those who have not developed a tolerance, or to those who have developed a tolerance and are caffeine-deprived.\n\nPractitioners in alternative medicine often recommend coffee enemas for "cleansing of the colon" due to its stimulus of peristalsis, although mainstream medicine has not proved any benefits of the practice.\n\n\nRisks\nMany notable effects of coffee are related to its caffeine content.\n\nMany coffee drinkers are familiar with "coffee jitters", a nervous condition that occurs when one has had too much caffeine. Coffee can also increase blood pressure among those with high blood pressure, but follow-up studies showed that coffee still decreased the risk of dying from heart disease in the aggregate. Coffee can also cause insomnia in some, while paradoxically it helps a few sleep more soundly. It can also cause anxiety and irritability, in some with excessive coffee consumption, and some as a withdrawal symptom. There are also gender-specific effects, in some PMS sufferers it increases the symptoms, and it can reduce fertility in women, also it may increase the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, and there may be risks to a fetus if a pregnant woman drinks 8 or more cups a day (48 U.S. fl oz or 1.4 L or more).\n\nA February 2003 Danish study of 18,478 women linked heavy coffee consumption during pregnancy to significantly increased risk of stillbirths (but no significantly increased risk of infant death in the first year). "The results
130161
Caffeine has a dehydrating effect, so if you drink caffeinated coffee or sodas, it isn't that you get no benefit from the liquid, you just get less than if you drink a non-caffeinated beverage.  So, if you do get into that dying-in-the-desert situation, go ahead and accept that Big Gulp if that's all that is on offer.
460699
I quit drinking coffee about 2 months ago. I was drinking a pot of coffee a day.  I had been doing that for years.  I had really bad headaches for a few weeks. Some worse than others. The best advice I can give is to keep yourself busy to try to ignore it and drink LOTS of water to flush it out of your system faster. Stick with it, they will go away. GOOD LUCK!
624537
What Coffee Can Do:\n\nImproves mental performance. \nBoosts physical energy. \nElevates and improves mood. \n \n\nResearchers at MIT found that "caffeine is \na mind-accelerating mood booster." \nIt increases mental performance. \nCaffeine stimulates reaction time, attention span, \nconcentration and acuity with numbers. As little \nas 32 mg of caffeine as much as in a single serving \nof cola or a 5-ounce cup of tea can give you a real \nmental and energy boost. \nCaffeine moves to your brain fast, with 20 to 30 \nminutes and lasts up to 6 hours. \n \n\nCaffeine also improves physical endurance. Studies \nshow that cyclists pedaled 7% harder and lasted \nin competition 20% longer after taking caffeine. \n\nTip\n\nDrink your caffeine before your meal for a bigger \nenergy boost and fatigue beater effect.
59539
Though some coffee drinkers develop a tolerance for caffeine, those who don't may be sending up their blood pressure with each cup, new research suggests.\n\nIn a study of regular caffeine consumers, researchers found that many persistently showed small blood pressure spikes shortly after a large dose of caffeine -- even when that dose came after several days of high caffeine intake.\n\nhttp://preventdisease.com/news/articles/062305_caffeine_bp.shtml\n\nCoffee also has an incredible effect on stress.  Try kicking caffeine for a week, and you will see your blood pressure, adrenaline levels and overall stress drop, according to a study by Duke University Medical Center.\n\nThe new research found that the effects of caffeine stay in the body all day long, amplifying any feelings of stress. Moreover, the perception of stress increased for the 47 study participants after they took caffeine tablets. \n\nhttp://preventdisease.com/news/articles/caffeine_affects_stress.shtml
529360
study examined the association of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake with cognitive function in a community-based sample of older adults in 1988-1992. Participants were 890 women with a mean age of 72.6 years and 638 men with a mean age of 73.3 years from the Rancho Bernardo Study. Cognitive function was assessed by 12 standardized tests, and lifetime consumption and current coffee consumption were obtained by questionnaire. After adjustment for confounders, higher lifetime coffee consumption in women was associated with better (p </= 0.05) performance on six of 12 tests, with a trend (p </= 0.10) on two other cognitive function tests; current caffeinated coffee intake was associated with better performance on two tests (p < 0.05), with a trend (p < 0.10) on one other test. Among women aged 80 or more years, lifetime coffee intake was nonsignificantly associated with better performance on 11 of the 12 tests. No relation was found between coffee intake and cognitive function among men or between decaffeinated coffee intake and cognitive function in either sex. Lifetime and current exposure to caffeine may be associated with better cognitive performance among women, especially among those aged 80 or more years.
370305
Coffee as you know contains caffeine. Depending on the variety used the caffeine content can vary.  This has the ability to stimulate the brain.  However, overdosing on caffeine can have the reverse affect.  Think Incredible Hulk Syndrome.  Further, caffeine and other substances within the coffee can speed up your heart, too fast.\n\nThe real danger comes from consuming, unwittingly, more caffeine from other sources, such Coca Cola chocolate etc.\n\nHowever, moderation is the watch word.\n\nMy favourite stimulant is TEA [Camellia sinensis]. I consume gallons of it everyday. \n\nOf course it does contain equal amounts of caffeine, as coffee.  Tea does have other inherent health properties.
1119310
this is a new one on me.  I drink 40-60 oz a day of coffee sometimes - I guess I should start doing my testicular self exam more often?!
1033957
there was a study made which is available in the source  I mentioned below which studies effects of coffee ingestion on fertility, reproduction, lactation and development.\n\nThe potential effects of coffee consumption on fertility, spontaneous abortion and prematurity are not clearly established but appear to be quite limited. In rodents, caffeine can induce malformations but this effect appears in general at doses never encountered in humans. Indeed, as soon as the quantity of caffeine is divided over the day, as is the case for human consumption, the teratogenic effect of caffeine disappears in rodents. Coffee ingested during gestation induces a dose-dependent decrease in birth weight, but usually only when ingested amounts are high (i.e. more than 7 cups/day), whereas coffee has no effect at moderate doses. Caffeine consumption during gestation affects hematologic parameters of the new-born infant or rat. In animals, caffeine induces long-term consequences on sleep, locomotion, learning abilities, emotivity and anxiety, whereas, in children, the effects of early exposure to coffee and caffeine on behavior are not clearly established. The quantities of caffeine found in maternal milk vary with authors, but it appears clearly that caffeine does not change maternal milk composition and has a tendency to stimule milk production. In conclusion to this review, it appears that maternal coffee or caffeine consumption during gestation and/or lactation does not seem to have measurable consequences on the fetus of the newborn, as long as ingested quantities remain moderate. Therefore, pregnant mothers should be advised to limit their coffee and caffeine intake to 300 mg caffeine/day (i.e. 2-3 cups of coffee or 2.5-3 l of coke) especially because of the increase of caffeine half-life during the third trimester of pregnancy and in the neonate
262823
Caffeine has been shown to have a slight impact on blood sugar levels- but chances are that one cup of tea isn't going to cause significant alteration to your lab results.
721459
It raises the level of acid in the stomach which can be bad for people with ulcers.\n\nHere are some articles on the positive and negative effects of coffee.
195782
Maybe, but it's not likely, the amounts of sugar you describe are pretty minimal, especially compared to the amount of caffiene in the coffee you're having it with. Some people are sensitive to sugar, and when they take too much of it they become hyperactive for a while, then irritable and tired, but pretty much the same thing can happen with caffiene too.\nI'd say you have a long way to go from 8 teaspoons of sugar a day before yuo can really say you have a problem with sugar...