Are you the type of person who drinks a cup of coffee with breakfast every morning? Or perhaps you need that cup of coffee first thing in the morning in order to be able to go about your day? And if so, how many cups of coffee do you drink? With more and more people stopping by coffee shops before work on a regular basis, the debate on whether coffee is good or bad for your health is one that has become increasingly important to researchers and consumers alike.
Several research studies have demonstrated coffee’s remarkable benefits towards lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s Disease, while several have associated high coffee consumption with an 8 to 15 percent decrease in risk of death, others have warned how coffee can be harmful towards your health. The World Health organization and the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee have changed their idea from coffee being detrimental to coffee being a health food, going so far as advocating the consumption of 3 to 5 cups every day for achieving overall health and wellness.
The Coffee Debate
As many coffee aficionados would do anything to defend this dark elixir to the end, science is helping shed some light on the true advantages and disadvantages of drinking coffee on a regular basis. Whilst coffee on its own is full of a variety of beneficial antioxidants, caffeine being the active ingredient of this popular beverage is also at the center of the entire debate.
Aside from avoiding any of the symptoms listed by the DSM-V, there are other reasons why you should decrease or stop your consumption of caffeine and prevent caffeine intoxication. Caffeine has also been reported to display adverse effects on individuals with hypertension, nervousness, adrenal fatigue, and GERD. Its intake can aggravate symptoms of circulation diseases like Raynaud’s Phenomenon. We also shouldn’t ignore the fact that many healthcare professionals regularly indicate removing caffeine through a structured detox program to rest the liver.
But quitting the consumption of coffee is simpler said than done. The average amount of caffeine found in a normal coffee shop beverage easily exceeds the quantity indicated for overdose. By way of instance, a 20-ounce Blonde Roast coffee from Starbucks is roughly 475 mg. The same size of a Dunkin Donuts coffee with a turbo shot is almost 400 mg and a 16-ounce light-roast from Panera Bread is 300 mg. Even if we avoid drinking coffee altogether, caffeine can also be found in teas, chocolate and soda. As a result, a lot of us are walking around every single day overdosing on caffeine. According to a review, nearly 90 percent of people in the United States consume well over 250 milligrams of caffeine daily.
While the debate on whether coffee is good or bad for your health continues, an important thought to consider is that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to the consumption of caffeine. Personalized treatments have gained plenty of popularity because of this. While some individuals may get the jitters from drinking caffeine, not everybody will report experiencing the same symptoms needed to determine the diagnosis of an overdose. The main cause of this is simple, the liver’s capacity to metabolize caffeine will often differ from person to person. Concentrations of CYP450 enzymes required for stage I liver detox causes some people to be “fast-clearers” of caffeine, or people who may have a double espresso and drift dreamily to bed within the hour, and lots of others may be slow-to-impossible clearers, or people who can be considered as no more than nervous wrecks when given the tiniest sip of hot chocolate.
Alternatively, the effects of caffeine can be utilized to treat certain symptoms associated with headaches or asthma, and provide attention and focus, as well as energize the muscles of a training athlete. However, caffeine’s addictive quality, and its capability to tax the liver and nervous system, shouldn’t be ignored. When confronted with a reason to decrease or eliminate caffeine from their diet, conventional coffee lovers may be challenged by withdrawal symptoms, such as headache, agitation, muscle strain, and even anxiety, as well as altering psycho-social behaviours, such as a societal coffee-culture or an afternoon chocolate pick-me-up.
If you are on the path to attempt to detox from your coffee drinking habits, then here are a few tips that can help make the process easier for you:
Drink additional water
Eat a minimally-processed diet rich in minerals and vitamins
Get plenty of exercise and/or physical activity
Sleep properly
Find other choices to decaffeinated coffee, from several chicory and dandelion mixtures, to herbal teas
Supplement using a full-spectrum multivitamin, magnesium, L-theanine and L-DOPA
Persistent caffeine consumption can also deplete calcium, leading to muscle tension and headaches. Restoring healthy magnesium levels will help alleviate these symptoms. In addition, L-theanine is considered to have a calming effect. One research study from 2012 revealed that L-theanine reduced stress and inhibited increases in blood pressure from participants who were confronted with stressful tasks on a computer. L-DOPA, or Dopamine, otherwise referred to as the “happy chemical”, is accountable for controlling the joy and reward centers of the brain, the very same regions aroused by addictive substances like sugar and caffeine. A recent double blind, randomized controlled crossover trial compared the pharmaceutical levodopa used to treat Parkinson’s sufferers to Mucuna pruriens, a natural supply of L-Dopa, and found them similar in clinical efficacy, with Mucuna pruriens being considered more tolerable.
The right answer for when to drink coffee or not is as private as a Starbucks custom coffee order. If you’d love to kick the caffeine habit, however, here’s a simple, no-nonsense approach to slowly getting away from caffeine:
Days 1 to 2: Combine 25 percentage decaf, 75 percent caffeinated
Days 3 to 4: Combine 50 percent decaf, 50 percent caffeinated
Days 5 to 6: Combine 75 percent decaf, 25 percent caffeinated
Day 7: Try entirely decaf.
Dr. Alex Jimenez’s Insight
The advantages and disadvantages of drinking coffee have become highly dependent on the amount of evidence provided over the numerous of research studies conducted to solve the health mysteries of this popular dark beverage. While some studies describe coffee to be good for your health and others urge that coffee is bad for your health, the answer to this debate is simple, it’s a little bit of both. Too much coffee can cause a variety of undesirable symptoms, however, a moderate amount of coffee can provide a wide array of benefits, including lowering the risk of developing many health issues like type 2 diabetes. Whether you choose to believe if coffee is good or bad for your health, alternative treatment options, such as chiropractic care, can help provide you with a variety of health benefits in order to help improve and maintain your overall well-being.
As mentioned above, with the increasing number of coffee lovers found around the world today, the debate regarding whether coffee is good or bad for your health has peaked the interest of many healthcare professionals as well. While research studies and scientific evidence continues to amount to both of these options, you can find alternative treatment options which can help improve and maintain overall well-being. Chiropractic care is a healthcare profession which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of a variety of injuries and conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. A chiropractor, will utilize spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to correct spinal misalignments, or subluxations, to restore the natural integrity of the human body. When a spinal misalignment is interrupting the signals being sent from the brain, to the spinal chord and the rest of the body, many important structures and functions can suffer.
Like the favorable effects expected from coffee and caffeine by consumers, chiropractic care can help increase strength, mobility and flexibility. Furthermore, chiropractic care can promote proper circulation and reduce inflammation associated with stress and tension. By reducing pressure around the complex structures of the spine, spinal adjustments and manual manipulations can also help reduce pain and discomfort, increasing many fundamental functions. In addition, a doctor of chiropractic, or DC, can offer exercise and nutritional advice, which may be important to those individuals who wish to cut back on their coffee intake. With the additional benefits you experience from chiropractic care, even the most avid coffee aficionado can benefit from the advantages of chiropractic care.�The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic as well as to spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at�915-850-0900�.
Curated by Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Back Pain
Back pain is one of the most prevalent causes for disability and missed days at work worldwide. As a matter of fact, back pain has been attributed as the second most common reason for doctor office visits, outnumbered only by upper-respiratory infections. Approximately 80 percent of the population will experience some type of back pain at least once throughout their life. The spine is a complex structure made up of bones, joints, ligaments and muscles, among other soft tissues. Because of this, injuries and/or aggravated conditions, such as herniated discs, can eventually lead to symptoms of back pain. Sports injuries or automobile accident injuries are often the most frequent cause of back pain, however, sometimes the simplest of movements can have painful results. Fortunately, alternative treatment options, such as chiropractic care, can help ease back pain through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, ultimately improving pain relief.
To the age-old question �Is coffee bad for you?�, researchers are in more agreement than ever that the answer is a resounding �no.�
A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that older people with low levels of inflammation � which drives many, if not most, major diseases � had something surprising in common: they were all caffeine drinkers.
�The more caffeine people consumed, the more protected they were against a chronic state of inflammation,� says study author David Furman, consulting associate professor at the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford University. �There was no boundary, apparently.�
Coffee and Aging
In the study, Furman and his colleagues analyzed blood samples from 100 young and old people. The older people tended to have more activity in several inflammation-related genes compared with the younger group � no surprise, since as people get older, inflammation throughout the body tends to rise. Chronic diseases of aging, like diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, cancer, joint disorders and Alzheimer�s, are all believed to have inflammation in common. �Most of the diseases of aging are not really diseases of aging, per se, but rather diseases of inflammation,� Furman says. The more active these genes were, the more likely the person was to have high blood pressure and atherosclerosis.
What�s more, even among older people, those with lower levels of these factors were more protected against inflammation � and they had something else in common too. They all drank caffeine regularly. People who drank more than five cups of coffee a day showed extremely low levels of activity in the inflammatory gene pathway. Caffeine inhibits this circuit and turns the inflammatory pathway off, the researchers say.
The goal isn�t to make every trace of inflammation disappear, the scientists stress. In fact, inflammation is an important function of the immune system, which uses it to fight off infections and remove potentially toxic compounds. But with aging, the process isn�t regulated as well as it is in a younger body. �Clearly in aging something is breaking down, and we become less effective at managing this inflammation,� says Mark Davis, director of the Stanford institute. �But now in this paper, we identify a particular pathway that was not associated with inflammation before. We are able to point, with a much higher resolution picture, at aging and the things that should be markers for inflammation.�
The key will be to figure out when the inflammatory response starts to spiral out of control. In an upcoming study, Furman and others will soon investigate the immune systems of 1,000 people; he hopes to use that information to develop a reference range of immune-system components to tell people whether their levels are normal, or if they�re at higher risk for developing chronic conditions driven by inflammation. In the meantime, following the example of caffeine-drinking adults with lower levels of inflammation � by having a cup of joe or two � might be a good idea.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic care is an well-known, alternative treatment option utilized to prevent, diagnose and treat a variety of injuries and conditions associated with the spine, primarily subluxations or spinal misalignments. Chiropractic focuses on restoring and maintaining the overall health and wellness of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, a chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, can carefully re-align the spine, improving a patient�s strength, mobility and flexibility.
Here’s a reason to really enjoy your morning cup of joe: it practically qualifies as a health food these days. Coffee can improve your mood, jumpstart your metabolism, boost your workout, and help you focus, among other amazing benefits suggested by recent research.
Yet you won’t score these health rewards unless you steer clear of certain bad habits when it comes to preparing and sipping your favorite brew. Some coffee-prep practices strip the beans of their high levels of micronutrients like polyphenols, a type of antioxidant thought to help prevent heart disease and other conditions. And ordering beverages loaded with dairy and sugar can turn this naturally low-calorie beverage into a delivery system for fat and calories.
To get the most from your coffee, make sure you’re not committing any of the mistakes called out by Bob Arnot, MD in his new book, The Coffee Lover�s Diet: Change Your Coffee�Change Your Life. With Arnot’s advice in mind, here’s the right way to prepare and savor your brew.
Cut Back on Sugar
Coffee and sugar have always been a popular pairing. Sprinkling in the sweet stuff won�t take away from coffee’s polyphenol level, but it can detract from the healthfulness of the drink thanks to the extra calories (16 per sugar packet) and the way refined sugar messes with your blood-sugar levels. If you need sugar because your coffee tastes too bitter, try a brew made from naturally sweeter beans.
Go Easy on the Cream
Coffee with cream is another delicious duo. Two tablespoons of heavy cream packs about 100 calories; the same amount of half-and-half has 38. These numbers may not seem like much, but if you drink a few cups or more a day, it adds up. Many people mask the bitterness of their coffee with cream, so save yourself the calories and pick a lighter roast, or stick to low-fat milk only. Speaking of milk and cream, try to make smoothie-like blended coffee drinks, which can have hundreds of calories each, an occasional splurge.
Drink Lighter-Roast Brews
�Superdark roasts, swirled with cream and sugar to cover their burnt-wood taste, are the coffee equivalent of soggy green beans that have been cooked all-day with a fatty ham hock or a slice of bacon,� writes Arnot. Lighter roasts may take some getting used to, but they can be just as flavorful and are much higher in polyphenols. If you can’t give up the dark stuff, roast the beans yourself at a temperature no higher than 430 degrees This creates that bold, dark flavor yet retains a decent level of polyphenols.
Buy Higher-Quality Beans
One way to know if your coffee is healthy is to evaluate the taste: healthier coffee tastes better. To get the good-for-you kind, Arnot suggests buying premium coffees grown on farms with excellent cultivation practices. Stick to farms located at high altitudes close to the equator in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Columbia and Brazil. African coffees tend to be lighter, whereas South American coffees are generally fuller-bodied.
Wash the Coffee Maker
You wash your pans after cooking with them, right? If you didn’t, the next dish you prepared in them wouldn’t taste right. The same principle goes for your coffee equipment. Rinsing coffee machines and makers with vinegar and hot water, suggests Arnot, will make your next brew more robust and flavorful.
Make Coffee with Fresh, Ripe Beans
Coffee is at its best between two days and two weeks after the beans are roasted. Arnot recommends buying small bags from local roasters and using them within three to four days�storing them not in your fridge but in an opaque, airtight container kept away from sunlight to preserve freshness. Ask for coffee packed in nitrogen-flushed bags; this prevents oxidation and help preserve the taste of the beans for a few months before you’re ready to roast.
Grind the Beans
If the beans are ground too small, you’ll get bitter-tasting coffee. Grind them too coarsely, however, and the coffee will taste weak�not to mention be depleted ofpolyphenols. Arnot recommends a medium-level coarseness, whether you’re grinding it yourself or having someone behind a counter do it for you.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic care is an well-known, alternative treatment option utilized to prevent, diagnose and treat a variety of injuries and conditions associated with the spine, primarily subluxations or spinal misalignments. Chiropractic focuses on restoring and maintaining the overall health and wellness of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, a chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, can carefully re-align the spine, improving a patient�s strength, mobility and flexibility.
The heat in the drinks can dramatically reduce the effects of tablets
It can even kill the �friendly� bacteria in probiotic foods such as yoghurts
Around 46 per cent of British adults take daily vitamin supplements
�
In these health-conscious times, millions of us wash down a vitamin pill as part of our breakfast routine.
But it seems we may be wasting our time. Researchers claim swallowing vitamin supplements with tea or coffee can wipe out all the good they do.
The heat in the drinks can dramatically reduce the effects of tablets, and even kill the �friendly� bacteria in probiotic foods such as yoghurts, experts said.
Researchers Claim Swallowing Vitamin Supplements With Tea Or Coffee Can Wipe Out All The Good They Do
A University of East Anglia study found that hot drinks and food such as porridge inhibit the absorption of iron by up to 73 per cent. Around 46 per cent of British adults take daily vitamin supplements, and 70 per cent of those who do take them with breakfast.
Now experts suggest waiting at least an hour before consuming hot food or drink after taking tablets.
Dr Sarah Brewer, a GP and medical nutritionist, said: �I don�t advise taking probiotics, vitamin or mineral supplements with tea or coffee.
These drinks contain compounds which, although beneficial at other times, also bind iron and other minerals to reduce their absorption.
�In fact, coffee can reduce iron absorption by up to 80 per cent if drunk within an hour of a meal. Very hot drinks can also inactivate some vitamins, and kill live probiotic bacteria.�
Dr Sarah Brewer, a GP and medical nutritionist, said: �I don�t advise taking probiotics, vitamin or mineral supplements with tea or coffee’
To ensure beneficial bacteria survive, Glenn Gibson, professor of food microbiology at the University of Reading, advises washing down supplements with water or milk. Breakfast is still the best time to take pills, as the gut has rested overnight and is therefore more receptive, he added.
Research by supplement company Healthspan also found that, among potential buyers of probiotics, few were aware of the alleged benefits of taking them during and after a course of antibiotics. While antibiotics kill the bacteria that cause infections, they can also destroy good bacteria in our bodies.
Arthur Ouwehand, professor in applied microbiology at the University of Turku, Finland, claimed: �It�s important to begin taking probiotics from the moment you start antibiotics and continue for a few weeks after finishing the course.�
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