Is coffee good for you?
Pros and cons of drinking coffee.
For many UTM students, not a day goes by where they don’t drink one, if not two, cups of coffee. For these students, coffee is an essential part of their morning routine—a sort of “pick-me-up” potion to get their day started.
Caffeine, a chemical stimulant naturally found in coffee, is what helps many students stay alert in both morning lectures and nighttime study sessions. It’s their source of survival in times when staying awake is the only way to guarantee success throughout course assignments and exams.
Harms of coffee
While coffee is capable of keeping students awake, it is just as capable of keeping them anxious. The caffeine within coffee, even in moderate quantities, can cause jitteriness and anxiety. Therefore, for students with anxiety disorders, it’s best that they be careful with their dosage of caffeine.
Moreover, coffee is proven to increase heart rates and blood pressure and is linked to conditions such as atrial fibrillation. Symptoms may include dizziness, fatigue, irregular heartbeats, and troubled breathing. A failure to take care of this condition may lead to the development of coronary artery disease and obesity.
Coffee drinkers are also at risk of developing rhabdomyolysis, a pathological condition that damages skeletal muscles. Incurring such a condition may lead to various health complications such as acute renal failure and compartment syndrome. This syndrome forms when dangerous levels of pressure build up within muscles that can prohibit nourishment and oxygen from reaching nerve and muscle cells.
When sleep is a necessity, coffee may just be the source preventing it. Caffeine, even taken in the early afternoon, can affect the quality of sleep even several hours later. It disturbs regular sleep schedules, throwing off many students from receiving the adequate rest they need at night. Furthermore, it may create difficulties for students who try to sleep routinely and maintain a Circadian Rhythm.
Benefits of coffee
Although caffeine intake can lead to many more harmful health conditions, there are surprising benefits. When taken in low doses, coffee can help with depression. For students who often find it difficult to stay focused and motivated, low levels of coffee can stimulate dopamine, which is a brain chemical that affects the motors of pleasure, motivation, and learning. As such, in times when students need a small source of motivation, there’s no harm to consuming a little caffeine.
Although it cannot directly cause weight loss, coffee may aid in decreasing weight gain. As it helps increase regular metabolic rates while suppressing appetite, it becomes easier for those watching their weight to reduce the quantity of food they eat. However, this is only applicable if the coffee consumed is plain black without added sugars or cream; otherwise, it may result in an opposite effect.
Some studies have also proven that coffee consumption is associated with decreased levels of type two diabetic development. Even though these studies are only observational, researchers have witnessed cases in which patients at risk of type two diabetes decrease their risk with increased levels of caffeine. The same study also found strong associations between caffeine and protective and therapeutic effects on Alzheimer patients, as well as reduced risks of colorectal, endometrial, and hepatocellular cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Research has also demonstrated that regular coffee drinkers are 15-16 per cent more likely to live longer than nondrinkers. A 30-year study of 200,000 participants found that moderate coffee drinkers (3-5 cups per day) had a longer life expectancy comparison to those who don’t consume coffee, while another 10-year study of 500,000 participants found similar results for those who consumed between 6-7 cups per day.
Even with all the benefits, excessive coffee drinking may only nullify the positive attributes. Hence why students should still drink in moderation and be careful to attune their consumption to how their own bodies feel.
