Morning Coffee

 Morning CoffeeWhen you drink coffee, you are essentially experiencing the stress response in a cup. That’s because coffee works by triggering something akin to a stress response.
It starts by mimicking a molecule we all have in our brains called ‘adenosine’. Adenosine is a by-product of the energy systems in the body and it builds up over time as we are active. The more you use your brain power, the more of this substance accumulates.
The problem, is that adenosine is also an inhibitory neurotransmitter. The more adenosine builds up, the tireder we get and the less active the brain becomes. This is one of the reasons that we find ourselves feeling tireder and less cognitive able as the day drags on.
Drink caffeine though and the brain’s ‘adenosine receptors’ get confused. They absorb caffeine instead of adenosine and this means the adenosine has nowhere to go and can’t work. This in turn, gives you an instant boost in energy levels by making you feel more awake and focussed.
This also leads to a general increase in brain activity though and this is where the stress response comes in. The brain notices this sudden wakefulness and what do you know, it assumes that something very important must be going on. Thus, we see a release of more



neurotransmitters associated with stress! Our good friends cortisol, norepinephrine, adrenaline and dopamine. This increases the heartrate, dilates the pupils, suppresses the immune system… all the things that any other stress response does.
Caffeine in itself is not bad. In small doses it can help boost memory and wakefulness and it’s actually protective against all kinds of neurodegenerative diseases in the long term. But what it also is, is a quick way to make any stressful situation worse. If you’ve got a busy day, you just commuted during rush hour and you sit down at work to drink a big cup of coffee, you’re only going to make yourself more stressed and wired.
And guess what? Once again, this is going to result in a crash shortly afterward when your energy levels have been depleted.
Don’t drink caffeine as part of a routine. Drink it when you need that extra push – don’t rely on it and don’t combine it with other stress.