What is better than a hot coffee in the morning? I think many of us need it when we feel sleepy and or need a pick me up to take on a busy day.
I was lucky enough to attend a coffee festival this weekend. Actually, I try to attend it every year and I always enjoy trying the different types of coffees. It is always popular, there are people with go pros filming vlog videos on it and it is always wall to wall packed with people.
For me, I cannot do without it. I need one in the morning, and I always enjoy it. Gourmet coffee on the weekends is something that I also enjoy after a nice meal. So whenever people tell me that coffee is not good for me, or I am having too much of it, I usually just ignore them.
I got curious though and decided to find out what coffee does to our mental health, and I think that I opened a can of worms. There seems to be a lot of information for and against coffee in this regard.
On the one hand, it is believed that coffee could increase the severity of moods swings of people with bipolar disorder. Furthermore, according to studies undertaken, drinking 5 cups of coffee can bring on panic attacks in panic disorder patients, and also increase anxiety in healthy people. I am not surprised. 5 cups of coffee does seem to be a bit too much.
On the other hand, coffee is a mood elevator, and has been known to decrease the risk of depression. The amount needed to decrease depression is between 68 mg/day and below 509 mg/day. A standard cup of coffee contains 95mg of caffeine.
I think like anything you can’t just follow the information that you read or advice from friends and from random coffee haters. You need to experiment yourself. If you are not a coffee drinker, you should give it a try. If you think that coffee is not working for you, maybe you should give it up or reduce it.
Personally, I will keep drinking it, but I will keep an eye on my consumption. I definitely don’t want to be drinking more than 5 cups a day.
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34871964/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26339067/
