Lifesaver or Health Hazard? What Happens to Your Body When You Drink Coffee Long-Term

How Coffee Affects Your Daily Routine

At eight in the morning, you drag yourself out of bed while still half-asleep and drink your first cup of coffee to quickly wake up. At one in the afternoon, after a busy morning and the post-lunch slump, you drink your second cup to get through the afternoon. Sometimes when you work late into the night, you drink a third, fourth... or even more cups of coffee to keep yourself going.

When you reach that second cup of coffee, do you start wondering: Can my body handle this much coffee? How much coffee is considered excessive in a day? Will I become addicted to caffeine? (And then you immediately take a few more sips of coffee to calm your overthinking). There's also another situation where you drink coffee but it doesn't provide the energizing effect you expected.

Why Coffee Provides an Energizing Effect

In the central nervous system, there's something called adenosine, which is one of the main culprits behind making us feel sleepy. The more we exercise and use our brains, the more adenosine our bodies produce. When these adenosine molecules bind with receptors in the brain, we start feeling drowsy. Caffeine, as a central nervous system stimulant, acts as a third party, beating adenosine to bind with these receptors, thereby reducing the combination of adenosine with receptors and decreasing our drowsiness.

However, the presence of caffeine also makes adenosine become alert. If you excessively rely on caffeine daily to stay awake and alert, adenosine will start to "protest" or adapt! Each time caffeine arrives, large numbers of adenosine receptors emerge to bind, making caffeine's immediate arrival ineffective. This is one of the reasons why many people don't achieve the desired energizing effect even after drinking coffee.

Can Your Body Handle Long-Term Coffee Consumption?

Everyone's tolerance for coffee is different, and everyone drinks different types of coffee. Typically, caffeine takes effect quickly - you'll start feeling its energizing effects within 10-15 minutes of consumption. After 45 minutes, the caffeine concentration in your blood reaches its peak, giving you more motivation to complete your work. However! The metabolism time of caffeine varies from person to person. For healthy individuals, the average half-life is 5 hours, with most people falling between 1.5-9.5 hours.

That's why some people can drink coffee late at night and immediately feel sleepy, while others can drink coffee in the afternoon and still count sheep late at night. Meanwhile, the type of coffee also affects caffeine's effectiveness and has varying degrees of impact on health. For example, coffee containing milk and sugar generally has lower caffeine concentration. Additionally, due to the effects of sugar, drinking coffee not only fails to provide an energizing effect but can make you feel sleepier and gain weight. Long-term consumption of coffee with milk and sugar not only increases the risk of obesity but also increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Many research reports from the 1980s and 1990s often indicated that coffee was harmful to the body. In reality, this was largely because instant coffee was popular during that era, which mostly contained sugar and non-dairy creamer. People who drank it long-term were more likely to suffer from obesity, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases that affect health. Coffee was unfairly blamed...

Today, with the promotion of specialty coffee culture, people's coffee drinking habits have gradually shifted toward pure pour-over coffee. Scientists studying coffee and health have also become more neutral. Research subjects primarily focus on black coffee, indicating that moderate daily consumption can protect the heart, blood vessels, and brain, and can even prevent dementia and prolong life.

Recommended Coffee Consumption

However! It's important to note that the coffee mentioned above as being beneficial to health is black coffee without added sugar or milk, and consumed in moderation. As mentioned earlier, everyone's tolerance for coffee is different.

According to the safety intake standards provided by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), healthy adults should not consume more than 400mg of caffeine daily. For Americano coffee, it's recommended not to exceed 5-6 cups daily; for pour-over coffee, not more than 4-5 cups daily; and for cold brew coffee, not more than 2-3 cups daily.

Caffeine Addiction and Withdrawal

Excessive coffee consumption can easily lead to caffeine addiction. After becoming addicted to caffeine, you may face withdrawal reactions (abstinence reaction), which refers to the specific psychological symptoms that appear after stopping caffeine intake or reducing dosage. These can include lethargy that affects daily life, low mood, anxiety, nervousness, and adverse reactions in the gastrointestinal/urinary systems or heart. Generally, caffeine addiction symptoms only occur in people who consume caffeine products long-term and excessively.

Although domestic research reports indicate that sweetened coffee may reduce mortality risk and extend life more than unsweetened coffee, this is only true when the coffee contains just one teaspoon (6g) of white sugar, with an average sugar content far lower than beverages sold by popular coffee chain stores. Those who enjoy drinking various flavored syrup coffees or zero-calorie sweetener coffees should not get too excited... Drink less sugary coffee! Drink less sugary coffee! Drink less sugary coffee!

Of course, the 400mg figure provided by the FDA should be considered a ceiling. Without breaking through this ceiling, everyone should also make adjustments based on their individual circumstances. If you feel particularly tired, you should pay more attention to your mental and physical condition and not overly rely on coffee for stimulation!

Image source: Internet

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