Have you ever wondered what is caffeine? For many people, it’s not necessarily harmful to consume large amounts of caffeine in a day. However, if you do drink or eat too much caffeine it can create certain health issues, including:
Insomnia – Caffeine can be a major contributor to insomnia. In order to get a good night’s sleep, your body needs to be revitalized. Drinking tea or coffee prior to going to bed can help to make it happen. Also, energy drinks commonly found at the local coffee shop can contribute to insomnia by stimulating your body.
The central nervous system – When you consume caffeine, it influences the central nervous system. This can result in: difficulty sleeping, nervousness, agitation, anxiety, and irritability. Caffeine can also impact your heartbeat and blood pressure. These side effects can be offset when you take small, healthy doses of caffeine on a regular basis. Avoiding energy drinks, coffee, tea, and soft drinks is usually the best solution.
Adrenaline – Small amounts of caffeine can increase your adrenaline levels. This surge of adrenaline can increase your alertness and speed reaction time. Many popular sports drinks contain caffeine and they are often drunk during competition. While drinking energy drinks is an option, you may want to consider taking a supplement instead. Research has shown that most athletes who use caffeine supplements don’t gain any additional benefits.
Blood Pressure – High amounts of caffeine can affect your blood pressure. High blood pressure can reduce your resting heart rate and increase your heart rate while you’re at rest. If this happens, you may have increased your risk of having a cardiac arrest or sudden death from a heart problem.
Tiredness – One of the effects of caffeine is that it makes you feel tired. However, your body needs some time to re-hydrate. If you drink coffee during exercise, you may feel tired right away but your body will need more time to adjust. Your next workout won’t feel as good as the first one and you could even lose out on valuable workout time. Your best bet is to cut back on your caffeine consumption.
Muscles Sore – It’s not just coffee that can make you feel fatigued – energy drinks and sports drinks are also loaded with caffeine. Two drinks with a caffeine content are equal to about six ounces of soda. That’s equal to two cups of caffeinated soda. If you don’t believe us, try it; you’ll be surprised!
These are only four of the health effects of cutting back on caffeine. To learn more about the other side effects of caffeine and how it affects you, visit the Caffeine Council website. Learn what you can do today to limit caffeine consumption.
As an athlete and a working professional, you owe it to yourself to consider the possible adverse effects of caffeine consumption. You may be surprised to find out just how bad it can really be. But as a working professional or athlete, you have to take your health into account and know what is best for you in any given situation. Drinking coffee isn’t going to put you on any kind of fast track to faster results; in fact, coffee may actually slow down your performance. And if you’re someone who has to be on speed 24-hours a day, you’re better off avoiding caffeine altogether.
What Is Caffeine And How Does It Affect You? Many people feel that caffeine is a stimulant and that’s why they experience jitters when they consume it. However, there are many other effects of caffeine that you should be aware of. Caffeine can affect your central nervous system and because of this, it can also affect your heart. Because of this, many people feel that the caffeine in energy drinks and soft drinks is not really doing anything to help them boost their energy level.
While many athletes drink caffeine, most of them ingest large amounts of caffeine through tea, coffee, and energy drinks. For this reason, if you have a problem with jitters and experience mild to severe headaches, then caffeine may be a culprit. But for most people, don’t experience these types of headaches when consuming small to moderate amounts of caffeine. This means that caffeine may not always be a cause of your headaches.
If you do consume moderate amounts of caffeine on a regular basis, you may want to keep a food diary in your home. Keeping a diary will allow you to monitor how caffeine affects your system. Over time, you may notice a decrease in your blood pressure or headaches. It is important to note that while caffeine can make your jitters go away, it can also increase the frequency of your headache occurrences. Therefore, it is often best to consume moderate amounts of caffeine and decrease the frequency of consumption to reduce your headaches.