Coffee Times Coffee

Waking up to a freshly brewed pot of coffee in the morning is one of the simple joys in life. Over 50% of all Americans have a cup of coffee in the morning, anything from espresso drinks, a regular cup of Joe, or your Moka cappuccinos and around here a Josie made with the flavored coffee of the day with whipped cream. Researchers have related the consumption of coffee to our moods and how it affects our moods, especially the feeling of depression. Coffee not only wakes people up in the morning giving us the jolt of mental stimulation to make us alert, aware, and functioning but it also may offer some protection against depression. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health did a study of the effects of caffeine and women and found that women who drink 550 mmg of coffee a day are less likely to be depressed, that is the equivalent to 5 and 1/2 cups of coffee a day. They found that an inverse dose-response relationship between caffeine intake and mood: the more caffeine consumed the less likely that the patient developed depression during the study period. Tea, soda, and chocolate are also ways we receive caffeine but the amount of caffeine is so minimal that is doesn't process through our system the same way, and the caffeine content of coffee varied greatly on how the beans were roasted, darker roasted coffee has less caffeine than a medium roast. :) Caffeine is absorbed through the stomach and small intestines and is distributed through throughout the body, eventually reaching the brain. Between 30 and 90 minutes the body starts feeling the affects of caffeine and it lasts up to 10 hours of running through the body. Once caffeine reaches the brian it aims for the adenosine receptor, these receptors dampens brain activity by hogging the receptors and inhibiting it from producing dopamine, an important nuerotransmitter involved in moods, and also indirectly affects two other nuerotransmitters as well, serotonin and acetylcholine, and these control sleep, arousal, pleasure, and thinking. Of course each of us are different and process caffeine in different ways and caffeine has negative effects along with the good, but maybe caffeine helps us through the difficult parts of the day and those of us who drink the recommended 5 and 1/2 cups of coffee should take to heart that maybe this isn't a vice and could even be healthy. :)