It is best to rest when the body is tired, and stimulate with caffeine only when necessary. Stimulating the body with caffeine is like stretching out the rubber band and then releasing so it snaps back into its original shape when the caffeine effect wears out.
The rubber band can be torqued and stretched. It will keep returning to its original shape until it starts to stretch and wear down. You start drinking coffee to give you a lift in energy, but the problem with caffeine is that the effect easily wears off.
Every peak is followed by a trough, and often, each low triggers you to take more of the same substance. Soon dependency issues arise and the body struggles to rest at all. When the body does not rest and the adrenal glands are stimulated too much over time, the rubber band snaps and the body crashes.
This crash comes when the body takes control and forces its systems to slow down in order to conserve what little energy is left. So are you actually gaining more energy from caffeine, or are you only distributing the limited energy that you have into highs and lows throughout the day?
Many coffee drinkers feel that their coffee has less and less effect on them over time. The peaks turn less satisfying, while the troughs crash even lower. In order to compensate, they take more caffeine and even more sugary snacks , but even those become useless. What happens every time you drink a cup of coffee? The brain sends a signal to the pituitary gland, which then releases ACTH adrenocorticotrophic hormone , telling the adrenal glands to pump out stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
Within five minutes after drinking coffee, the caffeine starts to work on your central nervous system, causing a stress flight or fight response. Such process is the same kind of stress response that happens when you encounter an imminent physical danger. If you are drinking only a cup of coffee, your adrenals can respond quickly to this type of stimulation. Some coffee drinkers may think that their caffeine tolerance increased, but that assumption is far from the truth.
After long-term repeated doses of caffeine, your adrenals are weakened and are less able to adequately respond, leading to adrenal fatigue. In a study, researchers provided three groups of subjects capsules containing 0 mg, mg, or mg of caffeine each day for 5 days.
On the sixth day, all subjects were given a morning and afternoon dose of caffeine, and their cortisol levels were measured. Researchers found that those who abstained from caffeine had a huge spike in cortisol response on the sixth day, while those who had been taking caffeine every day had no cortisol response in the morning of the sixth day and only a minimal response in the afternoon.
Based on this study, researchers concluded that the cortisol response to caffeine gradually weakens for those who take caffeine on a daily basis. If it does, a crash can follow. Such crashes usually happen after years of abuse. It is often accompanied by adrenal fatigue , a condition where the adrenal glands are worn out and unable to deal with overwhelming stress.
During an adrenal crash, often precipitated by excessive caffeine intake, one can become bedridden, couch-bound, or unable to get up and out of the house. Some feel this caffeine crash coming on and try to handle it with more caffeine. This is not a wise choice. More caffeine during a crash like this will only cause rapid heart rate, dizziness, or dehydration which in turn can cause more dizziness and fatigue.
It is critical to understand this connection between caffeine and adrenal crashes. When a body is already in adrenal fatigue, however, caffeine should be avoided. It can exacerbate the effects of this fatigue. If your body has already become dependent on caffeine, consider decreasing your consumption gradually until it is no longer needed.
Stopping consumption too quickly, after an extended period of use, can cause the body to overreact to the withdrawal of caffeine. Always remember that the short-term effect is not the only one caffeine has on the body. Long-term, many people will see collateral damage from continued overuse of caffeine. Obviously our bodies are not that simple.
As people get older, they may become more and more sensitive to the effects of caffeine. An aging body can more easily become overstimulated because it lacks the ability to rebound. Which brands don't make the grade? Caffeine combats sleepiness and feeling tired, but it can prevent a good night's sleep. Here's how to use caffeine in Caffeine Addiction.
Caffeine tolerance develops quickly when caffeine is consumed daily. We discuss how this forms, how to avoid it, and how Caffeine can increase anxiety levels and even cause panic attacks in some people. Here's the science as to why and This article traces the path and effects of caffeine throughout the body and explains how caffeine is metabolized or broken The most common caffeine withdrawal symptoms. If you have or are planning on giving up caffeine, here's what symptoms to Saved Articles.
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