Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Published : September 7, 2019 9:04 PM IST
Drinking coffee can have positive impact on health. © Shutterstock
Coffee contains caffeine, which stimulates the central nervous system, heart and muscles. A cup of coffee can stimulate you and increase mental alertness. This beverage has been positively linked to many health disorders. It can reduce your risk of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, dementia and cognitive decline. It can also prevent gallstones, gout, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. Excessive consumption of coffee is bad as too much of a good thing is not good for you. Experts say that if you have more than 4 cups of coffee a day, you may have an increased risk of early death. According to a study at the University of South Australia, drinking six or more cups of coffee a day can be bad for health.
Researchers say that risk of cardiovascular disease increases with high blood pressure, a known consequence of excess caffeine consumption. In order to maintain a healthy heart and a healthy blood pressure, people must limit their coffees to fewer than six cups a day, they say and added that, based on their data, six cups a day was the tipping point where caffeine started to negatively affect cardiovascular risk.
It may increase your risk of heart disease by up to 22 per cent. Since, the WHO says that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, it might be a good idea to cut down on this brew. Let us look at some other possible health conditions that excessive consumption of coffee may cause.
The caffeine in coffee blocks the brain chemical adenosine. This causes tiredness and also riggers the release of adrenaline. If you drink a lot of coffee, these effects are heightened and this causes nervousness. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists this kind of caffeine-induced anxiety disorder as one of four caffeine-related syndromes. Keep your intake to below 1,000 mg per day. Otherwise, you may experience nervousness, irritation, rapid breathing and stress.
Too much caffeine can keep you awake at night. And if you are a habitual coffee drinker, this can increase your risk of many insomnia- related diseases. Too much coffee also increases the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and decreases total sleeping time. Ideally, you must have your last cup of coffee six hours before bedtime.
Excessive consumption of coffee can lead to a condition called rhabdomyolysis. This is the breakdown of damaged muscle. This is a serious health disorder where damaged muscle fibres enter the bloodstream. It can lead to kidney failure. If you want to reduce your risk of rhabdomyolysis, limit your intake to about 250 mg of caffeine per day.
According to researchers from the European Society of Cardiology, coffee drinking is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, mainly heart attacks, in young adults between the ages of 18 to 45 with mild hypertension. Researchers came to this conclusion at the end of a 12-year study that included more than 1,200 patients. They found that heavy coffee drinkers had a four-fold increased risk while moderate drinkers tripled their risk. Although increased blood pressure is a temporary side-effect of excessive consumption of coffee, it increased the risk of heart disease and stroke. It does so because high blood pressure can clog the arteries and restrict blood flow to the heart and brain.
Increased urination is a common side-effect of excessive coffee consumption. Coffee the bladder and this may lead to frequent urination. This is more so in older people. Obese people are also at a higher risk from this problem.
