Coffee: the Wonder Drug

There is abundant evidence that drinking coffee is good for you? But how much coffee should you drink to obtain the various benefits that coffee offers? Bloomberg Business weighs in on this issue with an article entitled How to Transform Your Coffee into a Wonder Drug.

Coffee lovers of the world know that their morning cup contains a substance to be reckoned with. Caffeine is so effective at juicing our energy and productivity that until 2004, its intake was restricted by the International Olympic Committee. But the original performance-enhancing drug doesn’t just provide a jolt to athletes.

But while caffeine is best known for its ability to keep us awake and alert-more than a few of you are likely reading this piece with a cup of coffee in one hand-research suggests it can sharpen performance across an astonishing range of tasks. As with most things, though, it’s easy to overdo it and negate those positive effects. Here’s how, and when, to dose yourself with coffee just right.

It turns out that coffee works better if you are not tired! It has to do with brain chemistry. And if you want to improve longer term memory over a 24 hour period, drink coffee. This particular info comes from a study published in Nature Neuroscience regarding caffeine and memory consolidation in humans.

It is currently not known whether caffeine has an enhancing effect on long-term memory in humans. We used post-study caffeine administration to test its effect on memory consolidation using a behavioral discrimination task. Caffeine enhanced performance 24 h after administration according to an inverted U-shaped dose-response curve; this effect was specific to consolidation and not retrieval. We conclude that caffeine enhanced consolidation of long-term memories in humans.

Want to remember what is going on? Drink coffee.

Coffee Fosters Cooperation as Well

Another interesting study cited in the Bloomberg Business article has to do with people being more cooperative after drinking coffee. Nutritional Neuroscience reported that caffeinated coffee enhances co-operative behavior.

The present study examined the effects of caffeinated coffee on antidepressant-related co-operative behavior. Seventy-seven low-caffeine users took part in a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study of single dose of caffeinated coffee (150 mg caffeine) and decaffeinated coffee (9 mg caffeine) with at least a 3-day washout period. In each session, participants were asked to imagine a fictitious person and play the Mixed Motive Game with that person 45 min after coffee consumption. Heart rate, blood pressure, and state moods were measured at baseline and at 45 min post-coffee consumption. After caffeinated coffee, participants exhibited significantly higher blood pressure. They also allocated significantly fewer scores to themselves and sent significantly more sadness message during the game. These results suggest that caffeinated coffee may help to improve social support and depressive symptoms.

Do you want workers in your business to cooperate with each other? Keep the coffee pot full!

And Much More

Coffee works on the adenosine system which has important functions throughout the brain so it is not surprising that everything from typing speed to overall creativity are improved by coffee. And, by the way, don’t forget that coffee reduces the risk of various cancers, Type II diabetes, depression and Alzheimer’s disease.




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