For
many people, their days just do not start until they have had their
first cup of coffee.
That's because one of the biggest benefits of coffee are its
stimulating effects. Coffee contains caffeine, which acts as a
stimulant. It is a great drink for those times of the day when you
need a boost. Students turn to it when they are embarking on a
late-night cram session and office workers need the coffee break for
those times they notice that their concentration is lagging.
The
effects of caffeine as a stimulant have been one of the most studies
aspects of coffee, particularly in studies concerning the
relationship between coffee consumption and human health. While
caffeine is found naturally in tea, kola nuts, yerba mate, guarana,
and cacao beans, it is predominantly associated with coffee beans.
The main pharmacological properties of caffeine include its
stimulating action on the central nervous system, in which it also
has psychotropic effects. Additionally, caffeine has a stimulating
effect on respiration and the human heart rate. Caffeine also
contains a diuretic effect.
It
is believed that the way that caffeine affects the brain is by
blocking adenosine receptors, which slows down nerve cell activity.
When the caffeine molecule binds to the receptors of nerve cells, it
causes the release of hormone epinephrine, which results in
increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the muscles, increased
blood pressure, decreased blood flow to the skin, decreased blood
flow to the inner organs, a release of glucose by the liver, and
increase in the levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the
brain. While many are worried about the addictive properties of
caffeine, if you follow the maxim that too much of a good thing
becomes bad, you will be able to avoid the negative effects of
caffeine that results from an over consumption of coffee.
Coffee as a stimulant is one of the principle reasons why coffee is
such a popular drink throughout the world. While there are many
social traditions that result from drinking coffee, the use of
coffee as a stimulant is almost as old as coffee. Monks in the
African desert where coffee plants were first discovered had
historically used coffee beans as a way to stay fully awake so they
can prolong their own meditations. So coffee and its stimulating
principles have lived on for centuries and will continue to live on
as one of the benefits of drinking coffee.
