(Source: Popular Science China)
The mellow coffee is a necessary "artifact" for many office workers and student parties, and many people think that the "hero" of coffee can refresh the mind is caffeine, but few people know the real reason!
Coffee source | Xiaoxiang famous doctor
Why coffee can be refreshing
The reason why people feel tired and have no energy is mainly because the human body produces a signaling substance called adenosine. This substance is transmitted to the brain, which can make people sleepy, tired, and unable to concentrate.
When adenosine transmits signals to the brain, it needs to bind to the adenosine receptors in the brain, so that the brain receives signals of physical exhaustion, so it slows down the operation, and the release of important molecular information becomes slow, producing the effect of inhibiting neurons.
Caffeine excites the brain from sources | Xiaoxiang famous doctor
Coffee is known to contain caffeine, a stimulant in the central nervous system.
Caffeine and adenosine have a similar structure, at this time the receptor will be confused to distinguish between true and false, caffeine instead of adenosine and the receptor binding, thereby interfering with adenosine to the brain to transmit a tired signal.
Caffeine chemical formula source 丨 Wikipedia
Adenosine Source 丨 Wikipedia
The brain can't receive adenosine information, and the human body will naturally not feel tired! However, drinking coffee to refresh the mind does have a certain psychological effect.
The University of East London once did an experiment on whether drinking coffee has a psychological effect.
The experiment selected a number of people who drank more than 2 cups of coffee a day and divided people into two groups: told one group to drink decaffeinated coffee and the other group to drink general coffee. But in reality, the coffee drunk by the two groups is the opposite.
The results of the experiment showed that people who thought they drank ordinary coffee were more energetic, and their attention, reaction and mood were better than those of the other group. Therefore, people know that drinking coffee can refresh their minds and then drink, in fact, there is a certain psychological implication effect.
So why do some people find coffee useful, while others find it useless?
A study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry by the Harvard School of Public Health showed that there is a "caffeine gene" in the human body that controls the body's response to coffee.
The data used in the study included respondents' daily coffee consumption and dna analysis to explore the small differences in DNA caused by the amount of coffee consumed. After drinking coffee every day, there will be 8 changes in human DNA, 2 groups are known, and 6 groups are newly discovered. Four of these 6 groups were shown to be related to caffeine, and the remaining two groups were related to cholesterol and blood sugar.
From this, we can see that the four sets of genes in the human body have a lot to do with caffeine, and drinking coffee without refreshing is related to the lack of genes that can decompose caffeine or the intensity of caffeine decomposition.
If you drink coffee after no refreshing effect, but a little uncomfortable, rapid heartbeat, and even palpitations, nausea, dizziness. You may be missing these genes, have a low tolerance to caffeine, and are best avoided drinking coffee.
Although the coffee is delicious, don't be greedy
Researchers at the University of California in the United States have conducted a survey of 980 elderly women aged 50 to 98 years old and found that long-term excessive drinking of coffee is easy to cause bone loss and adversely affect bone mass. Because caffeine can bind to free calcium in the human body and is excreted through the urine. The reduction of free calcium inevitably leads to the decomposition of bound calcium, which leads to osteoporosis.
In addition, although drinking coffee in moderation can prevent depression, long-term excessive consumption of coffee can also lead to depression. Excessive consumption of coffee can have adverse effects on the nervous system and heart, and may lead to high blood pressure, palpitations, vomiting, mental abnormalities, etc., and in severe cases, death.
Medical scientists at the Boston University School of Public Health in the United States conducted a 4-year study of 858 women who suffered myocardial infarction for the first time at the age of 45 to 69 and 858 women who had never had myocardial infarction, and the results showed that drinking 5 or more cups of coffee per day increased the risk of myocardial infarction by 70%, and the risk increased with the increase in the amount of coffee.
Mellow coffee does have many benefits, but pay attention to drinking in moderation, it is recommended to drink coffee no more than 3 cups a day. However, don't worry too much, drinking coffee in moderation is still beneficial.
The benefits of drinking coffee
Drinking coffee in moderation can prevent some common diseases and have certain benefits for the human body.
We often see people who want to lose weight choose to drink coffee, which is not unreasonable. Coffee can prevent obesity-related diseases, increase the body's metabolic rate, promote the decomposition of adipose tissue and the oxidation of lipids, reduce body weight and reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Coffee can also promote lipid metabolism in the human liver, improve liver steatosis, reduce liver fat volume; drinking some coffee in moderation can reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's syndrome, depression and other diseases.
Coffee has antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant effects, the main credit is that it contains chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid is a strong antioxidant that contains R-OH groups that form antioxidant radicals.
Chlorogenic acid source | Wikipedia
In addition, coffee has many other aspects of the role.
The University of Bristol in the United Kingdom did a study on the effects of 1 cup of coffee per day on the human body, surveyed 600 volunteers, and the results showed that 1 cup of coffee per day can improve human brain power.
It is understood that 3 cups of coffee per day can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in women by up to 20%, and the risk of gallstones in men by up to 40%; caffeine in coffee can also be used as a medicine to strengthen the effect of certain painkillers; drinking coffee after drinking alcohol can make the acetaldehyde converted into alcohol in the body quickly oxidize and decompose into water to drink carbon dioxide.
Finally, I remind everyone that when enjoying the fragrant taste of coffee, we must also pay attention not to overdo it, and I hope that everyone can drink more and more healthily!