As college begins, so do the late nights of studying and cramming for tests. These late nights show no compassion for early morning classes and other morning activities. In order to keep up and get everything checked off the to-do list, most students start drinking coffee regularly during college. Most will continue to drink coffee during their adult life.
The majority of college students drink coffee at least once a day – if not more. Caffeine consumption poses a lot of long-term health benefits and risks that many collegiettes are not aware of. One to two cups of coffee are recommended daily to get the health benefits of coffee and avoid the negative affects. So, what exactly is our morning coffee doing to our bodies?
Here are some positive and negative long-term effects of coffee:
Positive Effects:
- Healthy heart: Coffee contains antioxidants that help keep your heart healthy. Regular coffee drinkers have a 25 percent lower risk of developing heart disease later in life than those who aren’t.
- Improved physical performance: Drinking coffee increases physical performance and endurance, especially in cardio activities such as running, biking or swimming. Caffeine helps to burn fat instead of carbohydrates, which can help enhance endurance.
- Improved mental health later in life: Coffee consumption has been shown to slow down the dementia process and help keep your memory sharp. Older women who regularly consumed three cups of coffee a day scored better on memory tests than women who only consumed one cup.
- Protection from disease: Recent students have shown that coffee can help protect you from diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, type II diabetes and liver cancer.
Negative Effects:
- Sleep loss: Even drinking one cup of coffee a day can disrupt your sleep schedule. Having caffeine in your system can make it harder to fall asleep. It will also make it more likely that you will wake up more often during the night and not reach a deep sleep, which is needed to be well rested. Not getting a good night’s sleep can eventually lead to other health issues.
- Addiction: This is probably one of the most common long-term side effects of regularly drinking coffee. Drinking 200 to 300 mg of caffeine a day can lead to addiction (between two and four cups of coffee). If you are dependent on coffee, not having your daily dose can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms include: headache, trouble concentrating, and irritability. Coffee addiction also causes you to have to drink more and more caffeine in order to get the energy-stimulating effects that you desire.
- Loss of bone density: Excessive coffee consumption can contribute to reduced bone mass and eventually can lead to osteoporosis.