Is caffeine healthy ?

[Preety_India]

I drank a lot of coffee in the past few days and immediately stopped it 

Now I'm going through caffeine withdrawals and I feel very drowsy and sleepy all day 

Is caffeine healthy? Does it have benefits?

 

[Michael569]

It's not unhealthy per se. Drinking reasonable amount of it won't make you chronically ill (unless you have enzymatic deficiency in CYPA1 in which case it can make you feel awful). 

But it is a drug, albeit a mild one, it still causes mild addiction and withdraw. Caffeine habit can cost up to 20$ -$30a day so it costs an awful lot of money per month (but not necessarily if you make it yourself)

Coffee may contribute to GERD and can be irritating to gut and causing acute diarrhoea. some also become more anxious and irritable. On the other hand it is protective from certain cancers and helpful to people with chronic depression (not always) so you gotta weight your pros and cons. 

If coffee is cut out you're not missing out on anything.

[Preety_India]

@Michael569 ok I'll cut it out.

 

[flowboy]

On 22/06/2021 at 9:30 AM, Michael569 said:

(unless you have enzymatic deficiency in CYPA1 in which case it can make you feel awful)

Maybe I have that. Drinking only one cup makes me feel euphoric, but slightly poisoned and itchy too. Today I combined it with lion's mane and reishi, which lessened the side effects impressively, and negates the crash.

On 22/06/2021 at 9:30 AM, Michael569 said:

Drinking reasonable amount of it won't make you chronically ill (unless you have enzymatic deficiency in CYPA1 in which case it can make you feel awful). 

But it is a drug, albeit a mild one, it still causes mild addiction and withdraw. Caffeine habit can cost up to 20$ -$30a day so it costs an awful lot of money per month (but not necessarily if you make it yourself)

Coffee may contribute to GERD and can be irritating to gut and causing acute diarrhoea. some also become more anxious and irritable. On the other hand it is protective from certain cancers and helpful to people with chronic depression (not always) so you gotta weight your pros and cons. 

If coffee is cut out you're not missing out on anything.

Good, balanced summary

 

@Preety_India  If you're sensitive to it like me, it makes you sleep noticably worse, no matter what time you drink it. And bad sleep is a serious long-term health risk and also associated with accelerated aging.

Edited July 15, 2021 by flowboy

[Preety_India]

@flowboy would it be less caffeine if I drink tea then ?

 

[Michael569]

9 minutes ago, flowboy said:

oday I combined it with lion's mane and reishi, which lessened the side effects impressively, and negates the crash.

Interesting I haven't heard about this combination. People have reported to me previously that L-Theanine helped to blunt the crash (maybe this is why Green tea sits so well with people). But makes sense, reishi being somewhat adaptogenic might work on some of those receptors that caffeine occupies and mitigate the effect...I dunno maybe that's not how it works. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

I'm thinking about trying different types of teas.

 

[flowboy]

22 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

Interesting I haven't heard about this combination. People have reported to me previously that L-Theanine helped to blunt the crash (maybe this is why Green tea sits so well with people). But makes sense, reishi being somewhat adaptogenic might work on some of those receptors that caffeine occupies and mitigate the effect...I dunno maybe that's not how it works. 

 

 

So lion's mane + coffee is being sold as 'no-crash coffee'. Mine also has reishi in it. I found it a lot more calming and grounded, no pun intended, but I can't be sure which mushroom to ascribe it to (yet) because I am also supplementing reishi capsules and lion's mane elixir.

An experiment with regular coffee + reishi caps will have to be done. It might still be mostly the lion's mane.

Edited July 15, 2021 by flowboy

[Michael569]

@flowboy might be that reishi coffee simply has less caffeine because 30-50% of that dose is reishi rather than coffee bean extract? 

[flowboy]

1 minute ago, Michael569 said:

@flowboy might be that reishi coffee simply has less caffeine because 30-50% of that dose is reishi rather than coffee bean extract? 

Might be, but even with a small cup, I have a noticable crash and a sense of chaotic energy/adrenaline usually

Too little data.

[peanutspathtotruth]

Been off for a few weeks, tried to drink a matcha today because of the health benefits, but I just don't like the adrenaline like feeling. I was wondering whether to stay off for good or reintroduce but my feeling tells me just to stay away Pity, matcha and green tea are supposed to be so good for you 

[Opo]

8 minutes ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

Been off for a few weeks, tried to drink a matcha today because of the health benefits, but I just don't like the adrenaline like feeling. I was wondering whether to stay off for good or reintroduce but my feeling tells me just to stay away Pity, matcha and green tea are supposed to be so good for you 

You can get green tea without caffeine. Probably the other one too. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

1 hour ago, Opo said:

You can get green tea without caffeine. Probably the other one too. 

That's what I've been thinking since I posted! Definitely gonna look out for some high quality one

[flowboy]

23 hours ago, Michael569 said:

@flowboy might be that reishi coffee simply has less caffeine because 30-50% of that dose is reishi rather than coffee bean extract?

Today I'm on way too much regular coffee, combined with reishi supplements. For science ?

And I have to say, the jitters and body discomfort are quite minimal.

Many people say l-theanine also helps take the edge off.

[Michael569]

@flowboy now be a good boy and cut out those reishi tomorrow (for science) while keeping caffeine dose the same. 

Let's see what happens ?

[Ora]

Just a PSA: those four sigmatic packets have useless levels of mushrooms unless you take like 3x the dosage. Not cost effective at all if you want the benefits of medicinal mushrooms. Research mushroom supps carefully, the industry is full of crap supps.