Why? What’s the problem?
A good dose of caffeine stimulates your adrenal glands to pump out adrenaline. Adrenaline is a stress hormone that primes us for “fight or flight” from an external threat. Even if you’re sitting at a desk working.
When you drink coffee throughout the day the adrenal glands, and the stress response, are continually triggered.
So What?
I’ve enjoyed 4 espressos today, and coffee is a big part of my life, so this news is hard. After all, a good cup of coffee feels like instant therapy. Unfortunately for people like me with a mood disorder drinking too much coffee can be a real problem.
After drinking coffee the caffeine initially clears your head and makes you alert. As the adrenalin hormone kicks in your muscles tense, your breathing and heart rates increase, and your blood sugar level elevates. Insulin is released, pushing your blood sugar right down. A normal response is to grab another coffee or something sweet to compensate. This can give you a sugar roller-coaster over the day, which obviously affects your mood.
This is the basic, very simplified cycle. If it continues over the long term then the adrenal gland can get exhausted, and health problems can arise. These include chronic fatigue, irritability and headaches, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. Sleep problems are often due to drinking coffee late in the day, and lack of sleep is one of the very common triggers for a depressive, or even manic, episode. Lots of coffee can quickly cause lots of problems.
There is sort of a consensus in the depression literature that 2 cups of coffee in the morning should be OK for someone with depression. Obviously it varies between individuals. Definitely nothing after 4pm!
So what do you do?
If you’re like me, it’s tough. I’m not going near coffee substitutes.
- There is some nice coffee around that has been decaffeinated using the Swiss water method. If you source it fresh and grind it yourself you may be surprised. Beware of the chemical based method of decaffeinating (most common method). It’s done with something akin to dry cleaning fluid!
- Try to source coffee that is naturally low in caffeine, not decaffeinated. We have growers in Australia that produce low caffeine coffee, and I believe there is a small industry of growers in South America.
- Only drink 2 cups before noon!
