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Drinking coffee: advantages and disadvantages of its consumption

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The history of coffee begins in the fourteenth century in Ethiopiato, where it began to be attributed stimulating properties. From the Horn of Africa its use spread to Yemen in the 15th century and from there it spread to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. It was the trade of Venetian ships with the Middle East that brought coffee to Europe, from where it was introduced to America (Cano-Marquina, Tarín and Cano, 2013).

Only in Spain 14,000 million cups of coffee are consumed per year, with the average weekday coffee consumption of 3.6 cups per day among those over 15 years of age. It should be added that 22 million people in Spain drink at least one coffee daily (Ramírez, 2016). These consumption patterns are similar in America and in the rest of Europe, with the Nordic countries leading the way in terms of per capita consumption.

Therefore, considering how established caffeinated beverages such as coffee are in the Western diet, the study of its effects in the short, medium and long term has become of great importance

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. The analyzes and investigations have been carried out both on a psychological and physiological level.

What is coffee made of?

One of the main components of coffee, and one that gets its name from it, is caffeine. This substance, which we ingest in each cup, is a plant alkaloid that acts as an antagonist of adenosine receptors in the nervous system.

Caffeine prevents the degradation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate by phosphodiesterases, which enhances postsynaptic neurotransmission in the sympathetic nervous system. Due to this, one of the main effects of caffeine in the body is, by increasing the intensity of transmission, causing an activation in the body (Glade, 2010). Although caffeine is the best known, Inside a cup of coffee we can find, among others, components such as vitamin B3, magnesium and potassium.

Beneficial effects of its consumption

According to the information provided by science throughout dozens of years of research, it seems that the The positive effects of moderate and chronic coffee consumption far outweigh the possible harms that it may cause. Other factors that increase alertness are involved in the consequences and effects of caffeine consumption, in addition to the substance itself, such as, for example, consumer personality and the time of daytiming of the circadian cycle).

Caffeine improves, above all, performance in surveillance tasks and in other simple tasks that require sustained attention. It also increases the level of alertness and reduces the feeling of fatigue (both mental and physical), this effect being beneficial for sports practice. These effects are especially marked when, due to the situation, the subject's activation level is markedly low (night work, driving on a highway with few curves, etc.). Taking the latter into account, the use of caffeine can lead to an increase in safety and efficiency in certain jobs and in environments such as driving (Smith, 2002). Moderate consumption has also been associated with a decrease in the incidence of diabetes and liver diseases (Cano-Marquina, Tarín & Cano, 2013).

Going back to its relationship with adenosine, In recent years, studies have been carried out evaluating the neuroprotective role of caffeine in certain diseases. Adenosine itself plays an important role in the control of brain disorders, having inhibitory A1R receptors (which would function as obstacle to neurodegeneration) and with facilitator A2AR receptors (whose blocking would alleviate the long-term damage of various conditions neurodegenerative). Caffeine would come into play acting as an antagonist of the A2AR receptor, which would favor the phenomenon of synaptic plasticity and, by Like the rest of antagonists of this receptor, it would act as a cognitive "normalizer", preventing deterioration and reducing its Advance.

Therefore, this could be a promising start in the study of adenosine A2AR receptor blockers, providing new and various therapeutic options for the treatment of the early stages of, for example, Alzheimer's disease (Gomes et al., 2011).

The bitter side of caffeine

Regarding the harmful effects of caffeine, in Smith's (2002) review of the subject, he states that these damages only appear under certain conditions. One of them would be to be consumed by people with anxiety problems, whose activation level is already high.

In people not affected by this problem, the negative effects would occur when excessively high amounts are consumed. The intake of beverages such as coffee, in these situations, would cause an increase in anxiety and this would lead to, for example, tachycardia, difficulty sleeping, or even a worsening of fine motor control (Smith, 2002). When consumption exceeds approximately 300 mg per day, the motor system can be greatly activated, thus how the sleep-wake cycle is altered in addition to a general increase in metabolism rates cerebral.

Although, like many other substances, inappropriate caffeine consumption can lead to a number of problems, there are reasons to be optimistic in this regard. Almost all consumers have a low to moderate intake (50-300 mg per day), being these doses at which the mentioned beneficial behavioral effects appear previously. Although there are people who qualify coffee and, therefore, caffeine, as a socially accepted drug, the Brain mechanisms that are affected by consuming this psychostimulant differ greatly compared to other substances of abuse like cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol, THC and nicotine (Nehlig, 1999).

Why then does this consumption not reach harmful levels?

The brain area more related to drug dependence is considered in neuroscience as the pleasure area, that is, the nucleus accumbens. This nucleus is divided both functionally and morphologically in a central zone and in the zone of the cortex. The dopamine mesolimbic system also participates in the reinforcement of addictive behavior, which originates in the ventral tegmental area and ends in the nucleus accumbens.

Enough amounts to feel the effects of drugs of abuse such as cocaine, alcohol, and so on, selectively activate dopaminergic neurotransmission in the cortex of the nucleus accumbens, which supports the extremely high addictive capacity of these substances. On the contrary, the consumption of caffeine necessary to activate its properties increases the release of dopamine only in the caudate nucleus without inducing any release in the nucleus accumbens. This selective activation of the caudate nucleus is related to the stimulatory properties of caffeine in psychomotor activity.

On the other hand, caffeine also stimulates the release of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, which would be consistent with its psychostimulant properties and with the reinforcement of drinking behavior. For caffeine to increase the functional activity of the cortex of the nucleus accumbens, it should be consumed in an amount five times greater than the daily average. This high consumption would activate many other brain structures such as most of the limbic and thalamic regions and those related to the extrapyramidal motor system. This would explain the secondary effects of excessive consumption. As a conclusion to these data, Astrid Nehlig (1999) states that Although caffeine meets some criteria to be considered a drug of abuse, there is a very low risk of addiction.

Finally, taking into account the good capacity for self-regulation by the general population both in the amount to be consumed and in the time of day, the knowledge of the pros and cons of something as usual as having a cup of coffee, will favor an even more consumption responsable. In light of the information provided by scientific research, there does not seem to be a more powerful excuse for take a break and have a coffee in the company of friends, family or co-workers that improves health own. Everything is for the welfare.

Bibliographic references:

  • Cano-Marquina, A., Tarín, J. J., & Cano, A. (2013). The impact of coffee on health. Maturitas, 75 (1), 7-21.
  • Glade, M. J. (2010). Caffeine - not just a stimulant. Nutrition, 26 (10), 932-938.
  • Gomes, C. V., Kaster, M. P., Tomé, A. R., Agostinho, P. M., & Cunha, R. TO. (2011). Adenosine receptors and brain diseases: neuroprotection and neurodegeneration. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) -Biomembranes, 1808 (5), 1380-1399.
  • Nehlig, A. (1999). Are we dependent upon coffee and caffeine? A review on human and animal data. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 23 (4), 563-576.
  • Ramírez, E. (2016). Increases the presence of coffee in the life of the Spanish - elEconomista.es. Eleconomista.es. Recovered from: http://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/consumo/noticias/7174035/11/15/Crece-la-presencia-de-cafe-en-la-vida-de-los-espanoles.html
  • Smith, A. (2002). Effects of caffeine on human behavior. Food and chemical toxicology, 40 (9), 1243-1255.
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