- 10almonds
- Posts
- Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?
Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?
Plus: strengthen your cartilage!
The 10almonds Team
March 23, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Are you sitting comfortably? If so, consider getting up, if doing so is a reasonable option for you!
Sitting is not at all good for the health and is best avoided when not necessary.
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Caffeine is, by popular consensus, a relatively safe yet addictive drug.
It does have its pros and cons though, and there’s a definite difference between use and abuse
Today’s main feature looks into these differences and the mechanics of them!
Today’s sponsor Hims is offering their “hard mints”, a refreshing generic of a drug we can’t mention here, to get things up and going with healthy vigor.
Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive
🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE
 | Zepbound (New Weight Loss Drug)Unlike Ozempic/Wegovy, it’s not a GLP-1 agonist. So, is it safe, and does it work? And what else should we know about it? |
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
How to strengthen your cartilage? (5:49)
Dr. Johan Bellemans explains:
Cartilaginous menu:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…
Eat To Beat Cancer
Get Fitter As You Go
❓ MYSTERY ITEM
In Your Face…
Hint: today’s mystery item will help you get rid of dead things, to the betterment of your health!
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…
Calisthenics for Beginners (book)
Simple, 10-Minute Hip-Opening Routine
🥤 MAIN FEATURE
The Two Sides Of Caffeine
We asked you for your health-related opinions on caffeine itself, not necessarily the coffee, tea, energy drinks, etc that might contain it.
We have, by the way previously written about the health effects of coffee and tea specifically:
As for our question about caffeine itself, though, we got the above-depicted, below-described, set of results:
About 59% said “caffeine is a safe stimulant and cognitive enhancer”
About 31% said “caffeine is a moderately safe recreational drug”
About 8% said “caffeine’s addictive properties make it de facto bad”
One (1) person said “caffeine will leave you a trembling exhausted wreck”
But what does the science say?
Caffeine is addictive: True or False?
True, though one will find occasional academics quibbling the definition. Most of the studies into the mechanisms of caffeine addiction have been conducted on rats, but human studies exist too and caffeine is generally considered addictive for humans, for example:
See also:
Notwithstanding its addictive status, caffeine is otherwise safe: True or False?
True-ish, for most people. Some people with heart conditions or a hypersensitivity to caffeine may find it is not safe for them at all, and for the rest of us, the dose makes the poison. For example:
❝Can too much caffeine kill you? Although quite rare, caffeine can be fatal in cases of overdose; such circumstances are generally not applicable to healthy individuals who typically consume caffeine via beverages such as tea or coffee.❞
👆 this paper, by the way, also includes a good example of academics quibbling the definition of addiction!
Caffeine is a cognitive enhancer: True or False?
True, but only in the case of occasional use. If you are using it all the time, your physiology will normalize it and you will require caffeine in order to function at your normal level. To attain higher than that, once addicted to caffeine, would now require something else.
Caffeine will leave you a trembling exhausted wreck: True or False?
True or False depending on usage:
The famously moderate 3–5 cups per day will not, for most people, cause any such problems.
Using/abusing it to make up for lost sleep (or some other source of fatigue, such as physical exhaustion from exertion), however, is much more likely to run into problems.
In the latter case, caffeine really is the “payday loan” of energy! It’ll give you an adrenal boost now (in return, you must suffer the adrenal dumping later, along with lost energy expended in the adrenaline surge), and also, the tiredness that you thought was gone, was just caffeine’s adenosine-blocking activities temporarily preventing you from being able to perceive the tiredness. So you’ll have to pay that back later, with interest, because of the extra time/exertion too.
Want to make caffeine a little more gentle on your system?
Taking l-theanine alongside caffeine can ameliorate some of caffeine’s less wonderful effects—and as a bonus, l-theanine has some nifty benefits of its own, too:
Enjoy!
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…
Avoid/Manage Rheumatoid Arthritis
A Supplement To Rival St. John’s Wort Against Depression
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Doctor-trusted ED solutions for under $2 per day.
Doctor-trusted ED solutions, delivered to your door. It’s never been simpler or more affordable to treat your ED.
Hims has got you covered with personalized treatments at prices up to 95% cheaper than brand names.
Find out if a prescription is right for you by taking their free assessment.
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
Browse By Category
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Aging Backwards: Updated and Revised Edition: Reverse the Aging Process and Look 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day – by Miranda Esmonde-White
In this book, there’s an upside and a downside to the author’s professional background:
Upside: Miranda Esmonde-White is a ballet-dancer-turned-physical-trainer, and it shows
Downside: Miranda Esmonde-White is not a scientist, and it shows
She cites a lot of science, but she either does not understand it or else intentionally misrepresents it. We will assume the former. But as one example, she claims:
"for every minute you exercise, you lengthen your life by 7 minutes"
…which cheat code to immortality is absolutely not backed-up by the paper she cites for it. The paper, like most papers, was much more measured in its proclamations; “there was an association” and “with these conditions”, etc.
Nevertheless, while she misunderstands lots of science along the way, her actual advice is good and sound. Her workout programs really will help people to become younger by various (important, life-changing!) metrics of biological age, mostly pertaining to mobility.
And yes, this is a workout-based approach; we won’t read much about diet and other lifestyle factors here.
Bottom line: it has its flaws, but nevertheless delivers on its premise of helping the reader to become biologically younger through exercises, mostly mobility drills.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
May today see you well-prepared and energized for the coming weekend,
The 10almonds Team
