You can’t wake up without it - you’ve sipped it during some of the best conversations of your life. But is it bad for you? I’m talkin’ coffee - and I have the real deal for you. Is it addictive? Can it make you smarter? Is it bad for your heart? Here’s the low down on coffee, courtesy of Women’s Health magazine:
Myth #1:
Caffeine makes you smarter. True. Experts say that caffeine boosts your brainpower because it blocks the production of chemicals that slow down your brain. In a study of Navy SEALs, severely sleep-deprived trainees who got the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee got a 60 percent boost in memory, focus, alertness, and the ability to learn.
Myth #2:
Caffeine’s addictive. Again, that’s True. You develop a tolerance to caffeine over time. And if your body doesn't get its expected daily dose, you’ll have typical withdrawal symptoms, like headaches and crankiness. And the more caffeine you consume, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms will be when you quit.
And the final myth about caffeine:
It causes high blood pressure. That’s False. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, caffeine from coffee doesn't boost your blood pressure. But caffeinated soda does. BUT, it’s not actually the caffeine in soda that causes high blood pressure. It’s another compound in soft drinks that raises your risk. But as far as coffee goes, studies show that if you’ve got normal blood pressure, any change in your heart rate caused by the caffeine in coffee is too small to measure, and disappears within minutes of your first cup. But if you’ve already got high blood pressure, avoid drinking a lot of coffee - because caffeine can make a preexisting blood pressure problem worse.
