Is coffee costing you that promotion?

Everyone is looking for an edge. If you work in the corporate world, with performance often tied to pay and position, you want to find whatever means possible to get that raise or respect you deserve.

It’s Monday morning, you had a busy weekend, last night you stayed up watching Bird Box or a rerun of Fixer Upper while finishing that presentation for work. It’s 6 am and you’ve gotta get ready for work. As you do most days that end in y, you get that grande loaded with caffeine to make up for all of that lost sleep.

You get to work, you may look like a million bucks but you feel like .37 cents. You walk into the conference room, you’re struggling to get the brain into high gear. Someone begins their presentation and then the questions start flying. Your team looks at each other trying to figure out what to do.

Someone is just zinging the ideas. It's Jenny. Clearly her energy can't last — she's in the midst of some juice cleanse you've heard about all week. But the reason Jenny is rocking the ideas this morning is that her brain is running at full blood flow. Yours is running at a discount: perfusion-MRI studies of daily caffeine users show cerebral blood flow reduced by roughly 27%. Who do you think is going to get this project and that promotion?

You see, that grande you enjoyed this morning set off a chain of reactions inside the amazing organism we call the body — and one of them was your blood vessels constricting the flow of blood headed upstairs, throttling the very organ you were trying to boost.

But wait a minute, I thought coffee was good for me?

There’s an old school definition of temperance that is very different than our modern version. It goes like this: Abstain from anything that is harmful and be moderate with anything that is good.

The new definition is simply “moderation in all things.” But nobody actually lives that way. There are plenty of things we don't do in moderation — we just don't do them. The old-school definition is more honest, and more useful.

By the old definition, the question is not “how much coffee is acceptable?” The question is which column caffeine belongs in: the harmful things we abstain from, or the good things we enjoy in moderation.

Caffeine has marketed itself into the “good things” column for a century. The research record — on sleep, anxiety, blood flow, and dependence — argues it has been sitting in the wrong column all along.

Coffee and caffeine may have some enjoyed benefits but if there are serious concerns with aspects that harm you, do you want or need those in your life?

Caffeine is the most widely used drug on the planet. Imagine if it had an ad like every pharmaceutical drug out there?

Drink that energy drink, coffee, or tea today. You will have a boost in energy. Sleep is overrated.

DISCLAIMER: Side effects may include: Mood swings, trouble falling asleep, decreased blood flow to the brain, increased risk of stomach ulcers, increased risk of insulin resistance, hormonal issues, risk of obesity and diabetes, bone loss, and the potential increase in blood pressure.

The truth is most of us are addicted to caffeine because we don’t get enough sleep. When we don’t get enough sleep, we are then prone to an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, weight gain, increased stress levels, aging, and more.

So try this – challenge yourself for a few weeks to go to bed earlier, stay hydrated and then be the mover and shaker in the room with the best and brightest ideas.

If that doesn’t motivate you, how about some facts about caffeine’s influence on your overall health –

Caffeine’s effects on Women:

Here are a few of the better-documented findings — each covered, with citations, on our Why Caffeine-Free page:

Caffeine crosses the placenta and is associated with pregnancy loss — the CARE study found doubled miscarriage risk at 200 mg per day

Heavy intake is associated with cardiovascular strain, including elevated blood pressure

Fertility associations run in both directions — intake correlates with longer time to conception

Men:

High caffeine intake affects male fertility markers

Caffeine can inhibit the absorption of key minerals such as calcium and iron

For both sexes:

Daily caffeine use reduces brain blood flow by roughly 27% (perfusion MRI)

Acute caffeine intake impairs insulin sensitivity

Chronic use is linked to calcium loss and may contribute to bone loss over time

Caffeine acutely raises blood pressure