i was just thinking about how i had nothing in particular i wanted to say on here. and then i decided that it was the perfect time for me to sit down in front of the “blank screen” and start typing. what is it that scares people, myself included, about having nothing on a blank canvas? the only way to fail a blank canvas is to do nothing with it. (everybody’s already drawn the invisible castle, sorry.)
anyway, something cool:
me and jim were shootin’ the breeze Saturday night in Duncan before heading ultimately to that outdoor gathering in the Cowichan area that i posted pictures of. we were talking about caffeine, and in particular, how much too much is. it followed these lines, sorta roughly:
well, like most things you ingest, there is a formula when it comes to impact. i am not going to draw it out for you, because html sucks when it comes to drawing formulas. basically, the faster you drink all the coffee, for instance, all at once, the more it’s going to hit you. it’ll drive you past the critical mass of caffeine into that shakey sort of “i can’t think of anything because i am thinking of 20 things at once!” feeling, which is not useful. flying really high. and then, you crash. hard. and for a long period of time, you are stuck in the crater, the hole from your impact.
the alternative to this is to drink it ocassionally, in smaller doses over a longer period of time. yeah, now i know coffee is bad. coffee is really bad for your stomache. your stomache hates coffee. hates. but if you must drink coffee to take advantage of the creative buzz that it offers, this is probably going to be the most useful method that you can employ. spread it over time, and when you come down, it’ll be no different than you felt before you drank the stuff. it’ll be a smooth landing. a groove, if you will.
and that’s when i blurted out “don’t dig a hole, dig a groove.”
awww yeah.
this post was inspired by a friend, blank screen, and no caffeine.
Too much is when not only your hands are shaking but your limbs are too. I attribute at least 10% of my academic results to caffeine, it is the wonder drug.
caffeine is great for your body! obviously not in high doses… but it does have these benefits:
Beneficial Effects
Scientific evidence continues to show that not only is coffee drinking in moderation perfectly safe, and no threat to health, it can also have some health benefits.
COFFEE AND BRONCHIAL ASTHMA
Caffeine has long been known to help asthmatics and many have found regular consumption of coffee to assist in moderating attacks.
ANTIOXIDANT SUBSTANCES IN COFFEE
ALERTNESS AND MOOD
Countering Driver Sleepiness
Reduced Depression and Anxiety
REDUCED RISK OF STONE FORMATION (CALCULI)
REDUCED RISK OF COLON CANCER
“Countering Driver Sleepiness”
The best way to counter driving fatigue is water and exersise. If your eyes feel all dry and scratchy it cause you are dehydrated.
I’m up for a swim the next time you want to go!
Call me*
*motions with stupid hand to face fake phone in stupid L.A. fashion.
i like coffee. but i do not srink as much as i used to. one cup a day is not bad for you really, but once you start relying on it, it leaches calcium and magnesium out of yer bones. so take your muulti’s ppl!
ps-it’s fucking hot man!
They say, if you drink five cups of coffee per day, you can reduce your chances of getting diabetes by something like 50%. (Don’t have the reference handy, it’s at work.)
Which is very significant, of course. But I just wonder how many other things get screwed up. That’s a /lot/ if coffee.
“of”
Cynical Craig strikes again…
great, Krishen… I can see all those fat people from the Supersize Me movie running out to Starbucks right now!
Now the Atkins maniacs are gonna sit on the couch, eat pounds of meat and lard, and drink coffee, thinking,
“Well at least if I don’t get skinnier, I won’t get diabetes!”
hehehe
probably mindless propaganda from the Grocer’s consortium of America… Right-wing corporate stratagist think-tanks… Always pushing for money and compliance.
umm… I mean no to disrespect your post, however I see a wide tangent of translation available from this “data.”
When are you coming home again, Krishen? It’s hot here too, so no need to be scared of our “temperate” climate… hehe
still by far the most brilliant thing i’ve ever heard in the duncan burger king parking lot, or anywhere else any time recently for that matter.
I agree with jim, it was one of those “you had to be there” to fully understand the significance of it all.
Damn! Just as I go to grab the article off the wall (it’s been up there for about month, right by the coffee machine) — it’s disappeared! Hmmm!!
But — found a reference from the Harvard School of Public Health:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press01052004.html
I haven’t posted left a comment here in a while, but this is a subject that is dear to my heart so I thought I would post a response. As Krishen mentioned, the most well known and important health effect of caffeine consumption is the reduction in the incidence of adult onset diabetes. Contrary to what Mina says, the studies are adjusted for people’s differing weights, so it’s not because coffee drinkers aren’t fat. There is also some evidence that coffee is an anticoagulate, that it prevents clots forming in the blood.
The long term negative health effects of regular, moderate (less than six cups a day) caffeine are few and not severe. This is not too suprising, as two thirds of the world’s population consume caffeine regularly.
It doesn’t cause hypertension (healthy individuals quickly become used to the effects of caffeine, and it stops increasing your blood pressure and heart rate) but it may exacerbate it in people who are already hypertensive. It does seem to increase calcium depletion in women. Interestingly, the health effects of sporadic caffeine use seem to be worse than those of regular, consistent users.
On the short term side of things, if it needed saying, it can interfere with sleep and it is a diueretic, so it can cause dehydration.
I’m not a doctor myself, but I’ve talked to a number of doctors about this and read some of the studies.
Hi davin!
hey joel. 🙂 it’s perhaps a minor, but one thing article I linked to (and the one I read on the wall) was careful to point out was that although caffeine is a major ingredient in coffee (and that the effect on diabetes incident reduction is reduced with decaf) — the effect may be intertwined with the other ingredients in coffee (in particular, the antioxidant chlorogenic acid and magnesium).
enough comments in this post already
Another interesting fact about caffeine:
Caffeine is a known teratogen (a substance which causes congenital malformations in embryos).