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Coffee: Harmless Habit Or A Hidden Problem




For over 25 years I have been tellingly clients to ‘get off coffee’. There is usually a strong resistance to removing a substance of addiction. Being addicted to a substance is reason enough to stop the consumption, another good reason is that it contains carcinogens.

Exert from CNN document California coffee shops may soon be forced to warn customers about a possible cancer risk linked to their morning jolt of java. The state keeps a list of chemicals it considers possible causes of cancer, and one of them, acrylamide, is created when coffee beans are roasted. Coffee has been much studied over the years, and research has shown that it provides several health benefits, including lowering your risk of early death. It may reduce your risk of heart disease, multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and even some cancers like melanoma and prostate cancer.

However, a review by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, found that drinking very hot beverages was "probably carcinogenic to humans" due to burns to the esophagus; there was no relation to the chemical acrylamide.

The science on human exposure to acrylamide still needs "future studies," according to a 2014 review of scientific research on the chemical's relationship to a wide variety of cancers in the Journal of Nutrition and Cancer. In addition to coffee, acrylamide can be found in potatoes and baked goods like crackers, bread and cookies, breakfast cereal, canned black olives and prune juice, although its presence is not always labelled. It's in some food packaging and is a component of tobacco smoke. According to the National Cancer Institute, people are exposed to "substantially more acrylamide from tobacco smoke than from food.”

Thank you CNN.

It is clear that the confusion surrounding coffee is the conflict between the positive and negative physiological effects. From my professional view point, it is also clear that coffee has a strong effect on human physiology, in Chinese medicine that translates as influencing qi, blood, internal organs and the constitution. Making a daily habit of such a substance is probably the bigger problem. Dose is a very important factor when consuming any drug but especially long-term.

Caffeine has other physiological influences that from a Chinese Medicine perspective would categorize coffee as a medicine, a drug, one that would need prescribing and shouldn't be self-prescribed to mask physiological problems. Additionally, the daily intake of a self-prescribed substance always runs a risk. Coffee is a self-prescribed drug. The addiction to coffee masks another and greater problem, physiological dependence means that your body cannot function without a particular substance that is not ‘food, water, oxygen’. There is the rub; the problem often lies hidden beneath the habit. Finding a solution to the addiction requires identifying the factors in a person’s physiology, lifestyle and environment that are causing the dysfunction.

This is one of the many reasons I am so passionate about Traditional Chinese Medicine, which provides an understanding of a greater problem and the solutions to the problem. There is no reason that any individual cannot live without coffee and function not just well, but better than while on coffee. Make your habits good habits.

Other physiological influences

1. Diuretic 2. Elevates blood sugar 3. Elevates blood cholesterol 4. Elevates blood pressure 5. Stimulates the release of adrenalin 6. Stimulates cardiovascular activity 7. Elevates homocysteine, a risk factor to heart disease 8. Stimulates gastric secretions 9. Effects liver function 10. Reduces calcium in bones 11. Neuropsychiatric effects: anxiety, insomnia, agitation, mood changes and headaches 12. High doses can result in infertility in both men and women https://www.mayoclinic.org/…/high-blood-pressure/expert-ans…https://www1.udel.edu/…/s…/fall00/Caffeine/Physiological.htm


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