Is Caffeine Good or Bad for You?

Are you a regular coffee drinker? Do you sometimes worry that caffeine might be bad for your health? Well, there’s no need to feel guilty about your little coffee habit.  In fact, caffeine has been found to have a lot of positive health benefits and, despite what you may have heard, relatively few drawbacks.

Positive effects of caffeine

People who drink coffee every day have a significantly lower risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s, colon cancer, gallstones, and Alzheimer’s disease. Now, that may not all be due to caffeine. Coffee contains a lot of volatile compounds and antioxidants that may have beneficial effects by themselves, or in combination with caffeine.

For example, drinking tea doesn’t seem to reduce your risk of diabetes, even though tea contains caffeine. On the other hand, people who drink decaffeinated coffee do have a reduced risk, but decaf only seems to work about half as well as caffeinated coffee.

It’s definitely the caffeine that protects against Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, though. Not only does caffeine stimulate the brain and central nervous system, but it appears to protect it as well. Caffeine doesn’t make you any smarter but it does makes you more alert and boosts your ability to concentrate, which can make you a better test taker or a better driver.

The benefits of caffeine start kicking in when you consume a cup of coffee or a couple of cups of black tea every day. The positive effects really start piling up when you drink three or four cups of coffee a day or the equivalent. People who drink seven or eight cups a day may get even a little more benefit in terms of neuroprotection, but also have a higher risk of ill effects, such as jitters, agitation, or sleep disruption.

Does caffeine cause or treat headaches?

Caffeine can also relieve headaches. In fact, the popular headache medicine Excedrin contains as much caffeine as a big cup of coffee.  Headaches, especially tension-type headaches, are often accompanied by increased blood flow to the brain. Ths puts pressure on the nerves and causes pain. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, meaning that it constricts blood vessels, and this can relieve headache pain. In fact, adding caffeine to a pain reliever like Tylenol can increase the effectiveness by up to 40%. 

If you drink coffee, tea, or other caffeinated beverages regularly, stopping suddenly can also bring on a headache. In fact, it's hypothesized that caffeine withdrawal may contribute to post-operative pain -- because patients typically skip their regular morning cup on the day of surgery. And one study even found that adding a bit of caffeine to the IV liquid for patients recovering from surgery made them quite a bit more comfortable! It can also help...

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