Coffee: the good, the bad, and the ugly

For quite some time now I have been on the caffeine wagon and off again. I truly desired to find a happy medium relationship with this legal “drug”. Often I would have 2 cups a day and wonder why I can’t sleep and feel so exhausted.

So I started doing some research.

The research can be confusing at times, because it’s beneficial and then it’s not. So as many documents as I’m finding that say it’s good for the body I’m finding other articles that say it’s not so good. What do you believe?

Well I began with my symptoms and how caffeine feels for me. You know your body better than anyone else, and your experience of caffeine. I also learned the scientific stuff that goes on in the body when you ingest caffeine and that is where it truly made sense for me.

So let’s start at the beginning.

I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and I also have been diagnosed with SVT (Super ventricular tachycardia) . I have been on a journey of healing for both of these conditions and find that things are getting better.

My desire was to reduce the number of heart palpitations I was having, and also balance my hormones and support my thyroid. My hubby and I are also talking of having a baby so I wanted to begin to prepare my body.

I decided to cut out caffeine cold turkey. Ha! This was an aggressive approach. I would definitely wean myself off in the future to prevent the horrible headaches and body aches. I was also super emotional and fatigued during this time of “detox”. But I stayed strong. 10 days and I was feeling better. But in that 10 days I questioned everything I was doing. Knowing I could just have one cup and I would get rid of all this pain that I was going through.

My “why”, my reason for starting in the first place was the thing that made me continue.

After the extreme fatigue passed, things started getting better by week 2. And here I am on week 5 and feeling pretty great! I still love the smell and taste of coffee. I have allowed myself a cup of decaf here and there. And if I do have a real coffee in the future I want to be intentional with my use of caffeine. I don’t want to be dependent upon it to function.

A few improvements I have noticed:

1. My number of heart palpitations and skipped beats has decreased!

2. I have been sleeping better

3. My headaches have pretty much disappeared unless I am really stressed out

4. I have felt more present physically and spiritually

5. I have felt more sensitive, caffeine tends to numb our body

6. I have shifted my body to run on the energy of the foods I am eating instead of constantly running on adrenaline

Here are the things I learned about caffeine:

1. It’s a stimulant. Like a drug. It stimulates the dopamine centers and gives you that pleasure feeling. But it’s a false feeling. We get “addicted “ to feeling good not necessarily the coffee.

2. Caffeine borrows energy from tomorrow. It’s not actually “giving” you more energy, it’s robbing energy from your adrenal glands, thus creating an imbalance in your body.

3. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in the body. Adenosine receptors are what regulate your heart rate and let your body know when you need rest. By blocking these receptors you can stay awake for many hours longer but by borrowing that energy. The body then creates more adenosine receptors so that you can get the connection of the hormone adenosine so you can get the rest you need.

4. Caffeine releases cortisol and adrenaline. So you are running your body on stress hormones. We know that an increase in cortisol makes it difficult to lose weight. We also know that adrenaline is the fight of flight or fawn or freeze hormone in the nervous system. The release of this hormone puts the body in a hyper aware state looking for danger, but over time is like the boy who cried wolf. There is no danger so the response becomes less effective

5. So for people who have been through trauma, caffeine might be addictive because it is putting the nervous system on high alert. Much like the environment you may have grown up in. So this feels familiar. But If you are trying to heal your nervous system, caffeine is going to be doing the opposite. A caffeine detox might be extremely beneficial in supporting the nervous system and healing.

6. I physically found that caffeine was attributing to my hormone imbalance which causes headaches and was associated with my heart palpitations.

So with all that being said, I crave finding balance in my life. Balance is like balm for the body and soul. The more balance you can create the better your body will function. So while I love coffee, coffee shops, the people you meet at coffee shops, the smells, and everything about coffee, I will from here on out be using coffee sparingly and with intention.

I have been able to support my body through this time with herbs but I will write my next blog post on the herbs I found beneficial for supplementing during the caffeine detox phase and after.

-Britaney Parks