Excessive coffee consumption has long-term health risks. Courtesy | Facebook
College students should not jeopardize their mental state, sleep, and long-term health by drinking coffee.
“Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive drug in the world,” Dr. Sergei Ferre of the National Institute on Drug Abuse wrote in an article on caffeine research. “It shows all the pharmacological properties of classical psychostimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamine.”
Students have it drilled in their heads that psychoactive drugs are hard to quit. People should not glorify something that can also have intense withdrawal symptoms.
Professor in the Departments of Neurosciences and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Roland Griffiths advocated for the listing of caffeine withdrawal as a disorder in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”
“When people don’t get their usual dose of coffee they can suffer a range of withdrawal symptoms, including headache, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating,” Griffiths said. “They may even feel like they have the flu with nausea and muscle pain.”
Common short term effects, like increased breathing rate and blood pressure, are because the caffeine in coffee is a stimulant and artificially raises the alertness of the human body, according to Princeton University. This prolonged alertness can also contribute to nervousness, highlighting the human body’s dependency on caffeine.
A 2022 study by the Journal of the American Heart Association showed that coffee consumption can increase cardiovascular disease mortality.
Princeton University’s health department states that long-term effects of coffee include nervousness, insomnia, dehydration, stomach irritation, and fatigue.
Caffeine in general is also a diuretic, which is one of the reasons why dehydration is a side effect of prolonged consumption or the consumption of large quantities of coffee.
Research director at the Institut de Recherche sur Les Maladies facility in Strasbourg, France, Dr. Astrid Nehling wrote in a 2022 study that coffee increases the risk of dyspepsia, esophageal burns, gastritis or ulcers, and gastro-esophageal reflux disease.
Furthermore, the National Institutes of Health published a study which states that caffeine can cause anxiety and is associated with depression.
There is evidence to suggest that limited amounts of coffee can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of liver fibrosis, but it is not worth the risk of the other complications. It is wise to take everything in moderation, but even small doses of coffee can affect your mental state. It’s not worth the risk.
