BUT if you are reaching for your coffee for that pick me up so you can get through the day…then I am going to venture a guess and say yeah, it’s ‘bad’ for you. It’s acting as a band-aid and you would be better off addressing the underlying issues.
That’s probably not what you wanted to hear since there have been so many articles coming out about studies that show coffee is GOOD for you!
According to the studies, there are strong correlations between increased coffee consumption and decreased risk of diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.
But these studies aren’t looking at coffee’s affect on your energy levels and hormones.
The truth is that coffee does affect you, especially if you are experience consistent low energy levels. I really shouldn’t single out coffee here, it’s the caffeine that’s the stimulant. If you are a heavy black tea, cola, or energy drink consumer, this applies to you too. Caffeine affects your adrenals and your thyroid. These are two important pillars to hormone health.
The Adrenals
When you drink caffeine, your adrenals go into the flight or fight response mode and produce adrenaline and then cortisol. This is same response that occurs when you are under stress.
The more stress you have over time, the less you feel the adrenaline surge. With each adrenaline surge, you get more cortisol pumped out and this lingers in your bloodstream. The added cortisol in your bloodstream begins to affects on your daily cortisol cycle leaving you wired at night and tired during the day. The addition of caffeine only makes this worse.
Besides increasing insomnia, anxiety, and restlessness, excess cortisol can have some other nasty effects things like impairing bone and memory health and suppressing the immune system.
The Thyroid
Caffeine disrupts the communication flow of the pituitary gland. This will throw off your TSH and T4 levels causing symptoms that are similar to those experienced if you had an underactive thyroid. That could be things like fatigue, weight gain, or foggy-headedness. And if you are on thyroid meds, caffeine will inhibit your body’s ability to absorb them properly.
Finding Your Real Energy
You’d be surprised how much you don’t miss coffee after you start addressing some of the real reasons behind your fatigue. Here are a couple things you can do to help you find your real energy and reduce your reliance on coffee… and your consumption of it too.
- Get 7-8 hours of sleep regularly. The more regular your sleep cycle, the more regular your cortisol cycle will be and the less likely you will experience a crash in energy during the day.
- Eat breakfast regularly. A healthy breakfast supports healthy cortisol levels throughout the day.
- Substitute with lower or non-caffeine teas. Try green tea or drink delicious coffee substitute herbal teas like roasted dandelion root, Dandy Blend, or make your own blend of roasted dandelion root, chicory root, or licorice root.
Ready to give it a try? I got you covered with a detailed plan that will make it easy. Join me for the Fall Harvest Wellness Bootcamp & Detox. We just got started Friday, October 9 – join us!