Ramsbottom has several great places to get coffee, from cafés and restaurants to dedicated coffee establishments such as Grind and Tamp.
This would suggest that we’re a town that loves our coffee, right?
That’s great, because according to a meta-analysis of 127 studies, drinking coffee:
- reduces your risk of cancer up to 20 percent;
- reduces your risk of heart disease by 5 percent;
- reduces your risk of Type 2 diabetes by 30 percent; and
- reduces your risk of Parkinson’s disease by 30 percent.
Well, this week I was a little surprised to learn that after years of using caffeine to kick start my day, apparently I was doing it all wrong, and you might be too.
For those inquisitive types, essentially there’s a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This is in charge releasing cortisol (the stress hormone).
It does this according to your circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle which differs slightly from person to person.
Neuroscientist Steven L. Miller, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, found that drinking coffee when your SCN is already releasing plenty of cortisol limits its positive effects because you’re already “wired up.”
In other words, coffee + cortisol = more stress (which is bad for your health).
Inc states: “For the average person (i.e., somebody who wakes around 6:30 am), cortisol levels peak at:
- 8am to 9am,
- noon to 1 pm, and
- 5:30pm to 6:30 pm
When should you drink that first cup of coffee?
Based on the average person (i.e., neither early bird nor night owl) to drink caffeinated coffee is between 9:30am and 11:30am.
Is it enough to make me change my schedule? Personally, it’s a very very rare occurrence when I feel over stimulated from caffeine, so probably not, but how about you?
Sources:
Mental floss: Bad News: The Best Time of the Day to Drink Coffee Isn’t as Soon as You Wake Up
Inc: The Best Time of Day to Drink Coffee, According to Science
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