If you’ve pulled an all nighter, waking up the next morning can be grueling to say the least. Which is why some people absolutely cannot function without a cup of coffee in the morning. And you know what? I think they’re doing it right. A cup of coffee in the morning is sometimes the only thing that keeps a person going and this is why. Here are 9 things that happen in your body when you have that first cup of coffee in the morning.
1. It boosts your ability to focus on what’s important
Cortisol, the hormone in our body that is responsible for alertness, is released usually 30-45 minutes after waking up. However, coffee is said to boost those cortisol levels. Elevated levels of the hormone result in the feeling of alertness lasting for longer and ensure that your day starts out fresh.
2. Coffee may help you see better!
Coffee stimulates your adrenal glands to release adrenaline which in turn causes your pupils to dilate within 20 minutes of consumption. This means your eyesight does indeed get sharper for a little while!
3. Coffee can help calm you down
Contrary to popular belief, coffee giving you jitters is an uncommon phenomenon (unless you consume too much of it). Coffee stimulates the release of dopamine which in turn helps you feel contentment and eventually helps calm down your nerves and anxiousness.
4. Coffee also does a few wonders for your heart
Drinking a cup of coffee regularly has shown to decrease the risk of death by heart diseases by around 10 percent. Coffee, on its own (i.e. without the artificial creamers and syrups), will help you in the long run as well. You can read more on how caffeine helps the heart here.
5. Its even good for your digestion
Coffee, according to much research, has been proven to promote the release of the hormone gastrin. This in turn helps your ‘colonic spike and motor activity’, which means that it helps your body pass out waste more easily.
6. Coffee can help with pain
The caffeine in coffee has been said to make pain relievers more effective, by 40% at least. Moreover, if you have caffeine in your body, your painkillers are more likely to take effect quicker.
7. Coffee helps with brain activity
Coffee drinkers are found to be less susceptible to neurological diseases. People who drink coffee regularly are less likely to die of neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and dementia by around 9-37%.
8. Even just smelling coffee in the morning is good
With studies performed on stressed and unstressed rats, it was found that the stressed rats underwent changes that directly co-relate to a calming effect. A research on the effects of inhaling coffee’s aroma found that: ‘Inhalation of coffee fragrance enhanced cognitive parameters, including continuity of attention, quality of memory, and speed of memory, and also increased the mood score of alertness.’
9. Coffee helps you stay positive
Studies found that those who drank at least one cup of coffee had a 36% lower rate of suicide. Multiple researches express this fact and credit it to the release of dopamine (the happiness hormone) upon coffee consumption. So whether you’re drinking coffee in the mornings due to habit or because one of the above mentioned reasons, its safe to say that this habit is here to stay – and why not, since caffeine does have more than a few benefits. Want to learn more about how it impacts your body? Click here.