How to get the most out of your coffee

Caffeine is one of the most consumed drugs in the world with the intake of the stimulant rising year on year in most western nations. Caffeine is found in a number of products such as tea, chocolate as well as within forms of medication such as paracetamol and ibuprofen and, of course, in coffee.

The coffee culture as well is growing in leaps and bounds and a number of recent business forecasts have predicted that sales of coffee will continue to rise steeply in the coming years.

So here are some top tips on how to manage your coffee intake and utilise our favourite hot beverage to your advantage.

Drink coffee shortly after meetings/revision sessions

Your body absorbs a significant amount of the caffeine from your cup of coffee within seven minutes. Caffeine activates your sympathetic nervous system and subsequently releases norepinephrine, a hormone that raises your blood pressure and heart rate simultaneously. The signal sent to the brain effectively tells it that something important is happening and information must be stored, so explains Dr. Michael Yassa, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Yassa recently conducted an experiment that measured the positive effects of caffeine. Those taking part were shown a series of common images. Half were given a caffeine pill, the remaining participants were given a placebo. The next day they were shown similar, but not identical slides and it was found that when tested on the pictures those who had a 200mg shot of caffeine the day before were, on average, better at distinguishing the images they had seen from their look-alike counterparts.

A relevant study, undertaken at the Medical University of Innsbruck, found similar results.

So there you have it, use coffee to get ahead to remember important information.

Pre-nap

If you feel like taking an afternoon siesta then before you settle down for that slumber, have a drink of coffee. By the time you awake the caffeine will be just about to kick in, giving you a double boost.

So don’t grab a mug as soon as you awake from a post-noon snooze

Enhance your trip gym visits

Caffeine has been shown to improve endurance and muscle strength which is why you will see a number of athletes drinking caffeine laced products such as coffee and energy drinks before their events. To maximise the benefit, intake a low-to-moderate amount of caffeine before you begin your workout.

Hydrate

Long viewed as a diuretic, coffee a recent study has showcased that the drink in fact hydrates in a similar manner to water.

The precautionary tales that one cup of water should be consumed alongside a brew can be discounted as researchers from Birmingham, England, found that a group which consumed four coffees a day had no differing fluid levels to those that drank four cups of water instead. The participants had the same diet and were banned from any form of vigorous exercises or alcohol consumption during the monitoring period.