The Duality of Caffeine

the way. I will be appearing on noon January sixteenth in San Francisco at the Eureka Theater as part of Sketch Fest on the Amazing JV Club podcast from the Amazing Janet Barney. Yes, part of the Nerdest Network. Yeah, and I think I'm gonna be revealing like all kinds of childhood and teenage truths. It's gonna be all. So if you want to know more about what I was like as a teen, January sixteenth, at noon at the

Eureka Theater is where to do it. And you can get those Just go to the s F Sketch Fest site and navigate to that date and you can get to get Sarah right on. But otherwise we will see you on our warmer Climbs Winter Tour. Yeah, and go check out s y s K live dot com for any ticket info and all that is brought to you by Squarespace. Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Cherry's over there totally throwing us off with some new as you focus Pocus in two thousand sixteen head stuff. What Yeah, yeah, she's messing with it. Uh so we you guys don't know this because, through the power of the magic of editing and publishing and publishing, you think we've just never been gone from the office. But we've been gone. I have no idea what episodes we released. I've been so

out of it. Yeah, I took six weeks of Pattornity leave and I did by proxy, and you did by proxy. Uh so we've been gone from the studio for a while, and I just wanted to say it's glad to be back, buddy. Yeah, it is nice to be back, and uh, it's good to see you again. It's a long time. What's happened in the In the meantime, I lost another tooth. Yea, my stupid front the toothnext to the one that came out broke off at a Falcon's game. Oh well there

you go. God was cursing you for being at the falcons. So I have another stupid flipper in another eight months of eight months early, yeah, until I get the permanent implant. So again I'll be out on the tour with no tooth. You can't even see it, like you have to literally like your lips back to your gums. Or if I laugh a lot, which I'm trying to just lead a more somber life. Well I plan on making you laugh a lot on stage so people might see it. Then what else? Have you got a dog? Yeah? We got

a puppy named Momo. You wanna talk about Momo? Momo is very sweet. She's a sweet little zoo poodle next year. How's that going. She's a little fluff ballt very good. Yes, good? Right off the bat we um we create trained her and at first I was like chrits or mean, put a dog and create, And then I started to read up on it, like yes, it's like her den. It's her little room like her bedroom. In fact, when we took away the crate from our youngest dog, Charlie because

of we needed a breakfast nook. Um. She was kind of like, dude, he took my room away. That was my room. Yeah. We plan to keep her crate around, like as long as she wants it, but just she won't be penned in it against her will at certain times until until she's house broken, which I mean she's basically there. It's just we're we're like, what are you doing, You're about to pee? You know. Um, she doesn't actually have accidents in the house. We're just you know, staying

on top of that. It's great. What else happened? Uh? We had holidays, yes, good Christmas. In the New Year's I guess Humi's birthday. Oh yeah, the birthday. Um, and it was just a nice time off. Like I had this big to do list and uh none of it got done because I was raising replace that. Yeah, how's your kid? Uh, Ruby's great man. And I did the same thing. I had a big to do list and I found myself just kind of be like, oh, could you do this? Or I could just like play with

my kid, right, or watch Making a Murderer? Yeah, I did watch all that. Stay here and like a day we'll talk about that. We probably shouldn't talk about it. People wanted to do a podcast on that. I don't like a follow up. Maybe it's not as bad as the request to do a podcast on the h the case that Sereal covered, like I think Cereal cover. No, of course not. I could maybe do a follow up

on making a murder. I think we should revisit Um Exonerations and the Innocence Project again because when we did that one, we had no idea what was going on, and now it's really like it's really coming through true. So yes, let's do that. I've been playing a lot of uh I got a p S four. Oh yeah, I've been playing Fallout for with the Dog and the Dogs. Well, you can't have a dog companion, so of course I

chose it. But it's really awful because the dog gets hurt a lot and like struggles around, whimpering and out of its misery. Well, no, you can heal the dog. But I went to message boards and everyone's like, don't heal your dog, Like, just trust me, it'll heal itself. Don't waste your medicine. Okay, yeah, I'm sure you waste your medicine every time, don't you. Well, yeah, it's tough to do. Yeah, and it's like, oh, okay, don't mind me. Dog meat and that's his name. So that's a that

was a big time off. Just it was and that's all that happened. Jerry, How about you? That was great, Jerry. I'm glad you had a nice time as well. Jerry also had a nice break with her little baby in these through a series of blinks she did that we've

worked out over the year. Nice job, all right, So sorry about the long injury, but I felt like we needed to catch everyone up, even though you didn't know that you needed it right, And maybe has something to do with caffeine because we did such a good job when we recorded those ones that were released over the break of predicting things we would be talking about the time, who could tell exactly. So I'm a little caffeinated right now,

believe it or not. What a shock. Um. I don't drink nearly as much as coffee as I used to. It's because I really realized, like it really does have a detrimental effect on like my mood. Stay in the car cars are really good example of me and caffeine. You're a little ramped up in the car anyway, so that probably and help. Right. Well, I'm working on that, but part of working on that is just, you know,

not drinking as much coffee. Yeah. I think a good title for this could be mixed messages because in studying caffeine, and we did one on coffee, we dabbled in this a little bit, but um, all research is, you know, caffeine, it can be really good for you and help a lot of things, and caffeine can be kind of bad for you, and it's kind of both or can be both. It sure, things like that unless we have like a completely misunderstood UM model of addiction and um the parasympathetic

or sympathetic nervous system. Unless we don't know those things, then yeah, coffee is both for sure. The weird thing is, like everybody realizes that coffee, I'm sorry, caffeine. I think I'm probably gonna do that a lot this episode because they are virtually interchangeable. But it's not really but caffeine, um, it is. It has a lot of really bad effects on you, and a lot of people know that just from having experienced it. It's the it's the beneficial effects

that are so surprising. They do seem to like you say, agreed, So Chuck, I drink today. I've had five cups of coffee and mountain diet mountain dew. And it is one forty in the afternoon. What time did you get up? Seven? Yes, I'm counting on my fingers. Six and a half hour. You six and a half hours. You've had five cups of coffee in a mountain dew. The met's cutting back, yes, oh man, Yeah, and it's cutting back because I like this afternoon. I won't keep going. Oh so you stop?

This is this will be my last probably really for the day. Yeah, okay, And I'm actually I'm above average for the United States. And I could have guessed that, but the average for the United States is actually on the worse end of the spectrum as far as like caffeine consumption goes. Yeah. The latest information I got this that the US was sixteenth in the world in per capita consumption, not even or nine or any anywhere above ten. If you want to know who leads the world right out,

I think it's the Netherlands, is what I found. I found Finland from that was the most recent I saw. Well, the most recent I saw said the Netherlands at two point four, with Finland at one point eight. But that is not what I saw. Yeah, where were the Netherlands on your list? I don't remember. I just saw the Finland was number one at like two point four and um like nine point six kilograms of coffee beans per

person per year consumed. Well, I bet the top ten is kind of interchangeable and fairly static, though, as in the Samish countries in different orders. Yeah, because I mean coffee consumption patterns. I guess they could change fairly rapidly, but they don't change in the blink of an eye. We'll think about how much Starbucks change coffee consumption in

this country, didn't ramp it up? Oh yeah, Like think about how many people now swing by Starbucks are like three pm, whereas before they may not even have drank coffee, I mean Charbucks. Yeah, actually have no skin in the game Starbucks. Yeah, I don't really well, you know, I mean I don't drink caffeine that much. I know, very mellow. Yeah, I don't know. I'm starting to think I should drink more coffee though, because of the health benefits. Oh yeah,

you know. Um, we'll see, we'll get into all that. But in the top ten you have Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, in Mark, Germany, scandin Maybia loves her coffee, apparently, Slovakia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Norway than eventually the US cold countries. It's not bad, although Brazil loves its coffee as well. I think they're like number ten or eleven or something like that. Good coffee. I didn't see they weren't even in my top sixteen. So we had different lists made

by two different caffeinated weirdos. Uh so, the us UM, the FDA, and the A m A. Right now, I think they raised it to four hundred milligerms a day from three hundred, just in that pace of changing coffee consumption. Yeah, I think it's now to four hundred milligrams a day, as they said, should be like the upper limit of what you should drink and what is cool to drink for your health, right, not by being cool. You could drink a hundred cups to day and you'd be super cool.

That's why I drink coffee so much. And so so what is that four d milligrams a day? That's about two eight ounce cups of coffee. Yes, like high high coffee. Um, but yeah, it's no more than maybe three. Well, and that's caffeine though that's not coffee, So you might also be drinking sodas, or eating chocolate or eating on a cocoa nib that's packed with caffeine. Yeah. Yeah, it does show up in all sorts of surprising places, um, including

I looked this up decaff coffee as well. We should say, yeah, it's still got some caffeine in there, right, Yeah, So like a cup of coffee, eight ounces of coffee can have anywhere from like seventy five to two milligrams of caffeine in it. Decaf coffee still might have like twenty milligrams. And I mean it doesn't sound like much, but if you're pounding decaf coffee because you love coffee but you're trying to cut back on caffeine, stuff can adda interesting. Yeah.

I knew there was some caffeine, but maybe that's not Is that negligible? I it's twenty itself. Just if you drank one decaffe eate a couple of coffee a day, Yes, I think on the overall effects of your health that would be negligible, but both ways because again the coffee giveth and the coffee take it the way the double edged drug. Yeah, and it is. It is a drug. And it is also in t which we'll get to as well. Um, but yeah, it's a drug. It's it

naturally occurs like many drugs. But it is a stimulant called trimethyls anthine. Chemical formulas C H uh C eight H one zero in for O two not zero two. I think there's a ten in there. What did I say? One zero? Which you know if you're on a CB or something, they get the point. Oh man, this is close to CB chatter as as you can come. Um, I quick segue here. I used to love talking on the CB because my dad had one in his jeep. And remember when CB culture was huge in the seventies.

My buddy John Pendell now is a trucker. You met John where in at our New York shows, Tall Johnny Pendell. Uh, he's a trucker now and I got to hang out and get in his truck. Uh. And he does not use a CB, and he said that he might get one, but it's not like the standard thing anymore. Texting and cell phones I mean he's said, if you really want to be a part of that big trucker culture, you can do the c B Still, well, you can just be a lone wolf. He's a lone wolf right now.

He is. He needs one of those um jackets like Lenny and Squeaky used to wear. Yeah, it was fascinating that we need to do an episode on trucking, because when I saw him, all I did was ask questions. Basically, Yeah, it's fascinating. Does he have his own rig? No, he doesn't. Okay, anyway, well, hey to Johnny and he listens to the podcast now, So hey Johnny, because you don't need to see if you listen to stuff, you should know we are your company,

all right. So anyway, caffeine, he does drink a lot of caffeine. I think that's where I was going that. Yeah, but that that really had nothing to do with it. I brought up sebs because he said, H one zero, why don't we take a break and get our sea legs back? Are pe legs are a little rusty? And um P is in podcast? Not you're in I thought you, Oh, hey,

I'll tell you some thing about this break. I learned that there's something called mixturition syncope, and mixturition is a lot of people think it means two P. No urination is two P. Mixturition is the urge to pe. Syncope is a fainting spell. So there's a condition out there called mixturition syncope where people faint after they pee. There's also one called defication syncope, where people faint after they poop if they have no idea. I think Elvis had

the most severe case of that. All right, well, don't let that happen to you during this break, and we will be back right after this. Have we got it together? That was like half a second. Are we good? Yeah? I guess though. All right, we're gonna give it another step. So caffeine, I think that's what we're talking about. It's a drug, and in its pure form, chuck is a bitter, bitter tasting crystalline powder. It's actually very closely related at

least in its effects to um opoi opioid antagonists like heroin, cocaine, caffeine. Yeah, um and I will talk a little more about the brain, the effects on the brain, but it is um It does have these effects, and it does basically this it uses the same mechanism as these drugs, and therefore it can cause addictions just like these drugs as well. Yeah, and um, Like I said, it occurs naturally. It's in the coffee bean and in chocolate and t um, but

it's also added artificially and things like soda. UM and I looked up the sodas to get the most recent um amount. And Pepsi one right now, I think as the most caffeine. Man, do you remember jolt and I used to drink a ton of ault. I'm sure you did. Well. I would drink one right before the podcast, remember, and I'd just be like talking a thousand miles an hour the good old days. Because I've settled down quite a bit,

you have, I'm happier for it. Pepsi one at fifty seven milligrams, tab is number two at forty eight, diet coca forty six. You will work your way down to regular role Coca cola at thirty three milligrams per twelve ounce can um and the FDA regulates how much caffeine you can put in a soda. A soda A soda. That's the key, that's right. If you were an energy drink um like Red Bull or any of those other gross tasting things. I don't like them personally, but people

love them. I just don't like the taste. But um, that's the work around for the FDA. Because they're not considered SODA's. They can put lots of caffeine and sugar to the tune of about eight milligrams per um eight point three ounces, which you're like the case of Red Bull, that's a lot of caffeine. It does seem like a lot, but some people love to take it even further. And there's like those five hour energy shots. Oh yeah, I have had those before. Those are two I have not

tried it before. I don't know why. I think I was doing construction work and I was really tired, and I was at the big box store and it was right there to checkout. I was like, let me try this thing, yeah, and it it ramped me up. I felt like a speedhead. So in the in that little two ounce shot, there's two milligrams of of caffeine, the one like a high end amount in a coffee in that little two ounce shot. Okay, And I think those are the like coffee has the most of any beverage.

I think espresso ounce for ounce has the most well, I mean from the coffee being at least espresso bean, not like an artificial drink, is what I meant. We got an espresso maker and has pronounced effects. It's crazy how different it is from coffee. Yeah. I like an espresso every now and then, and I like my coffee right now and then, but just every now and then. If you want the health benefits though, and you're like, I don't drink that much coffee, you should just be

injecting pure caffeine chunk. Can you do that? They do it to mice. Yeah, that's a good point, as we'll see you later on. Um true, I should probably again, it's been several weeks since we've done this. I need to probably throw out a disclaimer there. That was a joke, right, don't inject caffeine. And you know, if you can even get your hands on pure caffeine, do not inject it. You probably shouldn't inject anything, let alone the pure form of anything, because even too much water can kill you.

Always remember that everybody, Even too much water can kill you. And I did look into caffeine overdoses because I was curious, and it doesn't happen much because you'd have to drink so much of something that it makes it unlikely. But there have been overdose is blamed on caffeine pills, like okay, what's the milligram amount, what's the dosage amount? That I can't remember. This one kid died in Connecticut, like a nineteen year old that I think he had like a

dozen or two dozen caffeine pills. Um. And it's the I think the deal with caffeine pills. It's concentrated and it hits you all at once, So taking a lot of it is just like overdosing on any kind of stimulant. I think it's a stimulant. Yeah, that's some weird stuff to you in killing you. And like you said, Schucker's Um.

We already talked about coffee in the coffee episode, right, but it's just some of it bears repeating, like um, the lighter the roast, the higher the caffeine content, typically because the roasting process actually bakes out a lot of the caffeine. I thought you were gonna make up a clever rhyme like the light of the roast, the darker the toast or something No, that's that doesn't make any sense.

The rhymes got it at least makes sense or else it's just rhyming words about how about the lighter the roast more caffeine than most About that that actually makes sense? And so if you want to extract the most caffeine out of your diet. Actually came across a website called Bulletproof Exact. You know that bulletproof coffee thing where you put like butter in your coffee. It's like a diet thing. Um, I think aids and pooping and butter in your coffee. Yeah,

butter in your coffee called bulletproof. It's actually not bad. If you like that, though, take it one step further and use um coconut oil. That's even better because's got a little it's like an almond joy creamer, but like an oily version of it. Anyway, this Bulletproof Exact, they had a post about maximizing your caffeine intake so you can suck to your underlings throughout the day or whatever

most efficiently. Right and um, one of the things that they said is that grapefruit you should eat more grapefruit because grapefruit contains something called um narragant or narrow gin um. And it actually slows the removal of caffeine from your brain, so you enjoy its effects longer. Yeah. So a morning breakfast in the nineteen fifties of coffee and the grape half a grapefruit, that's all you needed. And then your noon cocaine bump just to keep you going, just drinking

coca cola exactly. And um, if you also, if you want to maximize your caffeine and take from coffee, you should look at the beans you're drinking. So Arabica, which is I think the most prevalent coffee um has it's one point five percent caffeine, but robusta two point four That is robust as far as I know, that's the highest caffeine content naturally of any coffee bean. So a light roast robusta is gonna basically with your grapefruit. Yeah you it will be like getting kicked in the chest

by a mule. Wow. And it doesn't that sound appealing. That's what every bulletproof exact want shows you how to be more efficient, robber baron. So let's get down to this man. Uh, how how does caffeine actually affect your brain, because it does affect your brain. The whole point behind taking coffee and stuff like that is as the guy who wrote this article, oh, the three guys who wrote this article, including you, Yeah, on this I forgot. Um

it's it's using caffeine. It's a form of self medication. Of course. That's why most people drink it, I think, to get that boost in the morning, um or in the middle of afternoon. Yeah, and I'm sure people love the taste and stuff. It's not like they're holding their nose and forcing this drink down their throat. Well that's what like five hour energes for. No, don't taste very good, do they not. I've never tasted one. I've always wondered, but I've never wanted to experience its effects so badly

that I tasted it. I mean, you know, it's like, uh, just that synthetic fruit taste. Does it taste like medicinal at all? Yeah? It just taste. Yeah, this is not good in my opinion. Well, it's as two ounces. You get it over with real quick, it down and like you're done, punch a wall. Uh So how does it work on the brain? It tricks your brain actually by

mimicking something called ADENA scene. UM, and it's it's kind of remarkable actually because what it does is it mimics a DNA scene and then does the opposite of what a DNA scene does, which is to try and help you sleep. It's pretty cool. Yeah, so you know you have a sleep wake cycle, right, part of the sleep cycle is a DNA scene UM latching onto the adenacene receptors on your neurons. And yeah, it does make you sleepy because it slows the the function of your neurons down.

It's a it's a big buzz kill. Basically, it's a drag aDNA scene is well, it's great, it is, Yeah, it's it's it helps make you sleepy. And what caffeine does is it gets in there to the same receptor. It binds to the same receptor as a DNA scene. UM. It was because you're brain thinks it's a DNA scene. It puts on it's a DNA sing costume pretty much, which consists of like a sparkly one piece jumpsuit. It's a onesie um. And it not only doesn't slow your

neurons down and apparently speeds them up. Yes, so your brain starts going hey wire. That's part one of what caffeine does your brain. It not only doesn't slow your brain down, it prevents the thing that does slow your brain down from slowing your brain down, and it actually

speeds your brain up wire. And not only that, but a DNA scene UM usually will not usually a DNA scene always causes your blood vessels to dilate, and caffeine causes them to constrict, which sounds bad, but one of the pluses, and we'll get into the benefits, but one of them is um constricting. It can it maybe help you avoid headaches and migraines. And that's why caffeine is in things like Annison or my my old reliable BC

or Goodies headache powders that I use contain caffeine. Yeah, that's my secret hangover helper BC powder PC or Goodies. It acts fast. They work really well too, both together. Yeah. Yeah, So caffeine is a vaso constrictor right, that's right. It constricts your blood vessels, and like you said, that can actually help your headaches because a lot of headaches vascular headaches, I guess, is what they're called, or when your blood vessels are too big, and the change and pressure in

your brain gives you this horrible headache. Right, So while this is happening, your body thinks these neurons are firing. Your pituitary gland says you must be in trouble because you're supposed to be going to sleep. Buddy, Yeah, something, there's clearly a bear coming at you. I don't know about.

Something's wrong, So let's send you some adrenaline. We talked at nauseum about fight or flight, and your body thinks that's what's going on when you drink coffee so or caffeine and so it says here you need this adrenaline because, like you said, you got a bear come in your way. Uh, and all the hallmarks of fight or flight kick in which man, this used to be like our yeah, and now it's just such an accepted part of everything. Do

we even need to say the things anymore? Go ahead, okay, So your pupils dilate, You're breathing um becomes more rapid, you get more breaths um. If you're eating something, you stop digesting it because your stomach doesn't matter at that point. It's right superfluous um. Your blood pressure rises, your liver releases sugar in the bloodstream, so you can get some extra energy. You're ready to get out. Basically, it's like time for some action. Yeah, and that's why you drink

that cup of coffee. You might feel tense like you in the car, yes, or agitated. Uh, it's because your body thinks you're about to be in a big fight with the car next to you, which ends up it's this weird reverse cycle. It ends up causing that fight. Yeah, you know, I'm you'll also find if you drink a lot of coffee like me, they're big not develops in

between your shoulder blades just just below your neck. Nice. Um, it's just yet another result of your muscles tightening and you being ready for action thanks to the fight or flight syndrome. So your brain has been kept from getting drowsy. It's been sent in to basically like a Lucy esque assembly line of chocolates. Um, the the fight or flight syndrome is kicked in that that describes like a significant

amount of the effects of coffee. But there's a big one that's missing still that we haven't touched on, and that is it's pleasurable effects. It makes you feel good, because it's a stimulant and it's a drug, and just like all the other illicit illegal drugs, this one is just accepted. But it has the same effect. It's going to release dopamine and that's the pleasure center activation center, right, and it makes you want more of it and so

that dopamines flowing and your bodies like, man, this is great. Yeah, So it doesn't actually it's like heroin and cocaine. It doesn't actually make you overproduce dopamine, but it keeps dopamine from being absorbed as quickly, so you get its effects longer and more than you would if you weren't under the influence of the drug, just like heroin, Just like cocaine. Caffeine again, it uses the exact same mechanism. It's just to a weaker degree, which is why, like again, people

aren't shooting caffeine and there's a bad idea this. Uh, we should point out varies from person to person. Um the effects of caffeine on the body because it um metabolizes differently in everyone. So some people might be like I don't get jittery at all, or I can go right to sleep after coffee. Other people I'd like to see those people on an espresso shot of robusta. Yeah, yeah, I'll bet they wouldn't be singing the same song. Um.

Other folks. I used to wait tables, um, and I would have people come in at like like lunch and say like, no, no, no, I can't like their friend get a cup of coffee. After they'd be like, no, no no, no, I'll be up all night. Are you serious? What did you say that? No? I was just always yeah, I always think it was a little weird. But like I said, it may keep them up all night. It's their own jam because people know their bodies, So don't don't just

go with a decaf in that case. So we there are plenty of um negative effects like keeping you up all night, as well as positive effects with caffeine, and we're gonna talk about those right after this. All right, So you've got the one to three punch. Um, your body is enjoying the caffeine. It's blocking that aDNA scene. You're gonna feel alert and awake. It's got that an adrenaline going and it's rewarding you with the dopamine. So it's gonna make you want to drink coffee. But I

mentioned the vicious cycle. It is a bit because after coffee comes the inevitable crash, like any stimulant drug, and you want more of it um to get back up again. So you're gonna have that fatigue and maybe even slightly depressed feeling, and then you have a little bit more of that caffeine and it's gonna get you going again. And that's sort of the cycle that you find yourself in, which will eventually, even though you might not think it is,

it's gonna affect your sleep patterns. Yeah. That that that cycle kind of continues on into the next day. Right, So coffee has a half life of six hours. Caffeine Yeah, I told you I. Um, caffeine is a half life of six hours. Where if you drink a cup of coffee that has two milligrams of caffeine UM at noon, at six pm, you will still have a hundred milligrams

of affine in your system. So it's like um, at six you drank a red bull in a quarter right then, right, not exactly what you want, and then at midnight you would have fifty milligrams left, which is like more than a coke. That's like a mountain dews worth of caffeine and you again not really what you want. So, as the authors of this article, including you, point out, you may fall asleep, but that caffeine stimulation is probably going to keep you from getting deep sleep, and deep sleep

is what you really genuinely need. And I think after researching this reading that sentence time because I think, like I basically like that that that's how I live my life is, Um, I don't sleep deeply. Even though I sleep deeply, I don't think I get actual deep sleep, you know what I mean. So then you wake up craving the caffeine again exactly, and that's where that cycle goes on and on, where you just it's really have

to quit it. Yeah, it's very interesting. Um, if you are pregnant, Uh, there are some studies that suggest and we should say there have been a lot of caffeine studies. Yeah, this article says like nineteen thousands since the sixties. I'm sure there's by now. Uh, And they are somewhat conflicting, So we always are going to say, like this study suggests,

because they aren't hard and fast rules. But if you're pregnant, some studies suggests that three milligrams are more per day could lead to low birth weight and your little bb uh kids. I read one article like five experts talk about caffeine and children, and they all said that's not

great for kids. No kids drink coffee these days, yes, but in the form of like those like coffee drinks that are super sweet and creamy and everything, but they drink like if walk around them all you'll you'll see like eight year olds with like a coffee drink just walking around like it's nothing. I went to the mall the other day for the first time in probably five years. Yeah, how was it? Was awful? Was it? And I hated

every minute of it? And I'm not going back. The mall is another place that it's another thing that puts that like not just too many people in one place. Yeah, it's no good. And with the baby stroller, it was just like I wanted to put a spoon in my ear. Which mall I went to Perimeter, Um, I mean there was a we got new pillows, So I was like I had to go to the mall to get pillows, you know, because you gotta put your head on it, even through the plastic. Yeah, no, I know, I've been

pillows shoving you know what I mean. New pillows are great though, Oh yeah, if you get a good one. Yeah. I've been on a bad run lately with pillows where I've gotten, well, that's two. I got one, wasn't very happy with it. The second one to replace it. Not it's better, but it's still not quite happy with it. Do you just use one pillow, one soft pillow? Yeah, anything else? I'm like, oh my neck, I gotta have

one under my head. I gotta have one behind my head between my head and the headboard, and then one tied to your faith now and then a clutch you know, to hold on to, like to wrap up with. It's the best. Yeah, that's three pillows. Yeah, you sleep with three pillows Emily in Yeah, six total. Jerry tell us him blinks, how many pillows you sleep with? Three? Three as well? I think you're under pillowed. I guess so

I sleep with one third the pillows you do. Here's a pillow tip though, if you're buying, just wait for a Macy's one day sale. Oh yeah, because pillows are expensive. Good ones are, yeah, very much. Get your hands on a good pillow. Yeah, and Macy's does it twice a year. I think maybe Memorial Day and Labor Day or their pillows sale days. Well, they had one going on after New Year's I am wrong. There, you have it all right. So we were talking about sleep and the shopping mall

where kids were drinking coffee. It all comes together, it does, um. But all five of the of the experts said your kids shouldn't really be having too much or any caffeine. And they didn't say like because of like the health effects, uh like. On the basically, it was just like, just like sugar, you don't want your kids, you know, heart rate increased a lot and their blood pressure increased, and it's just not gonna do yourself any favors as a

parent a caffeated child. But I genuinely believe that you can go through experiences like that as a younger kid and it'll make you a keyed up adult, a higher strung adult. You think I do. I have come to believe that experiences in childhood very prominently shape you're who you are as an adult very much. So I've come to I guess if you're thirteen and drink a lot of coffee and you get anxious, you'd probably be an anxious adult. I believe that probably keep drinking coffee, probably

to stave off the anxiety. When did you start drinking coffee or did you always drink a lot of soda too? No, I guess it was as a more of a grown up for both. Really. Yeah, I drink a lot of kool aid as a kid, and like the straight up tons of sugar in the kool aid kool aid. Um. But and I drank like some some we called it pop, like fago and pepsi and stuff. But I mean, I I think it was like as an older person twenties, I started drinking like coffee and earnest and cokes. That's

what it should be, I think. Sure. Um, I definitely didn't drink coffee as a kid. No, that was gross. Added to the taste of it was just really foul, I thought. But I really learned to love the taste of coffee, and I enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee on a camping trip or a cold day. Um. I just never took up the regular habit, and not for any reason other than I just, I don't know, just never grab me up. It wasn't like a stand though, you know, like I'm not gonna start drinking caffeine, you know,

and everybody who drinks coffee can rot. No, because my brother in law and my mother in law drink more coffee than any humans alive, more than me, and they're both wonderful. Yeah. They're like, let's brew a pot of coffee, not a cup of coffee. Yeah, and let's just drink it until it's gone, then brew another pot. You know. Yeah, but they get a lot done. Accomplished people. They sleep several inches above the bed. One of them is a general in the Marine Corps. That shows you where he is. Actually,

that's my mother in law. All right. How about some health benefits, Uh, there are a lot, believe it or not. They've done a lot of studies and they found everything from helping out to not develop Parkinson's disease to dropping your risk of various cancers um cirosis. How about this, two cups a day, Supposedly we'll cause an eight drop in the odds of developing cirrhosis. That's amazing. Yeah, that's I drink a little bit, So maybe I should drink coffee.

I wonder if that has to do with them stimulating the fight or flight syndrome where you, your liver releases more sugar to give to give you more energy or something like that. Maybe. But what's weird then is so that would be more sugar in the bloodstream. Right. Too much sugar in the bloodstream can lead to diabetes. Right. Well, coffee actually is shown to reduce your risk of diabetes. There's this Harvard study UM that involved a hundred and

twenty six thousand people over eighteen years. They followed their coffee. Is a good study. It's a great study unless they fudge the results. But saying they didn't. What they found was that people who drink one to three cups of coffee a day are nine percent less likely to contract diabetes. Right, yeah, you think it ends there. It does not. So people who drank six or more cups of coffee per day, if you were a man, your chances of contracting diabetes

were reduced by fifty four percent. That's substantial. And for women who drank one six or more cups a day, there are chances of contracting diabetes, were of developing diabetes reduction. I got another one four cups a day less chance of mouth and throat cancer. Uh. And I don't know if it was this Harvard study or another one said it could reduce suicide risk in adults. Even kind of makes sense, I guess in one way, but which way, I don't know. I was thinking, I don't know. I

take that back. Well, maybe you like run from self harm, even maybe like you flee or fight, or if it just you know, maybe it could battle your depressive systems by picking you up or something. I don't know. It's yeah,

better explanation than mind mine was stupid. Uh. They's there's evidence that it prevents cavities actually, well yeah, which is kind of surprising because, um that is if you just if you're doing a study on coffee, Um that's if you don't put anything in your coffee, put cream and sugar in, Yeah, you're going to get your cavities on. All right. You kind of do both, right, just depending on your mood. I typically go toward black, right, but every now and then you throw a little vanilla creamer

in there every once a while. Yeah, um yeah, if I want to treat, yeah, special treat. But kathein can hurt your teeth in that it causes teeth clenching too well, which is one reason I'm losing teeth is I grind my teeth at night, so maybe I shouldn't drink more coffee. It could be, yeah, but like you said, it giveth and it take it the way do I want teeth or do you want my liver to hang in there

and no diabetes? Right? Good point Alzheimer's. The bird Alzheimer's Institute in Tampa did some experimenting lab mice, injecting them with caffeine like you said earlier, and not only did it protect them against developing Alzheimer's, but it helped reduce symptoms if they already had it. They haven't tried it on humans yet, but as it goes with mice, many times it goes with humans. Yeah, hopefully, Yeah, we could

all be injecting caffeine at some point. That to me is also counterintuitive too, because Alzheimer's disease is potentially a build up of plaques in your brain that's the result of not getting enough deep sleep. Because when you sleep, your glial channels expand and your brain is bathed in cerebrals. Final fluid cleans out those plaques. Right, But it only

happens when you're sleeping very deeply. Um, But if you're not getting very deep sleep with coffee or caffeine, then I would think you'd be there'd be a higher risk of Alzheimer's. It's still fund it is, And I've also found conflicting studies on memory. Johns Hopkins says that it's a memory enhancer, but I've seen other studies that say it's the memory d answer. Yeah, So again, it's like it's stuff to kind of get down to the brass tacks,

you know, when you have conflicting studies. Um, if you exercise, coffee is your best friend, caffeine is. Yeah. I've heard of like Olympic athletes that like we'll shoot espresso right before a race. Yeah. Not only does it like give you a jolt of energy and everything, but apparently it has um ergogenic properties, which means that it delays fatigue, right, and it helps your muscles use glycogen their energy stores

more efficiently too, so it can help you run better. Interesting. Yeah, as far as cognitive abilities, um, the one study found from Johns Hopkins Medical School said that while you think it is increasing your cognitive abilities, what is really doing is just taking you back to normal for a short period that is chilling. Yeah, and then when it wears off, you're actually below man. Yeah, I don't know. I hate to think that. I don't want to quit coffee though.

Quit smoking. Yeah, it lost weight. Yeah, keep your coffee. That's another thing though I did during this break is put some of that back on. We'll drink coffee and go exercise, all right. Uh, if you want to know more about caffeine, you can type that word into the search bar how stuff works, and don't forget in this case the egoes before the eye. Since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is from Maddie in Virginia. Hey guys, I'm a twenty two year old

college student in Virginia. I want to start out by saying thank you for the wonderful podcast. Would like this emails good you've seen this on. Let me explain, guys, how you've helped me. I'm gonna sufferer of extreme anxiety and depression. I've had these issues since to a varying degree, since middle school. However, events occurred in my life throughout the past few years that have made the much worse. Got to the point last semester I'm not I was not able to go to class to homework or play

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who care about you. And who will help you? Nice worms are couckles, my friend, and hanging in there what a wonderful message? Does sound like trite things to say, you know, like yeah, unless you're going through some time, heals wounds and it's darkest before the dawn. But they're trite and true for a reason, because they are trite and true. I think you just tried and true. Yeah, but I think you just improved the phrase, did I Yeah,

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