CUT THE CAFFEINE

This is the second in our series on dealing with stress. The time around the holiday season is particularly stressful so we wanted to make a few suggestions on how to deal with stress. The second suggestion is to cut the caffeine.

Coffee shops on every corner, timers on our home coffee makers, and the coffee pot at the office are all easy sources of caffeine. We can’t forget that tea and soda contain caffeine too as well as some so called “energy drinks”.

Caffeine is a stimulant which will increase your blood pressure and heart rate. You are familiar with the “fight or flight” syndrome, I’m sure. The blood pressure increases, the whole central nervous system goes on alert and the body needs increased oxygen as we prepare to fight or run. We usually take our cup of coffee or tea and sit down somewhere to enjoy a nice relaxing time. Meanwhile our body is reving up for a fight or to run away. It is like leaving your car in “park” and putting the gas pedal down to as far as it will go to rev up the engine. Now, you have to ask yourself, “Does caffeine add to my stress level?” Oh, by the way,It is also addictive although to withdraw cold turkey will bring on a headache and maybe some irritability for a short time.

How much caffeine is too much? Some experts say that we should not have any. Zero is hard for the coffee, tea, and soda drinkers to swallow so a more reasonable amount may be 100 to 110 mg. which is a cup of coffee. That’s one 8 ounce cup of coffee. Two to three cups of coffee would be considered an excessive amount of caffeine (that’s about 250 mg.). As a coffee drinker myself, I practice to things that I will pass on to you. One is to drink caffeine drinks in moderation (and did I mention chocolate has a little caffeine it too?). Moderation is the key if you don’t want to avoid it altogether. Secondly, when you know you are under some abnormal stress, cut the caffeine out altogether for a day or two or until the stress is lessened. Why add stress producing stimulants to your stressful circumstances?

I have to mention that there are two other common stress producers we choose to indulge in too. They are tobacco and diet pills. Tobacco is also a stimulant and therefor will produce stress. How many of you enjoy a cigarette and a cup of coffee? Diet pills are not as fashionable as they used to be, but they all contain caffeine.

Enjoy the holidays and strive to create less stress by cutting the caffeine.

Next time we will examine “Enter Into Exercise” as part 3.