Association of coffee consumption with mortality... - Page 3

Want to talk espresso but not sure which forum? If so, this is the right one.
VoidedTea
Posts: 191
Joined: 3 years ago

#21: Post by VoidedTea »

For the last 5 days I've been on a caffeine-free "diet" due to developing rapid heart symptoms and elevating blood pressure recently. Decided to share my observations here. Some of the most noticeable changes include:
  • Blood pressure dropped by 15-20 points to the lowest I have seen over the last 5 years
  • Rapid heart rate symptoms are gone
  • I sleep like a baby. This is particularly interesting because I always attributed my restless sleep to getting older (I am 52), but over the last 3 days I only wake with the alarm.
  • I feel much more energetic, probably because of better sleep.
So it turns out my body is rather sensitive to caffeine. So as to alcohol, by the way, which I also tested a few months earlier.

Please keep in mind that not everyone's body reacts this way. So I don't want to alarm you. There are people that react very differently (sometimes even lethally) to all sorts of food ingredients, even the most common ones. So it is all on a very individual level.

The only reason I am sharing this information is to give some food for thought to people that might be like me but don't know it yet. If you are getting older, starting experiencing hypertension, rapid heart rate, restless sleep or insomnia, the reason might be your sensitivity to caffeine. Cutting back on coffee might be much easier solution than resorting to drugs, which many people end up doing.

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jpender
Posts: 3863
Joined: 11 years ago

#22: Post by jpender »

VoidedTea wrote:Please keep in mind that not everyone's body reacts this way. So I don't want to alarm you.
Whenever I have read about the potential for unfiltered or metal filtered coffee raising cholesterol levels I've thought: Go get tested. Then give up coffee for a few weeks and get tested again. See if it makes a significant difference for you.

When I backpack I limit my caffeine to just one small cup of instant coffee each morning. No 2-3 double espressos, no 2-3 cans of diet soda. And, for me, the perceived effect of semi-abstinence is minimal to none. But when I gave up my evening beer or two about a year ago I discovered, wow, I sleep a lot better. The statistics about alcohol and mortality are fairly well worked out, better than with coffee. But it's hard to wrap your mind around statistics. We're not simply data points. If you're concerned, or even if you're not, give coffee up for a little while and see how it affects you (or your cholesterol level).

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cafeIKE
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Joined: 18 years ago

#23: Post by cafeIKE »

Most of these studies don't control for the uncountable mitigating factor combinations.

As an example, I've had diagnosed glaucoma for 35 years due to traumatic physical eye damage at ages 11 and 30. 20+ years ago, my eye doctor put me on Timolol. Shortly thereafter, I started having the most awful horrific nightmares every night. Previously none, ever. I'd always fallen asleep envisioning images as impressionist renditions. I mentioned this at my next visit and was told "Not possible." I followed suggested reductions of red wine, espresso, whisky, dark chocolate, etc. Nothing worked and since the IOP was well controlled and lower than the previous three medications, put it down to life changes. About a decade later, I developed constant pain in my left side near my heart. More tests, no answers. [Resting pulse is below 60 and BP is about 110/60. Not bad @ 71.] A bit later, severe neuropathy that felt as if my hands and feet were on fire while submerged in ice water. More suggestions and medications. Nothing worked. Constant pain 24/7 and I hadn't had a decent night's sleep in over 20 years.

This year Timolol went from Tier 1 to Tier 4 in our insurance, so I did some research on the Tier 1 glaucoma medications. Doctor approved Levobunolol. In a week, nightmares, side pain and neuropathy ALL GONE :!: AND a couple of points better on the IOP. :D

Doctors kill more people than guns. (Self-censored for the whiners) :P

Pressino
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#24: Post by Pressino »

Beta blockers (Timolol is one) are well known to cause vivid dreams and nightmares in some people, so I'm surprised your doctor dismissed it out of hand.

Pressino
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#25: Post by Pressino »

Addendum to above: I wasn't familiar with Levobunolol, so I looked it up and it is also a beta-blocker, though with a different pharmacological profile than timolol. Different drugs in the same class often have different side effect profiles and of course can affect different people differently. Glad to hear you are doing much better with this one.

Marcelnl (original poster)
Posts: 3831
Joined: 10 years ago

#26: Post by Marcelnl (original poster) »

and another interesting paper on the impact of coffee (preparation) subtypes on cardiovasculair disease, arrythmias and mortailty; info on CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/heal ... index.html

the full article; https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance ... 89/6704995
LMWDP #483

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