Coffee is it Good for You or Bad? Part 2 of Adrenal Fatigue
I talked last week about my 30 Day Hormone Test Results and my Elevated Cortisol with 4 Foods to Avoid for Elevated Cortisol based on preliminary internet research.
Well I now have my Adrenal Fatigue book in so let us dive in and really look at a hot-button topic: Coffee
Coffee does have good health benefits. It has antioxidants. It can protect your liver reduces your risk of liver cancer. In a recent Harvard health study, it also lowered the risk of suicide and depression. Seriously though???
I'm going to cut through the bull honkey (Super Southern I Know) and just come right out and say it.
IE: getting your kids on to the bus with lunch, preparing for the presentation you're giving at work, fitting in a quick workout, and cooking a meal or purchasing one on your way home from work, your significant other and you have the usual stress of cohabitating but nothing that is relationship ending, or maybe you're wondering if you are ever going to get married (speaking from past experience here).
You are normal.
There are a lot of people out there like you. You don't really suffer from pain, except for maybe that sprained ankle you got on your morning jog or a headache every now and then. Maybe your shoulders are a little tight, but nothing a good one hour massage can't help. You are in decent shape and eat relatively healthy or maybe not all the time because you've never lost your awesome metabolism. You have an occasional or the rare head cold, but that's it.
You maybe have dealt with the death of your grandparents but your parents are still alive and kicking, even if they are divorced or were never married in the first place.
You have a job that pays the bills, maybe you're not keeping up with the Jones's but you are doing ok for you or your family.
You've never honestly experienced a great tragedy even though that super painful breakup a few years back felt like one.
You may feel mired in stress but you don't stay in the valley for long, you get breaks in between stressful times.
Coffee is good for you. Drink it but don't go overboard and get the Marble Mocha Macchiato at Starbucks. This is a hidden menu item and I do suggest getting it at least once in your life...for a special occasion.
If you experience multiple painful chronic conditions or illness, you might want to stay away from coffee.
If you have had one stressful situation after another in a snowball effect that has gone on for a year or more.
IE: financial difficulty making ends meet, job loss, surgery, extensive dental work, hospitalization, moving, bronchitis or pneumonia, miscarriage, changing jobs (even if it's a better job), death, car accident, injuries, short incidences of severe - sharp pain, long-term chronic pain and debilitating conditions or diseases, unpleasant side effects to prescription medications, separation or divorce, abuse and trauma, etc.
Guess what? Any of the above issues can lead to Adrenal Fatigue and the more incidences you have the greater your risk for end-stage Adrenal Failure which is life-threatening.
On a scale of:
0 for Rarely or Never
1 for Occasionally or Mild
2 for Often or Moderately Intense
3 for Always or Severely Intense
Answer the following questions and be as pragmatic as possible
1. I suffer from Anorexia or Bulimia
2. I am chronically fatigued, a tiredness that is not relieved by one or two good nights of sleep.
3. I sometimes feel week all over
4. I have decreased tolerance for cold.
5. I have low blood pressure
6. I have times of nausea or vomiting for no apparent reason.
The following areas on the body have become bluish or black in color:
1. Inside of lips or mouth
2. Around nipples
3. For women only: Vagina
4. I have frequent unexplained diarrhea
5. I have increases of darkening around the bony areas, at folds in my skin, scars and the creases in my joints
6. I have light colored patches on my skin where the skin has lost its usual color.
7. I easily become dehydrated
8. I have fainting spells
So coffee?
If you have adrenal fatigue coffee is not going to be good for you. You need to get your body, adrenals, and hormones back in order before you decide to reintroduce coffee or at least decaf.
Coffee actually has cortisol in it which will throw off your already stressed adrenals even more. The caffeine also raises your cortisol higher in conjunction with the natural cortisol in coffee. It is simply not good for you.
That said, going off coffee is hard. I've done it several times in my lifetime and I always have to have something to replace it in the morning. For a while it was green tea, then it was white tea, but I always picked up coffee again.
Well, it is delicious and I do love the taste and its ritual.
So just like a Whole30, I'm going to treat my coffee detox with picking the right time to do it. August 15 sounds like a good day. I don't have anything pressing on my schedule for the rest of the month provided nothing weird happens. I'm also going to prepare by doing black tea for a week, then green tea for a week, to work my way down to white tea.
When fall hits I'm going to live for some yummy hot drinks like the Paleo Sachlav I just discovered as well as more yummy treats.
It is good for some people but not for others. It all depends on your overall health.
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