A cup at home in the morning, in the office in the morning, after the midday slump and again in the afternoon with cake: many of us don’t just drink a cup of coffee a day.
The ideal number is around 3 cups of coffee a day. The popular hot drink also has many positive effects, for example on our digestion. As is well known, the amount makes the poison. We clarify the most important questions and also reveal when you have drunk too much coffee.
There are 7 points to tell you that you have drunk too much coffee
What happens if you drink too much caffeine? If you are asking yourself this question, you probably already have a very high coffee consumption and may already be feeling the first signs. We will now tell you what symptoms can occur.
1. You are very thirsty
Coffee removes water from our bodies. As a result, we feel more and more thirsty and reach for the water bottle more often. This in turn leads to a constant urge to urinate. If you notice this happening, you may have drunk too much coffee.
2. You sleep restlessly
Anyone who drinks coffee after 4 p.m. actually has a negative impact on the quality of their sleep at night. Are you often restless, tossing and turning, or even have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? Then you should try to limit your coffee consumption to the first half of the day.
3. You have diarrhea
Many coffee drinkers will have noticed that the hot drink has an effect on our digestive tract. Usually this is positive – it stimulates muscles and leads to regular bowel movements. However, if you drink too much coffee, you will experience unpleasant side effects: the effect can intensify and actually have a laxative effect. If this happens to you, you know – that was one cup too many.
4. You have palpitations
The caffeine it contains wakes us up and promotes our concentration. However, if we overdo it with our coffee consumption, these effects become more negative. This can lead to unpleasant palpitations in the body.
5. You get a headache
Although coffee can be good for migraines, too much of the caffeine drink has the opposite effect and triggers unpleasant headache attacks. Watch for yourself here at what point the whole thing starts to tip over and you have drunk too much coffee.
6. Your blood sugar levels rise
Anyone who has drunk too much coffee early in the morning on an empty stomach may experience negative consequences. For example, a study by the Center for Nutrition in Great Britain showed that black coffee before breakfast can increase our blood sugar levels by up to 50 percent. This can not only cause symptoms such as stomach pain, nausea and fatigue, but can also promote the development of diabetes.
7. You get depressed
Another health effect that heavy coffee drinkers should be aware of: The caffeine contained in coffee puts the body in an artificial stress situation, as adrenaline is released here. Anyone who does this frequently puts their body in a constant state of alarm. This can result in fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, insomnia, irritability and even depression.
When did you drink too much coffee?
You can tell whether you have drunk too much coffee by looking at specific symptoms. If you are overexcited or even nervous, your eyelids twitch and you have to go to the toilet frequently, it could be that you have consumed too much coffee. A disturbed sleep rhythm as well as a racing heart and headaches also indicate that you are drinking too much coffee. So watch your body very closely – even if up to four cups of coffee a day is usually harmless, this does not mean that you can tolerate that much.
How does coffee affect the body?
The uplifting effect of caffeine usually occurs after 15 to 30 minutes. However, how quickly caffeine is broken down in the body can vary from person to person. This is primarily influenced by genes. Caffeine works for up to twice as long in women as in men. Young people and pregnant women react differently to the substance than older people, for example. In smokers, the concentration of caffeine in the body tends to fall more quickly than in non-smokers, and medications can also have an influence on how and for how long a coffee works. This is also the reason why some people react more intensely to side effects such as sleep disorders than others.
What are the effects of drinking coffee every day?
There’s nothing wrong with drinking coffee every day. It always depends on the quantity. The more coffee we drink, the more natural it becomes for us and the inhibition threshold becomes lower. We drink more and more coffee without really realizing it. You can then tell from the symptoms mentioned above whether you have drunk too much coffee. Then it can sometimes make sense to go through a caffeine withdrawal.
Why shouldn’t you drink coffee?
Coffee affects every person differently. If you notice that even small amounts of caffeine make you restless or cause other symptoms, then you should avoid coffee. An alternative would then be to use decaffeinated coffee and check whether the symptoms go away.
By Laura Carstens