This being IMHO, my WAG is that coffee does “work” but the average person consumes so much caffeine through other sources that they become used to it and that cup of coffee only has a marginal effect.
Caffeine is a stimulant. It has scientifically recognized effects on body chemistry; however individuals have different levels of tolerance. There are plenty of published, peer-reviewed studies that show that caffeine has a stimulant effect. It is also mildly addictive, and going without it can cause headache, fatigue and irritability, so people who use it regularly may find that they feel terrible if they don’t use it.
There is a psychological component to people’s use of caffeinated beverages, but it is definitely not a placebo.
Short version, caffeine mimics a chemical in your body that makes you tired. The more caffeine you drink, the higher the sleepytime chemical levels can be before you need a nap. People who have trouble functioning without coffee probably have a slight dependence so the coffee is less about waking you up and more warding off withdrawal symptoms which can include headaches, stiffness, lethargy, etc.
Habitual coffee drinkers, whether they realize it or not, are usually drinking it to get themselves back to 0 as it were. They are as awake and functioning as someone who doesn’t consume caffeine. In order for caffeine to be really effective as a stimulant, it needs to be used occasionally, not regularly.
One of my sons drank a cup of coffee when he was 13 and we were moving. He turned into the Energizer Bunny (which was a good thing). Now he’s an addict and an aficionado. Hand grinder, French press, custom blend.
I used to be much the same way. Now I just need it, or I’ll get a great whomping headache and fuzzy brain.
I think, at first, it does stimulate. Then you just need it to keep the physical symptoms away. Well, mental symptoms too.
My takeaway is that if you aren’t a heavy caffeine drinker then caffeine probably doesn’t do much for you. But once you’re on the treadmill, it’s difficult to get off: complete with headaches and anxiety?
Caffeine doesn’t have the same effect on everyone and the reason is suspected to be genetic. I have never noticed it do anything beneficial for me. At really high doses like taking many No-Doz pills at once (don’t try it yourself), it just caused hand tremors and anxiety but it still didn’t wake me up at all. I am neutral on coffee but I can go years between trying it again I don’t find the taste all that pleasant or the effects to be beneficial. I could have a cup right now and go straight to bed even though I don’t really consume any significant amount of caffeine on a daily basis. I sometimes wish it did work for me because that could be beneficial at times but it doesn’t.
Yes, coffee works. All hail the great black bean, all glory to my god caffeine.
One common misconception that I notice is that people confuse strong-tasting coffee with strongly-stimulating coffee. The heat of the roasting destroys the caffeine, so the darker the roast, the less kick it has. Most people I know assume the opposite, which has lead some of them to assert that coffee doesn’t work.
As a self-admitted caffeine addict who gets headaches if I don’t drink a cup per day, I can confirm this. Also, you can add tolerance to this effect, so over time it will take even more or stronger coffee to get you back up to zero. This exact mechanism also applies to harder and illegal stimulants, like cocaine and methamphetamine. The only difference is how much further down you go, and how much harder it is to get back to zero.
There is a high inverse correlation between coffee drinking and erectile dysfunction, with the hard facts favoring the coffee drinkers. By a statistically significant margin, ED presents with the lowest frequency among men who drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day, with higher rates of ED among those who rarely drink coffee, or those who drink more than three.
I leave it to you to google the studies and evaluate them, rather than to link to one cherry-picked.
Good question! Most caffeine substances (soda, chocolate) do little to my heart rate or BP. Coffee kicks both to seriously high levels such that my docs have me on a lifetime warning to stick to useless warm brown water (Sanka). Why has never been explained well to me but I’ve got the reading on record to know that its true for me; coffee is somehow unique.
I don’t drink coffee, but I do get a little caffeine from colas and tea (no more than one serving a day). I find that caffeine has exactly three effects on me: First, it keeps me from falling asleep. But that’s not much use, because second, it kills my attention span. And third, it makes me pee. If I have work I need to do, I make it a point to not get any caffeine, because the second and third effects more than make up for any benefit from the first.
I’m sorry to admit that I am physically addicted to caffeine. If I don’t drink coffee in the evening, I will wake in the small hours with a blinding headache. I need coffee in order to sleep.
My parents did not drink coffee, so it was not in the house. As a child, I tasted coffee once and found it to be awful.
My freshman year of college, I’d been up all night studying for a test. A friend and I decided to go out for breakfast before the test. At the restaurant, the meal I wanted came with coffee. The waitress wouldn’t allow me to substitute tea for coffee, so I got the coffee and drank it. My life changed within minutes. Gone was the tiredness, the despair, the bad outlook on life. Suddenly I had energy and determination and was eager to tackle the world.
That was over 40 years ago, and I have not voluntarily gone without a morning cup of coffee since then. The days I can’t get my morning coffee are bad bad days.
Coffee the miracle beverage: legal, non-fattening, non-carcinogenic.*
You (well, I) could probably say the opposite as well. If you drink a lot, it probably doesn’t do much for you other than keep you going and ward off headaches. On the other hand, you have people like me. I have almost no caffeine intake whatsoever. I drink no coffee at all. No ‘oohhhh, a little here and there’, like actually none, after trying to get myself to like it, I figured out that the itchy feeling in my throat was an allergic response to it, so I stopped trying. Even those Bai drinks trigger it. I also don’t drink any soda at all, just don’t like them. Other than tonic in gin/vodka & tonics, I’ve had, literally, less than a can of soda, ever.
Having said that, I can take a caffeine pill and I’m pretty wired. I could go outside and repave the street from here to the next city over. No trouble at all, won’t take more than an hour or so.*
Let’s see someone that drinks 6 cups of coffee a day do that.
*Okay, maybe not a project that ambitions, but it feels like I could.
Aging has changed me. I used to binge on sugary beverages like coke and other soft drinks in the morning and throughout the day. I still sometimes like a nice, ice-cold pop on a hot summer day (followed by water of course, as soda doesn’t really hydrate you so well). I reached my peak soda/coke consumption probably in my mid-20s before switching to coffee-flavored drinks and eventually just straight coffee (thanks, Starbucks).
For the past 10-15 years I’ve probably started my day with 2 cups of black coffee and I sometimes take a hit of stale, un-drunk, room temp coffee later in the day. I now find as I get older that I need to start my day with water, then coffee. I could probably do without coffee but the transition would be hard.
