Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Coffee - The Safety Factor
Coffee may increase anxiety, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart and respiration rate, and secretion of stomach acid. It may cause insomnia, irritability, and nervousness. Caffeine has also been implicated in cancer, heart disease, anxiety neuroses, and birth defects. One recent report noted: “If caffeine were a newly synthesized drug, its manufacturer would almlost certainly have great difficulty getting it licensed under current [Food and Drug Administration] regulations. If it were licensed, it would almost certainly be available only by prescription.”
More than the Jitters
When you drink more coffee than you’re used to. what happens? As every coffee drinker knows, you get jittery and impatient and have trouble falling asleep Individual reactions to caffeine vary, but over time, large amounts cause “caffeinism,” a condition with the same symptoms as anxiety neurosis: nervousness and irritability, chronic muscle tension, insomnia, heart palpitations, diarrhea, heartburn, and stomach upset. In fact, many people are misdiagnosed with “anxiety neurosis” when the problem is actually caffeinism, according to a report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Not everyone who quits or cuts back develops withdrawal symptoms, but most do. The throbbing headache usually begins within 18 to 24 hours and lasts a few days. Constipation is also possible for a day or two.
Special Orders for Special Conditions
- Coffee increases secretion of stomach acid. Those with ulcers or other chronic digestive disorders should use it sparingly, if at all.
- Three cups of brewed coffee can boost blood pressure as much as 15 percent. If you have this risk factor for heart disease and stroke, discuss your coffee consumption with your physician.
- Even a moderate coffee habit, a cup or two each morning, may boost blood cholesterol levels by about 5 percent. Five to 10 cups a day may boost it by as much as 10 percent.
But recently, researchers discovered that only boiled coffee appears to raise cholesterol. Drip and instant apparently do not, for reasons that remain a mystery.
If your cholesterol level is high enough to put you at increased risk of heart disease, discuss your coffee consumption with your physician. If you don’t stop drinking it, make sure you use only drip or instant.
- Independent of coffee’s action on cholesterol and blood pressure, it also increases risk of heart attack. Drinking five cups a day almost doubles heart attack risk, and ten cups almost triples it, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
If you have heart disease or a history of stroke, discuss your coffee consumption with your physician.
- Many animal studies link caffeine with an increased risk of birth defects. The doses given to the experimental animals were much higher than what even heavy coffee drinkers consume. But prudence suggests that pregnant women limit their consumption.
- Coffee has been linked to cancers of the breast, bladder, ovaries, pancreas, and prostate gland. All of these reports have subsequently been disputed. Several have been thoroughly debunked. Coffee’s contribution to human cancer, if any, remains unclear. However, the roasting process introduces pro-cancer chemicals into coffee beans. People with a history of cancer might want to limit their consumption.
- Some studies link caffeine to painful, non-cancerous breast lumps (fibrocysts). a normal but annoying condition. Women bothered by a fibrocystic breast condition might try cutting out all caffeine-in coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, soft drinks, and over-the-counter drugs-and seeing if their condition improves.
- In one study, women who drank two to four cups of brewed coffee a day suffered five times the rate of bloating and other premenstrual symptoms of those who abstained.
- Coffee interferes with iron absorption, a potential problem for people with iron-deficiency anemia, or for women who experience heavy menstrual flow.
Coffee and Conception
Women who drink 1 cup of brewed coffee a day are only about half as likely to get pregnant as those who don’t, according to a study conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health. Women attempting to conceive, especially those with a history infertility, are advised to limit their intake of beverages or drugs containing caffeine.
On the other hand, researchers agree caffeine should not be used as a contraceptive, because its fertility-reducing effect is highly unreliable. You’d be foolish to use it as a contraceptive.
How Safe Is It?
Until recently, the Food and Drug Administration listed coffee among the herbs generally regarded as safe, but publicity concerning caffeine’s many health hazards has prompted the agency to reconsider coffee’s status.
For otherwise healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults who have no history of ulcers, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, anxiety, fertility problems, or heart disease and are not taking other medications containing caffeine, coffee is considered relatively safe in amounts of up to three brewed cups per day.
Coffee should be used in medicinal amounts only in consultation with your doctor. If coffee causes insomnia, stomach distress, anxiety or any of the other problems discussed above, use less or stop using it Let your doctor know if you experience any unpleasant effects or if the symptoms for which the herb is being used do not improve significantly ill two weeks.
Pretty as a Houseplant
Coffee grows in tropical areas around the world. The plant is an evergreen shrub 01 small tree with two-seeded, bright crimson fruits. The green seeds (beans) are extracted and roasted to produce the dark brown, oily beans recognized the world over. (Most of the world’s supply consists of the Arabian arabica species. But liberica, from Liberia, and robusta, from the Congo, are also cultivated worldwide.)
You can, however, grow a coffee plant purely as an ornamental if you live in a sunny, humid area where the temperature does not dip below 60°F. The plant requires full sun, moist air, moist soil, good drainage, and regular feeding. Coffee plants are also available as house plants. Again, they require full sun and high humidity. They grow well in greenhouses, but not in homes with forced-air heating, which tend to be too dry. Consult your local nursery or plant store.