Participants: Margot Marshall (Host), Dr. Eddie Ramirez
Series Code: HL
Program Code: HL000017A
|
00:14 Welcome to "Healthy Living!"
00:16 I'm your host Margot Marshall. 00:18 Today we are talking about caffeine. 00:21 Does it really help with alertness? 00:23 You might be surprised! 00:26 Are there major problems associated with its consumption? 00:29 And, are there therapies to deal with withdrawal? 00:33 Stay tuned for the answers. 01:12 Caffeine's claim to fame is its purported ability 01:15 to increase alertness. 01:17 Some people say they need caffeine 01:19 just to function properly. 01:21 Let's see what my guest, Dr. Eddie Ramirez, 01:24 has to say about that. 01:26 Welcome Eddie! Thank you. 01:28 And what do you have to say about the claim of 01:31 caffeine actually increasing alertness, 01:34 is that a good claim? 01:35 You know, there was a very good, well-designed study 01:38 from "Bristol University" in the United Kingdom, 01:42 in which they had almost 400 participants and what they did, 01:47 they started to measure their levels of alertness and the 01:53 different effects that caffeine was having in them, 01:57 and what they found was shocking! 01:58 They found out that these people actually created 02:04 a tolerance to the effects of caffeine. 02:07 So the researchers reported in the research paper 02:11 that caffeine drinkers, they're drinking the caffeine 02:16 not because it makes them alert, but because it makes them 02:21 feel normal. 02:23 See, as the effects of the caffeine withdrawal during 02:28 the day, you can see here on the screen how the people 02:34 that were feeling normal - that were not drinking caffeine 02:39 continued to feel normal the whole day. 02:42 The caffeine drinker at the beginning that you see on 02:44 the left side of your graphic, you see that they did not feel 02:49 good and not until they drank coffee they felt alert 02:53 and "normal." 02:56 So this study teaches us that you don't need to 03:01 drink caffeine to feel alert. 03:04 And this is another interesting point - the researchers 03:07 in the publication reported that the withdrawal symptoms 03:12 of caffeine were similar to having chemotherapy 03:17 in your body. That sounds terrible! 03:21 So the reason why you are drinking coffee and you think, 03:25 "Well, I need it for the morning," you know 03:29 unconsciously that if you don't drink that coffee, 03:32 you're going to have those severe side effects 03:34 inside of you - that's why you drink coffee and not 03:38 because it makes you alert. 03:39 It just makes you feel normal. 03:41 Well if you didn't drink it, you would be normal 03:44 all the time. 03:46 So what you're saying is normal people are normal all the time, 03:51 (That's right) coffee drinkers are only 03:52 at that level of alertness when they drink the coffee 03:57 and they didn't know it but if they didn't 03:59 drink it, they would feel at that high level all day. 04:03 I don't know if that's going to be good news 04:06 to all the people because I think it's fairly 04:08 addictive as well, isn't it? 04:09 Yes, and you know, in the world I move in, in the medical world, 04:15 you go to the hospital and you will see many doctors 04:19 with their cup of coffee. I don't drink coffee. 04:23 And you know, I remember years ago when I was in medical 04:26 school - I was in the inhumane duties of 36 hours continuously 04:32 in the hospital and I can tell you, I would do those 04:36 36 hours without a single drop of coffee. 04:41 I did not need that because I knew the side effects of it, 04:45 And you know, as I tell my patients, I don't want to be 04:51 a hypocrite - if I'm telling you something, it's because 04:54 I'm putting that in my life. 04:57 Where would the conviction come from if I was not doing that. 05:02 When I tell my patient - "You do exercise," it's because 05:05 I do exercise. 05:06 And look, I was very impressed this morning, very early, 05:10 there you were out in the weather and doing your running, 05:13 so that was very good. 05:15 You are a very good example of what you tell us to do. 05:20 And you know, there are many sources today of caffeine. 05:27 Yes, it seems to be just popping up everywhere! 05:30 And many people may not be aware of their intake of the caffeine. 05:34 Yes, I mean things that don't ordinarily or it's just not 05:38 there in the drink to start with - it's actually added. 05:40 Is that to make it an addictive drink? 05:43 Absolutely! Caffeine is one of the most addictive things 05:47 that you can find. 05:49 You can see on the screen some of the common sources 05:51 such as coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate 05:55 and even some pain relievers may have some caffeine. 06:00 Alright, so soft drinks didn't always - some of them did, 06:04 but some soft drinks didn't always have caffeine, 06:07 did they, or not as much. 06:09 That's right and it also depends. 06:11 Some people think, "Well, only the black ones have caffeine." 06:16 Not necessarily, there are some clear ones that have caffeine. 06:21 So I encourage my patients, "Go ahead and read labels." 06:26 When you read the label, then you will see 06:29 if it has caffeine. 06:30 Another very common source is the famous "energy drinks" 06:36 that they call them. 06:38 See, I have seen even people going to the E.R. 06:42 from drinking these types of drinks. 06:45 They have so much caffeine. 06:47 The E.R. is the emergency department - yes, 06:50 at the hospital. 06:53 So these things are not only bad for their mind, 06:59 but actually can be dangerous literally. 07:03 What else? What other bad effects are there? 07:06 There was a very interesting study done by "Loma Linda 07:10 University" a few years ago. 07:13 What they did - they had a spider and this poor spider 07:18 received a dose-adjusted level of what you would drink 07:24 of two cups of caffeine, of coffee - that amount of 07:29 coffee of course adjusted to the weight of the spider. 07:32 And you know, they put this spider to do its normal 07:36 web - it couldn't do it. 07:37 It just made a mess on that web. 07:40 It took 96 hours for the caffeine to go out of the 07:47 system and then the spider was able to make its proper web. 07:53 Now you may be saying, "Well, but I'm not a spider." 07:57 Yes, I know you're not a spider, but in the same way that 08:01 you have a nervous system, spiders have a nervous system, 08:05 and the way that caffeine interferes with your nervous 08:09 system, it also interferes with the nervous 08:12 system of the spider. 08:14 I'm just trying to do the mental arithmetic - that must be 08:16 around about four days, is that right? That's right! 08:19 To be able to function normally and that's not 08:23 something that I think any of us want to see happen. 08:25 I want to be able to function well, yes! 08:29 And you know, we have something that would be 08:31 equivalent to the brakes. 08:34 When you are talking to somebody and you shouldn't 08:38 be saying something - there's some brakes in your brain 08:41 that says, "Wait, wait, don't say that." 08:43 Well, there is research actually that shows that if 08:48 you have caffeine on board, you have higher risk of 08:54 gossiping - I don't know if you guys have that 08:55 problem here in Australia, of gossiping? 08:57 Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Laughter. 09:00 You're actually at higher risk of gossiping, 09:05 of saying something you should not say or you're not part of 09:09 that solution. 09:11 Wow, so how does that work? 09:14 The reason why that happens is because the brakes 09:19 in your head - when you are under the effects of caffeine, 09:23 you are moving the brakes. Let me ask you... 09:27 Oh, like the brakes in a car. 09:28 Would you get in the car without brakes? Okay. 09:31 Many people - that's the first thing they do as they 09:36 wake up - they take away their brakes! 09:39 You wouldn't drive a car without brakes. No. 09:42 There are many people that remove the brakes 09:45 from their head first thing. 09:47 And something that is confusing to many people 09:50 is that there is research that may show certain benefits 09:55 from caffeine. Okay. 09:57 And you know, you need to be careful - sometimes certain 10:03 research, I do lots of research, and sometimes 10:05 certain research has an agenda. 10:08 And whenever I read a scientific paper, 10:11 I always like to see who is sponsoring this. Yes. 10:16 And you will see that many of these good news about 10:20 caffeine type of studies are sponsored by the 10:26 industries that have links to coffee or soft drinks 10:31 or so forth industries. 10:33 So people like to hear good news about their bad habits! 10:40 That's the reason why something comes up, 10:43 man - you're going to read it in the newspaper; on the internet; 10:46 you're gonna see it on the television. 10:48 Yet I've seen, because I read a lot of research, 10:51 that sometimes another paper came at the same time 10:56 talking about the negative effects of caffeine and 10:59 so forth, you don't hear absolutely anything about it. 11:03 That's really bad, isn't it? Really, really bad! 11:06 I remember, going back some years, it was in the country 11:10 in West Australia living there and I went to Sydney 11:14 for a conference and I thought, "Oh, on the way back I'll just 11:18 I'll get a mammogram," so I booked in on short notice, 11:20 and then I was preparing to do that - they said, "Oh, you're 11:25 not supposed to have had coffee for 48 hours 11:28 before having a mammogram. 11:29 And I said, "Oh not a problem, I haven't had any for 48 years 11:32 cause I was 48 at the time, but I was puzzled about that. 11:37 And so when it was all over, I said, "Look, I'm just curious, 11:40 what's the connection between drinking coffee 11:43 and having a mammogram?" 11:44 And they said, "Oh well, a lot of women experience 11:47 breast pain routinely and when they pull that clamp down 11:55 that could make it a lot worse." 11:56 And so I was just intrigued about that but what they 12:00 said was that a lot of women, when they go off caffeine or 12:04 coffee, whatever it is they're using for the 48 hours, 12:08 the breast pain that they've been having for years 12:10 isn't there anymore. 12:11 My own wife, she used to 12:16 drink a lot of soda pop, the black type, 12:23 with cola and she had this tremendous pain in her breast, 12:30 and not only that, little cysts started to come about. 12:34 She goes to the doctor, the doctor identifies 12:37 some of those cysts and she asked her about her habits, 12:40 this was before we got married, and she said the amount of 12:46 soda that she was drinking, more than 12 cans per week, 12:51 (Okay) the doctor said you have to stop drinking that soda. 12:55 She stopped - the pain went away. 12:59 Who wants to live with pain? 13:00 I mean, that's a good thing to know. 13:03 I hope it's going to be helping some people out there. 13:05 I know when you really love something, it's hard to think 13:08 about not having it but I guess you weigh up. 13:11 So also it affects many systems and people don't realize that. 13:17 For example, the stomach is something that suffers 13:20 very much every time you drink caffeine. 13:23 When you are drinking caffeine, you are actually creating 13:28 problems with some little doors. 13:32 You have some little doors that are called "sphincters" 13:34 in your stomach and those little doors are supposed 13:40 to close when there's food so digestion can take place 13:44 properly, but see when you are drinking caffeine, any source 13:50 of caffeine, those little doors start to malfunction - so they 13:56 may open and when you're doing digestion it's like a little 14:01 washing machine, you know, it moves quite a bit 14:04 the food and so forth. 14:05 So as it's doing that mechanical work, the acid from the 14:10 stomach starts coming up and things like heartburn and 14:15 these types of problems, the person stops drinking 14:20 caffeine and many people get beneficial effects from it. 14:25 Not only the little doors problem but also ulcers. 14:30 We know very well, you are at higher risk of having 14:33 a stomach ulcer if you are a regular caffeine drinker. 14:41 And also the brain - if you want to see this with your 14:45 own eyes, visit my page: dreddieramirez.com 14:50 There, I have a video that shows how just drinking one cup of 14:57 caffeine will decrease your blood flow in 40% 15:02 in your brain. Forty percent? 15:04 Forty percent! This is measured with a functional MRI, 15:10 so you have the before and the after. 15:12 You can go and see it with your own eyes. 15:15 This is a clip from the news. 15:18 And this is not good - see, for the health of your brain, 15:25 you want to have as much blood flow as possible, 15:28 not decrease the blood flow. 15:31 That's a very, very powerful finding. 15:33 I'm just pretty shocked actually because that's almost 15:35 half of the oxygen that's meant to be, 15:37 you know, it's half the blood. 15:39 Absolutely! That's the reason why when you are under the 15:42 effects of caffeine, you may do things maybe a little bit 15:45 faster but you commit the double-errors. 15:49 So especially if you are like a university student, 15:53 high school student, that's the last thing you want 15:56 in your system before your test because why would you 16:00 want to decrease the blood flow to your brain and especially 16:03 the frontal lobe. 16:05 The frontal lobe is when you evaluate if something 16:09 is correct or not correct. 16:11 Here you are on a test asking you a question, multiple 16:15 answers - they're trying to trick you and you don't know 16:19 which one you're going to choose and then you 16:21 decrease the blood flow - it's even worse, you know, 16:25 and you are going to be at high 16:26 risk of choosing the wrong answer. 16:28 And it's not just students and not just people being 16:31 tested, it's just our everyday life - we need to 16:34 have everything going for us to be able to make good 16:36 decisions and function well. That's right! 16:38 Another problem also is with females 16:40 and especially bone health. 16:44 This is something very well published, very well researched. 16:48 We know that when you are drinking caffeine, you are 16:52 actually throwing away the calcium from your bones. 16:56 And you know, here in Australia, osteoporosis is a huge 17:01 problem. Yes, it is. 17:02 And why put more gasoline on the fire - stop it, you know, 17:09 don't damage your bones. 17:12 So when you are drinking coffee, there are even 17:15 studies that show that young girls, when they drink coffee, 17:19 the risk of fracture increases even at a young age. 17:24 Even at the young age - that's really bad because 17:26 normally your bones are strengthening 17:28 while you are young. 17:29 That's exactly what you're supposed to be doing 17:32 before you get to menopause, you want to make sure 17:35 you have the strongest bones possible - very good point! 17:39 Well I just hope this is going down well with our people 17:42 tuning in because there must be some ways that we can 17:47 deal with this or I mean, I guess people get withdrawals 17:50 if they do... 17:51 Let me give you the plan I share with my patients. 17:55 but let me just mention two more things. 17:57 Coffee will also throw away your vitamin B6 18:03 and iron in your body. 18:06 I tell them that this is the contradictory drug. 18:10 I have people that come for consultations and they ask 18:13 me - "Doctor can I get a supplement of vitamin B6? 18:16 Can I get some iron? Can I get some calcium?" 18:20 And then I ask them, "Do you drink coffee?" "Well, yes." 18:23 Here they are drinking something they are going to throw away. 18:28 There is no need for this to happen. 18:33 So what strategy are we going to use to conquer 18:37 the problem of caffeine? 18:39 Well what do you tell your patients? 18:41 Well, #1 I tell them that they would benefit from some 18:45 simple hydrotherapy and hydrotherapy is 18:49 the use of water in a wise way. 18:53 So what I want you to do if you want to conquer 18:57 caffeine usage, you make sure that you are starting 19:01 your day with a nice hot shower, 3 minutes, followed by 19:07 1 minute cold. 19:11 Three minutes hot, 1 minute cold and you're going to 19:15 do this two or three times. 19:16 How cold are we talking about? 19:18 The younger you are, the higher the contrast. 19:22 So please use common sense, if you are a little bit more 19:26 advanced in age, that contrast shouldn't be that much. 19:31 What you're doing with this, I call this 19:33 "the vegetarian coffee!" It will wake you up! 19:37 You don't need a coffee to make yourself alert! 19:42 So instead of grabbing your coffee, you start your day 19:46 with this tip - that hot shower followed by cold. 19:50 If you're having some troubles with nervousness and so forth, 19:56 I'm going to give you two strategies. 19:58 You can see them on the screen. 19:59 You can go into a neutral temperature bathtub. 20:03 It's not hot, it's not cold, it's about the temperature 20:07 of your body that relaxes the nerves or #2. 20:12 You want to put some ice in the back of your head 20:17 and that actually helps relieve many of the 20:20 headache problems, okay? Okay. 20:23 So, hydrotherapy. 20:25 #2. What you can do is you can eat a good, healthy 20:30 breakfast! 20:32 Many people eat too much in the evening, and you know, 20:37 the stomach is tired - it's been working the whole night, 20:44 so the morning comes and it says, "You know, forget it, 20:47 no more food." So you're not hungry 20:50 because your stomach has been working hard the whole night. 20:55 This is a big problem is a big problem in Australia. 20:58 A lot of people skip breakfast, children skip breakfast, 21:01 many, many people and, of course, then what happens 21:03 is as the day wears into the midmorning, 21:06 they're hungry and they eat, but it's not usually 21:10 something that you would eat at a meal. That's right! 21:13 You might talk about what it is, it's not healthy. 21:15 It's as if you're starting to drive 21:17 towards Brisbane, what do you do? 21:18 The first thing you do, you fill in the gasoline tank, 21:21 then you go with the proper amount of petrol. 21:25 But, you're starting the day, why not put some good high 21:30 octane type of quality of food. 21:33 So a good plant-based diet with whole grains, maybe some 21:41 legumes and something that tastes good that fills you up. 21:47 It should be the biggest meal of the day. 21:50 Do you know, whenever I ask groups and say, 21:52 "What's the most important meal of the day?" 21:54 and you get a chorus, "Breakfast!" They know! 21:57 Everybody knows, but I don't know the figure, but it could be 22:02 somewhere around a third of Australians, somewhere 22:04 there, I think, who don't actually eat it. 22:07 We KNOW, but we don't do it, and you just really 22:10 put your finger on why that is because of that BIG 22:14 evening meal and your poor stomach, by morning, 22:17 it's feeling like "It's my turn for a rest, you know, 22:19 I've been working all night while you've been sleeping," 22:21 and so that's where you have to start, is it? 22:24 And it's not only a bad habit, 22:26 it's actually bad for your health. 22:29 You actually can end up with something like reflux 22:34 in your stomach every night because as you lay down 22:37 with the stomach full, when you lay down, 22:39 you push the upper door that I was mentioning, 22:42 the acid comes up, it burns there and you can 22:45 actually get yourself a cancer in the esophagus 22:50 if you burn night after night, after night that. 22:54 So what you need to do is 3 hours before going to bed, 22:59 should be your last meal. 23:01 Another point, avoid tobacco! 23:06 You can even see it in their name - - 23:08 "caf-fe-ine, ni-co-tine," they are actually 23:12 close cousins those two substances, 23:16 and one calls for the other one. 23:20 So, if you are drinking coffee, 23:26 you may be calling for that nicotine. 23:28 So what I recommend to my patients is - let's tackle 23:31 both at the same time. 23:33 So both of them, they need to go away. 23:37 There's a program that has been offered here in Australia, 23:43 "Breathe Freely," it's called. Yes. 23:45 Yes, I've seen some of that. Excellent! Excellent! 23:48 It's an excellent program. 23:49 I would recommend it to anybody that wants to quit smoking. 23:53 Just Google where in your close location is that 23:58 program being offered. 23:59 And also, make sure that you are drinking enough water! 24:04 This is a huge problem, we could just talk about 24:07 this for a long time. 24:09 But let me tell you this, when a patient comes to the 24:13 hospital, we have to measure their liquids and so forth, 24:22 and nurses do some mathematics to make sure 24:25 that the patient is having enough liquids 24:27 in them and so forth. 24:29 And I can tell you, many people don't have 24:34 enough liquids on board. 24:37 They drink all kinds of things except water! 24:39 So when you are going to start doing higher water intake, 24:44 the water is going to help cleanse the system. 24:47 How do you know you have enough water on board? 24:49 Watch your urine - it needs to be clear and without smell. 24:54 Oh yes and it's interesting, I think caffeine, 24:58 coffee and so on, they actually dehydrate, 25:00 don't they? Absolutely! 25:01 You take away more water than what you put. 25:05 So some people say, "Well okay, you're taking away my coffee, 25:08 what am I gonna do?" 25:09 Well, why don't you switch that 25:12 for a herbal tea without caffeine. 25:17 We don't have the time but there are some major issues 25:21 both with black tea and green tea. 25:25 I know this is an inheritance that the British gave you here. 25:29 It is tradition and so forth, but the caffeine content 25:34 is not good for you. 25:36 The green tea, I've seen that with my own eyes in Africa. 25:42 Before you harvest green tea, you hit the plant with a stick. 25:46 The reason why you do that is you want to make the plant 25:49 "angry" - it releases all kinds of toxic substances 25:53 and then you harvest. 25:55 See, if you hit that plant and you bring a goat, 25:58 the goat wouldn't eat that plant because when it tastes 26:01 it, he says, "This is bad, I don't want this." 26:02 Yet what do we do as humans? 26:04 We pick it up and make a tea out of it. 26:08 Do not do that! You are consuming very toxic substances. 26:13 Yes, there are a few antioxidants there, but that 26:16 does not justify the negative affects that people have. 26:20 They talk about goats being silly, that seems like 26:23 in that case, we're sillier than the goat. That's right! 26:27 The next thing I want you to do, I want you to do exercise. 26:31 See, substitute the coffee habit with a good morning walk! 26:38 That morning, invigorating walk will help you start the day 26:44 on with the right leg. 26:48 And when you are doing your exercise, I want you to be 26:53 thankful; I want you to think of positive things; 26:56 I want you to start the day in the proper way, 27:01 and it will give you that energy, it will open your 27:04 appetite so you can come home and eat your good breakfast, 27:07 then you go to the activity of the day. 27:10 Yes, all that sounds like a really good lineup 27:13 of things to do and that's been really very helpful. 27:16 One last one - I want to give you a Bible promise! 27:21 And that Bible promise is found in Jeremiah 32:27. 27:27 It says - "I am the God of all flesh, is there anything 27:32 too hard for Me?" 27:34 For God, there are no impossibles. 27:37 That's beautiful and it's really important I think. 27:41 Whenever - I mean change is really a challenging thing. 27:44 And it's very useful to tap into spiritual resources when we're 27:47 going to make any changes. 27:49 There are two laws of change; one is "change is inevitable," 27:53 and "change will be resisted." That's right! 27:56 So I don't know how people out there are feeling about 27:58 what we've been hearing. 27:59 Certainly you've given us a lot of good reasons 28:02 to avoid caffeine. 28:04 You've given us a lot of good strategies 28:06 on how to deal with that and the side effects. 28:11 So I hope that's been very helpful for you and you can 28:15 watch our programs on demand if you want to visit our website at 28:19 3abnaustralia.org.au 28:22 and just click on the watch button. 28:24 We hope you'll join us next time 28:26 as we discuss more secrets of healthy living. |
Revised 2019-10-03