July 4, 2013 • 40 mins
A Cuppa Joe:Just what's in a cup of coffee? Why does it make us feel so invincible and why does it make us poop so much? Find out in this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, why don't we stuff to boil
your mind? My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie. Julie.
Is there a lot of coffee in your house? Are
you a coffee household? Yes? How do you make your coffee?
You know? I put a lot of creamer in it
(00:23):
and a lot of sugar. Yeah. What kind of device
do you use? I'm weak sauce when it comes to this. Well,
you know, a standard coffee machine? Yeah. I don't know
if someone asked me if if our coffee machine had
been seasoned, and I was like, what do you mean
season and apparently like if you brew a certain amount
of times then infuses your coffee with a better flavor. Yeah.
(00:44):
Seasoned is often a term for gross stup, you know, like, yeah,
that's there enough stuff growing in or on your kitchen
implement to give it as the desired flavor. Then yes, yea,
it is seasoned. What about you? We we use um,
just like we have a standard Mr Coffee. Um, We've
tried to use different you know, perculators and stuff and
never quite works out. When I was coming back to
Mr Coffee and then I also bring out the French
(01:06):
breasts if I want to do something a little nicer.
I knew you had the fancy pants when it came
to coffee, that is not No, I don't even begin
to have fancy pants because there are so many complex
ways of making coffee. There's so many different cold brew devices,
and of course pour over is the big thing these days.
And uh, I'm I'm really I mean, I'm not a
(01:27):
straight up, you know, instant coffee drinker. I'm not I'm
not a tencent cup kind of a guy, but I'm
I'm definitely far from fancy. Well, all I know is that, um,
there was like a month here at how stuff works
when our our bean supply got really low, and you
you were the person who blaze the trails and saying
(01:48):
we must fortify the being supply. So I know it's
important to you. Coffee is important to me. I I
drink coffee every day, and if I forget to drink it,
my my body is quick to remind me that I
forgot to drink it. And uh, and I like a
good cup of coffee, but I'm just not not as
as picky as a lot of people are. And uh,
(02:09):
and maybe my tasting coffee is just not as nuance.
But but I do love love a good cup of coffee. Well,
I mean, this is one of those things that you
could discuss this for hours and hours. You can talk
about shade grow and you can talk about fair trade.
We're not going to talk about those aspects, nor are
we going to talk about the different ritals um that exist.
All fascinating, but we're gonna to kind of go into
what coffee is doing to your brain in some of
(02:32):
the benefits of coffee. And uh, first I wanted to
point out something about coffee, or caffeine in particular, that
it is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance on Earth.
I don't think that's surprising. In North America, around adults
report using caffeine every day, eighteen billion dollar business in
the US, and there are more than sixteen billion pounds
(02:54):
of coffee beings produced per year in the US. That
is a lot of psychoactivity. And the number one consumption
of coffee in the United States Gas No New York City.
Oh yes, that would that would make a lot more sense. Yeah, um,
coffee one oh one. Here, let's go through some of
(03:16):
the basics for you guys. Yeah, so coffee beans of course,
So these come from from the coffee plant and theise
are you know, seeds found in the pit of a
cherry sized fruit on the coffee plant. And if you
just if you've had the experience, if you've visited like
a coffee farm and had the chance to try them,
you can't just does not taste like coffee if you
(03:37):
just pick it up in sweet right, like sweet sweet
and a little you know, bitter. It's it's not something
where you would just feel like snacking on them, like
you're not getting a it's not like eating a blueberry,
and it's not like eating a coffee bean. And presumably
though you'd get a bit of a caffeine rush just
from this. Yeah, because the earlier methods, if you go
back in time, you know, did not involve slow roasting
(03:57):
coffee beans. Um. One that I ran across, uh, and
this is actually from the house Stuff Works article on
coffee um is that early East African tribes would mix
the coffee berries and that's again they unhold beans called
a coffee cherry with animal fat forming energy balls. So
you could think of it as a as a primitive
power bar, except except maybe a little less gross. Yeah.
(04:20):
I was just thinking about that. I was a kid,
you not. I was thinking about the wrapper that would
go around that, like animal fat, big lump of fat
and coffee bear is just poked in and you just
you just shot down the whole thing and then you're
good to go. Handcrafted. Yeah, there you go. Um. Yeah,
So I think the interesting thing about that too is
that the beans are actually seeds. We call them beans
(04:41):
um and coffee trees. They are woody perennial evergreens, and
they are grown in tropical climates and seventy different countries. Uh.
These climates, these countries, the areas are known as the
bean belt. So I already mentioned the some some early
East African tribes. You have some stuff on goat herders
as well. Yeah, the is and this is again from
how Coffee Works, our article that we have on house
(05:03):
supports dot com. There is an Ethiopian legend whearing coffee
is discovered by a goat hurder named Caldi, who found
his goats frolicking and full of energy after eating the
red berries. And uh, Caldi tried the berries for himself,
and lo and behold, he also started frolicking around, and
after witnessing the strange behavior of this goat hurder and
(05:25):
his goats, a monk took some of the berries back
to his fellow monks, and then they stayed up all
night long and they were alert and behold the coffee
beans powers were revealed. They also became rather big, of course,
in in the in the Islamic world, and kind of
flowed with the expansion of Islamic culture and uh and
(05:47):
some people say whirling dervishes. Actually um of early Islam
especially had were fueled by coffee. Whirling dervishes. Of course.
I think everyone's seeing footage films of this where there's
the they wear these kind of flowing garments, they go
into these swirling patterns and it's really really beautiful stuff.
(06:08):
At least a lot of coffee would make sense. Yeah,
I mean, apparently during the thirteenth century, coffee was extremely
popular with Muslim um communities because of its stimulant powers.
So you can see how they also appealed to this
monks with the with the goat herder who discovered it,
because what do you do with those stimulant powers? Um,
It can be very useful during really long prayer sessions,
(06:31):
and so the story behind this, according to Tory Avy,
who is writing for PBS and her article The Caffeinated
History of Coffee, is that coffee plants, they did not
exist outside of Arabia or Africa until the sixteen hundreds
when this guy named Baba Boudon, an Indian pilgrim, left
Mecca with the legend says, fertile beans fastened to a
(06:51):
strap across his abdomen smuggle him out, smuggled him out
and established a new and competitive European coffee trade, which
leads perfectly to the Age of Enlightenment exactly. So, I
think everyone's heard this story before. This is the idea that, uh,
you know, in human history, um, water wasn't always the
(07:13):
best thing to drink. It wasn't always the purest um.
So drinking water to maintain your hydration level might make
you fabulously sick. Better off trusting good old fashioned beer. Now,
the thing about drinking beer all day is that, aside
from from really probably making you feel bloated um most
of the time, you're also going to be intoxicated most
(07:35):
of the time. You're gonna take long naps, You're going
to vomit in the streets and uh, and generally you're
probably not going to get that much done. I mean,
some individuals have have a really you know, high work
rate when they're inebriated, but I think they're the exception
that proves the rule. And you have to remember to
that we're talking about the six We were talking about
(07:56):
societies in which you know that the seasons sort of
ruled them a lot more than than our modern technology
rules us right now. So there were periods of time,
you know, in the winter, for instance, where there wasn't
anything to do. There wasn't any farming to do, so
what would you do? Yeah, and at night you're limited
by how many candles or torches can you lie? You
know what I mean. It's the limitations were placed something
(08:17):
by their environment and by the seasons. So you would
pass the time perhaps drinking some meat, some good old meat,
and snoring a lot. And although you might have communed
at a tavern, you would still all be sitting around
sort of like, you know, half polluted in your mind
and half asleep. But the whole the coffee trade and
the coffee houses that began to spring up in Europe,
(08:39):
because here's something else I can drink all day and
uh and not necessarily get sick on. And it also
also has an influence on my my state of mind.
All of a sudden, people are chatting and they're awake,
and they are, you know, talking about all these different
ideas and focus on them. They're focusing and they're from
(09:00):
all different socio economic backgrounds, so you're not just getting
one perspective here. And uh, this is what a lot
of people credit for helping to usher in the age
of enlightenment. In fact, there is a book called Uncommon Grounds,
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
by Mark Pendergrass. He makes that claim as well as
author Stephen Johnson, who has a great ted talk about
(09:22):
creativity and cites coffee as being one of the fonts
of creativity and energy. Yeah. Now, of course one of
the things. Today you go into a coffee shop, like
I find this especially the case when I go into
your coffee shop, because we each have coffee shops, yeah,
fairly close to each other that are there our own turf.
(09:43):
I know better than to go to Julie's turf unless
I'm invited, because that's that's where she's working and then likewise,
you don't show up on my turf. No, not even
when the power is out. The other week, I was like, man,
I can't get a Robert's coffee shop. Which places will
come out? But but when I go to your coffee shop,
and I mainly bring this one up because your coffee
shop cans have more people in it. There are a
(10:03):
lot of people just working with headphones and there's some
people collaborating. But it seems like, you know, within our
modern technological age, um, maybe we're less likely to do
a lot of you know, collaborating with people, uh in
these coffee shops. But then again, we're connected to people
outside of it. And I think if you're like me,
there are certain individuals you you chat with every day, uh,
(10:24):
you know, you know, by email and by g chat
and what have you. Um, you know, being a friend
or my wife, and I can often tell when they've
had their caffeine because that's when they're reaching out to
me with all of these ideas and cool stuff and
they're really excited about something and uh, and if our
caffeine levels match up, then we're able to go back
and forth. If not, I might be like, oh, I'm
(10:45):
gonna put you on ignore for a little bit because
because I'm I'm trying to catch up on my edge.
You know. Yeah, yeah, this happens. I think especially on
the weekends. I noticed this with my husband because I'll
drink a lot of caffeine. I'll but it isn't it.
And then we'll listen, they will get ike and people
time to you won't And he's like, whoa, I'm still
in my first cup. So yes, we know it is powerful,
(11:06):
powerful stimulant um and it has had a lot of
influence on the modern world. Let's talk about what is
in a cup of this stuff? Yeah, magic demons that
that course through your blood and chew on the creative
portions of your brain. Exactly. Yeah, just they just roost
right in there. Um Patrick, did you Stow writing for Wired?
(11:27):
In his article What's Inside a Cup of Coffee? Really
details exactly what's in there. And I don't know that
we're going to go through every single thing that is
in there, but we wanted to hit the big ones
because it's pretty fascinating. Um, here's the big dub one
water content. Turns out that point seven is water at
one point to five is soluble plant matter. Okay, so
(11:51):
you're mostly paying for for water for water, Yeah, caffeine
another element um But this is interesting, actually an alkaloid
plant toxin. It's found in other plants, and it is
meant to be a natural pesticide. Oh so that's the
reason it was developed or the reason it evolved in
these plants exactly. That's why caffeine is in there to say,
(12:13):
But to the bugs, hey I'm toxic. If you chew
on me, you will die. Now, what happens to the
human brain with that same sort of element we will
find out in a moment. It's also also worth pointing
out that it operates in the brain the same way
that amphetamines such as cocaine and heroin do. Yes, which
which is maybe a bit of a no brainer. But caffeine,
of course, is a much milder stimulant than those drugs.
(12:36):
Even even a lot of caffeine, you're not going to
get the same effect that you would get off of
somebody doing a much of heroin or coke, obviously, right,
But what else is on this list stuff in the
Wired article? Okay, we have to ethel phenol, and this
creates a tar like medicinal odor in your morning coffee.
There it's also this is awesome, a component of cockroach
(12:59):
along arm pheromones, chemical signals that warn the colony of danger.
The same chemical. Then there's also a clinic acid, and
this gives coffee it's slightly sour flavor. Uh, And it's
also one of the starter chemicals in the formulation of
tama flute. There is also something called a subtle methyl
carbonyl and according to the article, it's that rich buttery
(13:22):
taste in your daily jolt, which comes apart from this
flammable yellow liquid, the same liquid that gives real butter
its flavor and is a component of artificial flavoring and
microwave popcorn. And then we have left the best for last.
It's future scene, right, which sounds lovely. It sounds like
something you want in your daily cup. Yeah, it's an
(13:44):
organic chemical compound and it's related to cadavering, and both
are both are produced by the breakdown of amino acids
and living and dead organisms. So Digesto and his article
actually describes the smell as Satan's outhouse. And now that
I'm why would Satan have an awful outhouse? I think
It depends on your interpretation. He might have a really
(14:06):
clean out well that because I think you your version
is a benevolent satan or you know, or maybe it's
like constantly crate cleaned by um, you know, by by
the suffering damned. I don't know. I can see that, Yeah,
I can see that. Well, in that case, then they
might be that that might be a component of it. Yeah,
but I'm I'm hijacking the discussion with non scientific data here.
(14:28):
Thankfully that the amount of future scene is just miniscules,
so it's a scant levels that that wonderful outhouse smell.
All right, we're gonna take a break, and when we
come back, we're going to talk a little more about
us specifically. The most one of the really exciting things
here is is how does coffee affect creativity? And you
might be surprised at some of what we have to
(14:49):
say about that. And yes, we will also talk about
coffee's ability to, shall we say, ramp up the digestive system.
All right, we're back. We're talking about coffee. We're talking
(15:10):
about the effects that coffee has on the body and
on the mind. So, uh, let's get to it. What
what's next? Time the click. All right, so we're gonna
talk about the chemical changes in our brain, because this
is what caffeine is doing. It is gaming the brain,
and uh specifically, it is crossing over the blood brain barrier.
And now this is that the interface between the brain
(15:32):
and the body's circulatory system that is meant to take
to keep out all the bad chemicals. But caffeine can
cross into the brain and when it does, it becomes
an impostor of sorts. Now when I say impostor, I
mean that it is taking on the identity of something
called identazine. No. Identazine is this byproduct of um all
(15:52):
those neurons firing. It creates this substance in the brain.
And the build up of adentazine is actually monitored by
your nervous systems. Your nervous system says, oh, there's a
lot of adentazine accumulated here. This is going to tip
off this whole reaction in our body that says that
we need to take a nap or go to sleep
or even wake up. Adenazine is part and parcel of
(16:13):
how we manage our body clock. And what happens is
that that caffeine sneaks in and it looks chemically similar
to adnazine. So it takes adentazine's place in the adenazine receptors.
It bonds to the receptors, and what happens is that
it blocks that adnazine from bonding with those receptors. And
(16:35):
now your body, your brain doesn't know what's going on.
It doesn't have the sort of signals that it might
get from those receptors saying whoa, we need to slow
down the body. So that's how caffeine can bond with
those receptors and change your level of energy even when
(16:56):
you're you really should be tired. This is how you
get that that like the PM boost to finish studying
for the test the next day. Yeah, exactly, because you
are tricking your body into thinking that it's not tired. Yeah.
Very sneaky, don't you think. Yeah, it is. There's a
lot more, a lot more sneakiness involved than you know,
would initially think. Now, this also causes increased neuron firing
(17:20):
and a lot more just pup you going on in
the brain as the ideas fire around and uh and
and you start making plans for the day, the book
you're gonna write, the ikea trip, you're gonna make all
that that's right, because all of that increased neuron firing
is causing the petuitary to gland to sort of wake
up and go, wow, that's a lot of activity going
on there. There must be an emergency. And then the
(17:41):
adrenal glands get on, get in on the game, and
of course adournaline is produced, and your pupils dilate, your
heart rate increases, your your airways open up, among a
lot of other things. But yeah, this is what gets
you into that one. Ideas have to come out of
my room right now. Yeah, so you got boosting energy,
decrease fatigue, and it enhances physical, cognitive, and motor performance.
(18:03):
It aids short term memory, problem solving, decision making, and concentration.
These are all great reasons to have a cup of coffee.
But the question is, is some of the psychological you mean,
like the Paucebo effect exactly where I say, all right,
I'm no good till I have my morning cup, and
I'm just by believing that I'm no good till I
(18:24):
have my morning cup. Yeah, I mean, we we talked
about the power of the placebo. The placebo effect absolutely works. Um,
whatever kind of quack uh you know um medicine, you're
taking your magic being you're swallowing. That's a whole another story.
But the polcebo effect the ability to believe in something's
positive or negative effect in the in in some cases
(18:45):
you know, there's all no sebo thing to discuss um
that actually works, So just believing that it does something
can in certain cases have an effect you believe it.
So for instance, your heart rate, yes, it does increase.
But if you know that caffeine and coffee will help
you to better focus, are you more predisposed to really
(19:06):
engage in being focused? Um? So. There is a two
thousand eleven study at the University of East London where
a group of psychologists examine the effects of caffeine on
problem solving and emotional responses. And in a double blind study,
eight habitual coffee drinkers were given cups of caffeinated and
decaffinated coffees at random. So subjects who received caffeine but
(19:29):
they were told that they were drinking decaf did not
show an improved reaction time in the task that they
gave that the research group gave them, and likewise in
a measure of reward motivation and something called the card
arranging reward responsivity objectivity test another way of measuring this.
The participants who believe they had consumed coffee sorted the
(19:51):
cards more quickly than those who believe that they consumed decaf,
So no doubt there is in part a psychological component
of coffee. Yeah, and I guess it. You know, really
there has to be in anything you take. I mean,
like I think you were you. You spoke recently about
having an ice cream that was Chardonnay flavored. If I
(20:12):
remember pair popsicle, right, and let's be honest, there was
probably very small amount of alcohol, if any really, and
I could taste it, I'm telling well, yeah, okay, so
we should tell everybody I don't drink. So when I had,
when the reasoning hit my tongue, I was like, oh,
and so it brought back memories of having had reesling.
(20:34):
And after I finished that popsicle and I finished every
drop of it, um, I did feel a little bit loopy.
But then I wondered, yea, what extent is that the
poucebo effect? YEA, to what extent is it just your
mind saying, oh this this tastes like reasoning, and therefore
this is the reasoning effect. I feel, I feel lighter,
I feel a little a little happier, and maybe I
(20:54):
shouldn't drive a tractor exactly. Yeah, And I didn't drive
a tractor that day. Good, But it was on vacation,
and you're right, I was sort of primed, and you know,
it was the beach, and I was like, not a
care in the world. So yeah, the recling effect. So
over the years, there just have been a raft of
studies that extol the virtues of coffee, um, from the
(21:16):
nutrient and antioxidant content to the idea that it could
lower the risk of type two diabetes, some types of cancers. UM.
I think there was even one study that had a
ten percent increase in longevity. So we could spend hours
and hours on that, but I thought it we might
make a little bit more sense if we talked about
some of the real pronounced effects of coffee. And I'm
(21:39):
talking about coffee in dementia, because animal experiments show that
caffeine may reshape the biochemical environment side our brains in
a way that could actually stave off dementia. And this
is a very big concern as we age, right, because
dementia seems to be one of those um illnesses that
seem to become more and more prevalent in our society. Well,
(22:00):
one of the two big trolls under the bridge when
it comes to aging and then I going to is
my body going to fail? Is my mind going to fail?
Or both trolls going to jump out and get me
exactly exactly. So, there's a experiment at the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champagne and mice were briefly starved of oxygen,
causing them to lose the ability to form memories. Half
(22:21):
of the mice received a dose of caffeine that was
equivalent to several cups of coffee. So that's on par
with what we would consume, right, and then after they
were reoxygenated, the caffeinated mice regained their ability to form
new memories faster than the uncafeated And these were these
were again coffee for mice, right like tiny little cups,
(22:42):
not like and little cafe tables. UM. So close examination
of the the animals brain dies, you showed that the caffeine
disrupted the action of a tendency which we talked about. UM.
It can be destructive, it turns out if it leaks
out when the cells are injured or under stress. This
is something that we've seen in dementia. So the escaped
(23:03):
adnazine can jump sir, a biochemical cascade leading to inflammation,
and that can disrupt the function of neurons and the
neuronal connections right and contribute to neurodegeneration. So we're talking
about dementia here, and we're talking about again that caffeine
binding to those adnazine receptors in stopping that in potentially dementia.
(23:24):
So in a set of humans, researchers from the University
of South Florida and the University of Miami tested the
blood levels of caffeine and older adults with mild cognitive
impairment or perhaps even the first glimmer of some serious forgetfulness,
which is usually a precursor of Alzheimer's, and then they
re evaluated reevaluated them two to four years later. So,
(23:47):
of course, what it was with the big deal with
all this, the participants with little or no caffeine circulating
their blood streams were far more likely to have progressed
to full blown Alzheimer's rather than those who blood indicated
that they had about three cups worth of coffee a day,
so in a sense that the use of coffee was
able to slow down the study approach of dementia and
(24:10):
or Alzheimer's. Yeah, so, I mean that's that's a great thing, right,
And like I said, there's a whole raft of studies
that we'll talk about the benefits of coffee, but these
are a couple of things that are very promising. And
I still feel though that coffee is emerging from its
shadow self. And that's really the studies that came out
in the early seventies and the eighties saying, oh, coffee
is awful. And the reason for this is because those
(24:34):
studies in the seventies, uh, they were talking. They were
looking at people who were both smoking and consuming coffee,
and at that time they didn't realize the implications of
smoking as much as we do now. And the coffee
and cigarettes went together great there. It's like PB and
J coffee and cigarettes. So they didn't take out those
(24:54):
participants who were smokers, and that definitely skewed some of
the results of the studies that they were looking at.
And edition they had the one very famous study in
which rats were giving something like a crazy amount of
milligrams of caffeine, which caused their offspring to have birth defects. Well,
the problem with that is that the amount of caffeine
they were given was not nearly on par with what
(25:16):
we consume as adults, or certainly like we're talking about them,
we're having the equivalent of so many cups exactly other experiment.
In this experiment, the rats were having, uh, the equivalent
of many, many, many many cups. Like just now toxic
level talked to the amount of caffeine. So they went back,
actually and they redid the study with the appropriate amount
of caffeine, and they found that their offspring were completely fine.
(25:40):
So I just wanted to mention that because I still
feel like coffee has that a bit of that around it.
Not to say that coffee can't be bad for you
if consumed in massive quantities, because it can be. Well,
I feel like coffee and red wine are both substances
that so many studies are done on their about their effects,
uh and you know, doing large part because they are
(26:02):
both consumed in such large quantities. And then when with
red wine you have the you know, the verious antioxidants
that that's sort of up the game for in your
research related to them. You kind of get blinders after
a while. You if you hear enough studies about why
you shoul drink coffee and why it's okay to drink
quite red wine, you just sort of, you know, check
it off in your mind where it's like, Okay, these
(26:22):
are good, I'll just keep doing these. But what happens
when you drink too much coffee, Well, you certainly become
addicted to it. Now, some people get caffeine headaches if
they have too much coffee. I've never suffered from this. Yeah, yeah, apparently,
And this is according to the American Psychiatric Association's UH
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The Bible um Psychology,
(26:46):
some people can experience caffeine intoxication symptoms including restlessness, nervousness, excitement, zomnia,
flesh face, and gastro intestinal complaints. Well, to me, that's
kind of a noda, right, and specifically because of the
coffee monk that we recently saw. Oh yes, what did
that coffee monks today? Julie? I think that it just
it's a brown coffee mug. And I think it said
(27:08):
coffee makes me poop. Yes, And this is the true
statement it's backed up by scientific research because, uh, there's
a nineties study titled Effect of Coffee on distal Colon function,
and the results suggests that drinking coffee can stimulate a
motor response of the distal colon in some normal people. So, um,
(27:29):
I think most people can attest to this. And uh
and actually a stand up comedian, Hannibal Burris had a
great bit about this in his act. He was talking
about how he started, um, he you know, stantic me,
and then he gets a job riding for thirty Rock
and he'd never consume coffee before. And then he starts
drinking coffe because he's there in the office all the
other writers are drinking and he starts drinking it. And
(27:49):
then he's he's like freaking out. He's like, nobody told
me about all the pooping that was going to happen.
That suddenly I drink the coffee and I have to
run to the toilet. Um. And it's think most people
can at test that, Yes, you drink some coffee, and
it can it can really jump start the system. Your
mind gets excited, but so do the do other parts
(28:10):
of the anatomy. And uh, so you've got to run
for shelter. Well, and it's a diuretic, right, so you
also have to urinate a lot more. In fact, another
thirty Rock thread here, I don't know if you've read
Bossy Pants. Yes, do you recall in the part that
said that that Tina fe is talking about being a
writer in the culture of writing comedy for TV that
(28:33):
she noticed that a lot of her male co workers
had jars Oh yeah, you're in in their office, which
ended up inspiring a little bit at one point in
the show where one of the writers, Frank has the
sun tea and the urine on the test. Well, I know,
I'm I feel like it's a it's a it's a
net benefit. It's net net actually, uh if not net
net net for me because I drink a lot of
(28:55):
coffee when I'm in the workplace or working, and even
in a coffee shop of course, and so I end
up having to urinate a lot. So that means I'm
I'm getting out of my seat a lot, I'm walking around,
so I'm getting extra exercise. Uh. So that's at least
two nets. I don't know what the third one is.
So I guess what you're saying is that if we
didn't have an open office concept here at work, and
(29:16):
we had walls that you might have jars in your office.
I don't know. I don't think I would do that,
but I certainly think we have some coworkers who might
do it. Absolutely. Yeah. All right, um, so what else
about caffeine and coffee can we say? Well? The creativity
element I thought was particularly interesting, And this comes in
(29:37):
large part from a recent New Yorker article titled how
Caffeine short circuits creativity, And it's it's really really interesting.
The idea puts this article looks forward because we generally
come to accept this idea that coffee is good for creativity.
We talked about the you know, the idea that when
we stopped drinking beer and we started drinking coffee, then
suddenly all this creativity is bounding about and things are
(29:58):
getting done with the culture we're talking about. You'd have
that cup of coffee and suddenly you have ideas for
the day about what's going to happen. Um. And we've
discussed the things that it does, you know, increase youral firing,
increased focus. But is this the article points out one
of the real one of the hallmarks of creativity is
of course, to have a wandering, unfocused mind. To take
(30:23):
this concept and pair it with this one, to be
able to stare out the window and think, think, you know,
what have what have? What have dinosaurs had for? Or
what if a pirate had a loose sight leg and
used it as an aquarium. Yes, it's exactly so we
we have all these random ideas that might pop up.
(30:45):
And this is a lot of what it is to
be creative. But if you were caffeinated to the gills
and you're you're focused on one task, then you're focused
on one task and you're not gonna have all these
random inspirations that are coming to you. Yeah, this novel
association sens that happen when we daydream. And I recall
that we did an episode in which we saw a
(31:05):
study in which, uh, something like our waking hours are
dedicated to daydreaming. So that obviously helps us tease out
a lot of problems and comment things in a different
angle and be extremely creative because again we're making those
novel associations. But if you are caffeinated all day long,
then the writer of this article, Maria Kunakova, says, hey,
(31:27):
you could be actually stripping yourself of creativity. Yeah, and
don't have that mind wander time. Not, your mind's not wandering.
And it can also have an effect on sleep, and
studies have shown that that sleep is important for creative thinking.
Two thousand nine study in fact, show that people who
experienced REM sleep performed better on two tests of creative
thinking than those who simply rested or napped without entering
(31:50):
the REM cycle. So I found this. Of course, this
made me sort of think a lot about my own
creative processes, in my own consumption of daffine. I had
that that sort of panic moment where I was like,
oh goodness, maybe I've got to stop drinking coffee if
it's gonna interfer with my creativity. But I think what
the difference here is, And maybe you know, it's gonna
vary with each individual mind, But I feel like I
(32:11):
definitely have the type of mind that can make those
those connections, Like I can you know, wonder about a
pirate with a loose sight leg or a hairy dinosaur.
But then but it's one thing anybody can sent around
and just dream off a whole bunch of crazy stuff.
But but can you then focus on it and do
something with it. So I feel like that's where I
(32:32):
need the caffeine. It's it's one thing for me to think,
what have I blogged about the possible science behind this,
like weird worm monster I read about, You know, it's
one thing to think about that, but I need the
coffee to focus on it and to actually do it.
So your natural state is to mind flander. Yeah, I
think if I think caffeine, I'm not. You know, I
don't want to give caffeine too much credit because it's
not like if I quit drinking coffee, I would just
(32:54):
be a complete disaster. I mean I would because for
a little bit, because I'd get a headache that would
make me want to curse God and die. But beyond that,
and I'm not saying it's vital to my existence, but
I do feel like it helps me focus on realizing
some of the ideas that I get with my wandering mind. Well,
I put this idea um in front of Holly Fry
(33:16):
of history stuff, and Holly Fry, if you guys don't know,
she's extremely creative and she is doing things at all
hours of creativity like she's just I mean, she's stitching
together things, she's making I don't know, thumb cozies. If
she has two minutes, you know, to spare a thumb cozy,
just all of a sudden poof, it's there. Um, she's
(33:36):
extremely productive, and so she drinks a ton of coffee,
and so I put this idea forward to her, and
then she looked at me, like, what are you talking about? Like,
I drink coffee at eleven o'clock at night helps me
to continue with all the projects that I have buzzing
around in my mind. And then I looked at her fitbit,
this bracelet that tracks her sleep and in all the
(33:57):
steps that she takes a cyborg, she's cyborg in addition
to all this, and I noticed that she had made
um this rhymestone sleeve for it, because the fitbit itself
wasn't pretty enough, and the fit that is sitting there
sparkling underneath the rhyme stones. And I thought, no, I
don't think that caffeine is taking away from her creativity. Yeah, well,
(34:21):
I think it ultimately that the the message from this
study maybe that it's going to vary with the individual,
and that you should maybe consider not drinking coffee all
the time. You try to try see what it's like
without it, it's it's kind of like in the same
way that coffee has has some similarities to other um,
psychoactive chemicals and and and drugs and things that alter
(34:44):
our perception of reality or interface with reality. It's sometimes
good to treat them, or often I guess you could
say it's generally good to see those things as like
a telescope or a microscope, something that adds new perspective
to life. But isn't the only way that you interact
with it or glimpse it, right, And you have to
remember to you that coffee is going to increase your
(35:04):
performance and thinks and sort of like wrote things that
you do over and over again. It's not necessarily going
to make you master a new skill. Um. It might
give you a little bit more energy for that skill,
but that doesn't mean that you're going to become the
conqueror of that UM. So it was really good for
for bringing everything together, as you say, to a point, UM,
I should add there's another thing that I do that
(35:26):
I have found that coffee is not good for me,
and that is sometimes to relax. I enjoy painting miniatures,
and I've found that if I do it while drinking
coffee or right after I drink coffee. I'm just my
my my hands are too unsteady. I don't have really
steady hands anyway. And if I have the coffee, then
it's it's it's not good. Well see And and that
(35:46):
ought to be a zen like activity anyway, right where
you don't need to be in the coffee realm exactly
because you're just doing the one thing. Um. I would
be very interested to hear from people about how coffee
affects them. Is I feel like some people are really
sensitive to caffeine while others can just you know, drink
it by the gallons. Yeah, And I've known people like
(36:09):
my my friend Becky uh once claimed that she had
some espresso chocolate at night and was up all night afterwards. See.
And then you know as some of the psychosomatic or
is that really like, is your system that sensitive? I
believe that some people really are that sensitive to it.
All right, Well, on that note, let's call over the
robot and see what kind of listener mail we have.
(36:33):
Believe this one is another one has to do with
the sensory deprivation tanks. We've received a lot of cool
comments on this episode so far these episodes. By the way, UH,
just a little tip if you are going to go
into a sensory deprivation tank, do not drink caffeine beforehand. Yes, yeah,
that's not a good idea. Yeah, for a few different reasons.
So this one comes to us from Seth. Seth writes,
(36:53):
since says Hi, Julian Robert, I recently finished it your
episode on sensory deprivation tanks and wanted to write in
with my story. During my sen year at year at college,
I UH interned at a neurofeedback clinic specializing in a
d h D behavior modification therapy. One of the benefits
of working at the clinic was the on site sensory
deprivation chamber that we call the float tank. I got
(37:13):
in the float tank as much as I could during
that year, somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty to sixty times.
It was fascinating. Um my experience with it was quite positive.
The first time I got in, I was nervous and
did not really relax or have any experiences. Apparently this
was normal. However, each subsequent visit resulted in more intense
experiences and increased time spent in the tank. I've tried
(37:33):
to describe my experiences to others and have always fallen short.
The closest that I come can come to describe it
is that it feels like deep meditation with the benefits
of a power cat nap. I would emerge from the
float tank after an hour and feel as if I
had slept for three or four hours. I never had
out of body experiences, but I did feel an overwhelming
sense of calm and understanding. As a side note, the
(37:54):
chief clinician at the clinic would sleep for only five
hours a day, and he would do so in the
float tank. He stated that he felt yes, he stated
that he felt as if he had slept twelve hours afterwards.
So some advice on your future visits or visits to
the float tank. Visited several times to get a good
real sense of it. Anxiety about it is normal as
(38:17):
it is abnormal constructed is it is an abnormal constructed experience,
and it is not found in nature that we evolved in.
But it is very enlightening. Thank you for the awesome show.
Seth Wow. Five hours in the tank. That was that
was really impressive. Whenever at that because I'm also trying
to picture this dude, he only sleeps in a in
(38:39):
a sensory deprivation tank and only does so like five
to six hours a night. Been going to put this
out there that he must not have a close significant
other unless well maybe maybe they sleep together, or maybe
they exist solely in the astral plane. That's how beautiful.
That's beautiful. But well, I can see now know why
(39:00):
those five hours would would bear out something that felt
like twelve hours, because it is the most relaxing thing
that I've ever done in my life. So I can't
imagine sleeping through the evening in one of those cool
All right, Steth, Well, thanks for right man. Uh for
As for the rest of you, yet, we would love
to hear your thoughts on scencessory deprivation tanks, on Harry dinosaurs,
(39:22):
on pirates with blue site peg legs, and generally about creativity,
About coffee, About your coffee consumption, Um, if you've recently
started drinking coffee, what kind of changes have you noticed
in your physiology and in your thought process? Have you
recently stopped drinking coffee? Tell us about that nightmare. We
would love to hear from you. How can you get
in touch with this, how can you find as well?
(39:43):
The mother ship as always is Stuff to Bow Your
Mind dot com. You're stuffed to bow your Mind on
Facebook and tumbler are, twitter feed is blow the Mind
and over on YouTube our channel is Mind Stuff Show
and you can always drop us a line at blow
the Mind at discovery dot com. Um For more on
(40:05):
this and thousands of other topics, visit how Stuff Works
dot com
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, why don't we stuff to boil
your mind? My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie. Julie.
Is there a lot of coffee in your house? Are
you a coffee household? Yes? How do you make your coffee?
You know? I put a lot of creamer in it
(00:23):
and a lot of sugar. Yeah. What kind of device
do you use? I'm weak sauce when it comes to this. Well,
you know, a standard coffee machine? Yeah. I don't know
if someone asked me if if our coffee machine had
been seasoned, and I was like, what do you mean
season and apparently like if you brew a certain amount
of times then infuses your coffee with a better flavor. Yeah.
(00:44):
Seasoned is often a term for gross stup, you know, like, yeah,
that's there enough stuff growing in or on your kitchen
implement to give it as the desired flavor. Then yes, yea,
it is seasoned. What about you? We we use um,
just like we have a standard Mr Coffee. Um, We've
tried to use different you know, perculators and stuff and
never quite works out. When I was coming back to
Mr Coffee and then I also bring out the French
(01:06):
breasts if I want to do something a little nicer.
I knew you had the fancy pants when it came
to coffee, that is not No, I don't even begin
to have fancy pants because there are so many complex
ways of making coffee. There's so many different cold brew devices,
and of course pour over is the big thing these days.
And uh, I'm I'm really I mean, I'm not a
(01:27):
straight up, you know, instant coffee drinker. I'm not I'm
not a tencent cup kind of a guy, but I'm
I'm definitely far from fancy. Well, all I know is that, um,
there was like a month here at how stuff works
when our our bean supply got really low, and you
you were the person who blaze the trails and saying
(01:48):
we must fortify the being supply. So I know it's
important to you. Coffee is important to me. I I
drink coffee every day, and if I forget to drink it,
my my body is quick to remind me that I
forgot to drink it. And uh, and I like a
good cup of coffee, but I'm just not not as
as picky as a lot of people are. And uh,
(02:09):
and maybe my tasting coffee is just not as nuance.
But but I do love love a good cup of coffee. Well,
I mean, this is one of those things that you
could discuss this for hours and hours. You can talk
about shade grow and you can talk about fair trade.
We're not going to talk about those aspects, nor are
we going to talk about the different ritals um that exist.
All fascinating, but we're gonna to kind of go into
what coffee is doing to your brain in some of
(02:32):
the benefits of coffee. And uh, first I wanted to
point out something about coffee, or caffeine in particular, that
it is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance on Earth.
I don't think that's surprising. In North America, around adults
report using caffeine every day, eighteen billion dollar business in
the US, and there are more than sixteen billion pounds
(02:54):
of coffee beings produced per year in the US. That
is a lot of psychoactivity. And the number one consumption
of coffee in the United States Gas No New York City.
Oh yes, that would that would make a lot more sense. Yeah, um,
coffee one oh one. Here, let's go through some of
(03:16):
the basics for you guys. Yeah, so coffee beans of course,
So these come from from the coffee plant and theise
are you know, seeds found in the pit of a
cherry sized fruit on the coffee plant. And if you
just if you've had the experience, if you've visited like
a coffee farm and had the chance to try them,
you can't just does not taste like coffee if you
(03:37):
just pick it up in sweet right, like sweet sweet
and a little you know, bitter. It's it's not something
where you would just feel like snacking on them, like
you're not getting a it's not like eating a blueberry,
and it's not like eating a coffee bean. And presumably
though you'd get a bit of a caffeine rush just
from this. Yeah, because the earlier methods, if you go
back in time, you know, did not involve slow roasting
(03:57):
coffee beans. Um. One that I ran across, uh, and
this is actually from the house Stuff Works article on
coffee um is that early East African tribes would mix
the coffee berries and that's again they unhold beans called
a coffee cherry with animal fat forming energy balls. So
you could think of it as a as a primitive
power bar, except except maybe a little less gross. Yeah.
(04:20):
I was just thinking about that. I was a kid,
you not. I was thinking about the wrapper that would
go around that, like animal fat, big lump of fat
and coffee bear is just poked in and you just
you just shot down the whole thing and then you're
good to go. Handcrafted. Yeah, there you go. Um. Yeah,
So I think the interesting thing about that too is
that the beans are actually seeds. We call them beans
(04:41):
um and coffee trees. They are woody perennial evergreens, and
they are grown in tropical climates and seventy different countries. Uh.
These climates, these countries, the areas are known as the
bean belt. So I already mentioned the some some early
East African tribes. You have some stuff on goat herders
as well. Yeah, the is and this is again from
how Coffee Works, our article that we have on house
(05:03):
supports dot com. There is an Ethiopian legend whearing coffee
is discovered by a goat hurder named Caldi, who found
his goats frolicking and full of energy after eating the
red berries. And uh, Caldi tried the berries for himself,
and lo and behold, he also started frolicking around, and
after witnessing the strange behavior of this goat hurder and
(05:25):
his goats, a monk took some of the berries back
to his fellow monks, and then they stayed up all
night long and they were alert and behold the coffee
beans powers were revealed. They also became rather big, of course,
in in the in the Islamic world, and kind of
flowed with the expansion of Islamic culture and uh and
(05:47):
some people say whirling dervishes. Actually um of early Islam
especially had were fueled by coffee. Whirling dervishes. Of course.
I think everyone's seeing footage films of this where there's
the they wear these kind of flowing garments, they go
into these swirling patterns and it's really really beautiful stuff.
(06:08):
At least a lot of coffee would make sense. Yeah,
I mean, apparently during the thirteenth century, coffee was extremely
popular with Muslim um communities because of its stimulant powers.
So you can see how they also appealed to this
monks with the with the goat herder who discovered it,
because what do you do with those stimulant powers? Um,
It can be very useful during really long prayer sessions,
(06:31):
and so the story behind this, according to Tory Avy,
who is writing for PBS and her article The Caffeinated
History of Coffee, is that coffee plants, they did not
exist outside of Arabia or Africa until the sixteen hundreds
when this guy named Baba Boudon, an Indian pilgrim, left
Mecca with the legend says, fertile beans fastened to a
(06:51):
strap across his abdomen smuggle him out, smuggled him out
and established a new and competitive European coffee trade, which
leads perfectly to the Age of Enlightenment exactly. So, I
think everyone's heard this story before. This is the idea that, uh,
you know, in human history, um, water wasn't always the
(07:13):
best thing to drink. It wasn't always the purest um.
So drinking water to maintain your hydration level might make
you fabulously sick. Better off trusting good old fashioned beer. Now,
the thing about drinking beer all day is that, aside
from from really probably making you feel bloated um most
of the time, you're also going to be intoxicated most
(07:35):
of the time. You're gonna take long naps, You're going
to vomit in the streets and uh, and generally you're
probably not going to get that much done. I mean,
some individuals have have a really you know, high work
rate when they're inebriated, but I think they're the exception
that proves the rule. And you have to remember to
that we're talking about the six We were talking about
(07:56):
societies in which you know that the seasons sort of
ruled them a lot more than than our modern technology
rules us right now. So there were periods of time,
you know, in the winter, for instance, where there wasn't
anything to do. There wasn't any farming to do, so
what would you do? Yeah, and at night you're limited
by how many candles or torches can you lie? You
know what I mean. It's the limitations were placed something
(08:17):
by their environment and by the seasons. So you would
pass the time perhaps drinking some meat, some good old meat,
and snoring a lot. And although you might have communed
at a tavern, you would still all be sitting around
sort of like, you know, half polluted in your mind
and half asleep. But the whole the coffee trade and
the coffee houses that began to spring up in Europe,
(08:39):
because here's something else I can drink all day and
uh and not necessarily get sick on. And it also
also has an influence on my my state of mind.
All of a sudden, people are chatting and they're awake,
and they are, you know, talking about all these different
ideas and focus on them. They're focusing and they're from
(09:00):
all different socio economic backgrounds, so you're not just getting
one perspective here. And uh, this is what a lot
of people credit for helping to usher in the age
of enlightenment. In fact, there is a book called Uncommon Grounds,
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
by Mark Pendergrass. He makes that claim as well as
author Stephen Johnson, who has a great ted talk about
(09:22):
creativity and cites coffee as being one of the fonts
of creativity and energy. Yeah. Now, of course one of
the things. Today you go into a coffee shop, like
I find this especially the case when I go into
your coffee shop, because we each have coffee shops, yeah,
fairly close to each other that are there our own turf.
(09:43):
I know better than to go to Julie's turf unless
I'm invited, because that's that's where she's working and then likewise,
you don't show up on my turf. No, not even
when the power is out. The other week, I was like, man,
I can't get a Robert's coffee shop. Which places will
come out? But but when I go to your coffee shop,
and I mainly bring this one up because your coffee
shop cans have more people in it. There are a
(10:03):
lot of people just working with headphones and there's some
people collaborating. But it seems like, you know, within our
modern technological age, um, maybe we're less likely to do
a lot of you know, collaborating with people, uh in
these coffee shops. But then again, we're connected to people
outside of it. And I think if you're like me,
there are certain individuals you you chat with every day, uh,
(10:24):
you know, you know, by email and by g chat
and what have you. Um, you know, being a friend
or my wife, and I can often tell when they've
had their caffeine because that's when they're reaching out to
me with all of these ideas and cool stuff and
they're really excited about something and uh, and if our
caffeine levels match up, then we're able to go back
and forth. If not, I might be like, oh, I'm
(10:45):
gonna put you on ignore for a little bit because
because I'm I'm trying to catch up on my edge.
You know. Yeah, yeah, this happens. I think especially on
the weekends. I noticed this with my husband because I'll
drink a lot of caffeine. I'll but it isn't it.
And then we'll listen, they will get ike and people
time to you won't And he's like, whoa, I'm still
in my first cup. So yes, we know it is powerful,
(11:06):
powerful stimulant um and it has had a lot of
influence on the modern world. Let's talk about what is
in a cup of this stuff? Yeah, magic demons that
that course through your blood and chew on the creative
portions of your brain. Exactly. Yeah, just they just roost
right in there. Um Patrick, did you Stow writing for Wired?
(11:27):
In his article What's Inside a Cup of Coffee? Really
details exactly what's in there. And I don't know that
we're going to go through every single thing that is
in there, but we wanted to hit the big ones
because it's pretty fascinating. Um, here's the big dub one
water content. Turns out that point seven is water at
one point to five is soluble plant matter. Okay, so
(11:51):
you're mostly paying for for water for water, Yeah, caffeine
another element um But this is interesting, actually an alkaloid
plant toxin. It's found in other plants, and it is
meant to be a natural pesticide. Oh so that's the
reason it was developed or the reason it evolved in
these plants exactly. That's why caffeine is in there to say,
(12:13):
But to the bugs, hey I'm toxic. If you chew
on me, you will die. Now, what happens to the
human brain with that same sort of element we will
find out in a moment. It's also also worth pointing
out that it operates in the brain the same way
that amphetamines such as cocaine and heroin do. Yes, which
which is maybe a bit of a no brainer. But caffeine,
of course, is a much milder stimulant than those drugs.
(12:36):
Even even a lot of caffeine, you're not going to
get the same effect that you would get off of
somebody doing a much of heroin or coke, obviously, right,
But what else is on this list stuff in the
Wired article? Okay, we have to ethel phenol, and this
creates a tar like medicinal odor in your morning coffee.
There it's also this is awesome, a component of cockroach
(12:59):
along arm pheromones, chemical signals that warn the colony of danger.
The same chemical. Then there's also a clinic acid, and
this gives coffee it's slightly sour flavor. Uh, And it's
also one of the starter chemicals in the formulation of
tama flute. There is also something called a subtle methyl
carbonyl and according to the article, it's that rich buttery
(13:22):
taste in your daily jolt, which comes apart from this
flammable yellow liquid, the same liquid that gives real butter
its flavor and is a component of artificial flavoring and
microwave popcorn. And then we have left the best for last.
It's future scene, right, which sounds lovely. It sounds like
something you want in your daily cup. Yeah, it's an
(13:44):
organic chemical compound and it's related to cadavering, and both
are both are produced by the breakdown of amino acids
and living and dead organisms. So Digesto and his article
actually describes the smell as Satan's outhouse. And now that
I'm why would Satan have an awful outhouse? I think
It depends on your interpretation. He might have a really
(14:06):
clean out well that because I think you your version
is a benevolent satan or you know, or maybe it's
like constantly crate cleaned by um, you know, by by
the suffering damned. I don't know. I can see that, Yeah,
I can see that. Well, in that case, then they
might be that that might be a component of it. Yeah,
but I'm I'm hijacking the discussion with non scientific data here.
(14:28):
Thankfully that the amount of future scene is just miniscules,
so it's a scant levels that that wonderful outhouse smell.
All right, we're gonna take a break, and when we
come back, we're going to talk a little more about
us specifically. The most one of the really exciting things
here is is how does coffee affect creativity? And you
might be surprised at some of what we have to
(14:49):
say about that. And yes, we will also talk about
coffee's ability to, shall we say, ramp up the digestive system.
All right, we're back. We're talking about coffee. We're talking
(15:10):
about the effects that coffee has on the body and
on the mind. So, uh, let's get to it. What
what's next? Time the click. All right, so we're gonna
talk about the chemical changes in our brain, because this
is what caffeine is doing. It is gaming the brain,
and uh specifically, it is crossing over the blood brain barrier.
And now this is that the interface between the brain
(15:32):
and the body's circulatory system that is meant to take
to keep out all the bad chemicals. But caffeine can
cross into the brain and when it does, it becomes
an impostor of sorts. Now when I say impostor, I
mean that it is taking on the identity of something
called identazine. No. Identazine is this byproduct of um all
(15:52):
those neurons firing. It creates this substance in the brain.
And the build up of adentazine is actually monitored by
your nervous systems. Your nervous system says, oh, there's a
lot of adentazine accumulated here. This is going to tip
off this whole reaction in our body that says that
we need to take a nap or go to sleep
or even wake up. Adenazine is part and parcel of
(16:13):
how we manage our body clock. And what happens is
that that caffeine sneaks in and it looks chemically similar
to adnazine. So it takes adentazine's place in the adenazine receptors.
It bonds to the receptors, and what happens is that
it blocks that adnazine from bonding with those receptors. And
(16:35):
now your body, your brain doesn't know what's going on.
It doesn't have the sort of signals that it might
get from those receptors saying whoa, we need to slow
down the body. So that's how caffeine can bond with
those receptors and change your level of energy even when
(16:56):
you're you really should be tired. This is how you
get that that like the PM boost to finish studying
for the test the next day. Yeah, exactly, because you
are tricking your body into thinking that it's not tired. Yeah.
Very sneaky, don't you think. Yeah, it is. There's a
lot more, a lot more sneakiness involved than you know,
would initially think. Now, this also causes increased neuron firing
(17:20):
and a lot more just pup you going on in
the brain as the ideas fire around and uh and
and you start making plans for the day, the book
you're gonna write, the ikea trip, you're gonna make all
that that's right, because all of that increased neuron firing
is causing the petuitary to gland to sort of wake
up and go, wow, that's a lot of activity going
on there. There must be an emergency. And then the
(17:41):
adrenal glands get on, get in on the game, and
of course adournaline is produced, and your pupils dilate, your
heart rate increases, your your airways open up, among a
lot of other things. But yeah, this is what gets
you into that one. Ideas have to come out of
my room right now. Yeah, so you got boosting energy,
decrease fatigue, and it enhances physical, cognitive, and motor performance.
(18:03):
It aids short term memory, problem solving, decision making, and concentration.
These are all great reasons to have a cup of coffee.
But the question is, is some of the psychological you mean,
like the Paucebo effect exactly where I say, all right,
I'm no good till I have my morning cup, and
I'm just by believing that I'm no good till I
(18:24):
have my morning cup. Yeah, I mean, we we talked
about the power of the placebo. The placebo effect absolutely works. Um,
whatever kind of quack uh you know um medicine, you're
taking your magic being you're swallowing. That's a whole another story.
But the polcebo effect the ability to believe in something's
positive or negative effect in the in in some cases
(18:45):
you know, there's all no sebo thing to discuss um
that actually works, So just believing that it does something
can in certain cases have an effect you believe it.
So for instance, your heart rate, yes, it does increase.
But if you know that caffeine and coffee will help
you to better focus, are you more predisposed to really
(19:06):
engage in being focused? Um? So. There is a two
thousand eleven study at the University of East London where
a group of psychologists examine the effects of caffeine on
problem solving and emotional responses. And in a double blind study,
eight habitual coffee drinkers were given cups of caffeinated and
decaffinated coffees at random. So subjects who received caffeine but
(19:29):
they were told that they were drinking decaf did not
show an improved reaction time in the task that they
gave that the research group gave them, and likewise in
a measure of reward motivation and something called the card
arranging reward responsivity objectivity test another way of measuring this.
The participants who believe they had consumed coffee sorted the
(19:51):
cards more quickly than those who believe that they consumed decaf,
So no doubt there is in part a psychological component
of coffee. Yeah, and I guess it. You know, really
there has to be in anything you take. I mean,
like I think you were you. You spoke recently about
having an ice cream that was Chardonnay flavored. If I
(20:12):
remember pair popsicle, right, and let's be honest, there was
probably very small amount of alcohol, if any really, and
I could taste it, I'm telling well, yeah, okay, so
we should tell everybody I don't drink. So when I had,
when the reasoning hit my tongue, I was like, oh,
and so it brought back memories of having had reesling.
(20:34):
And after I finished that popsicle and I finished every
drop of it, um, I did feel a little bit loopy.
But then I wondered, yea, what extent is that the
poucebo effect? YEA, to what extent is it just your
mind saying, oh this this tastes like reasoning, and therefore
this is the reasoning effect. I feel, I feel lighter,
I feel a little a little happier, and maybe I
(20:54):
shouldn't drive a tractor exactly. Yeah, And I didn't drive
a tractor that day. Good, But it was on vacation,
and you're right, I was sort of primed, and you know,
it was the beach, and I was like, not a
care in the world. So yeah, the recling effect. So
over the years, there just have been a raft of
studies that extol the virtues of coffee, um, from the
(21:16):
nutrient and antioxidant content to the idea that it could
lower the risk of type two diabetes, some types of cancers. UM.
I think there was even one study that had a
ten percent increase in longevity. So we could spend hours
and hours on that, but I thought it we might
make a little bit more sense if we talked about
some of the real pronounced effects of coffee. And I'm
(21:39):
talking about coffee in dementia, because animal experiments show that
caffeine may reshape the biochemical environment side our brains in
a way that could actually stave off dementia. And this
is a very big concern as we age, right, because
dementia seems to be one of those um illnesses that
seem to become more and more prevalent in our society. Well,
(22:00):
one of the two big trolls under the bridge when
it comes to aging and then I going to is
my body going to fail? Is my mind going to fail?
Or both trolls going to jump out and get me
exactly exactly. So, there's a experiment at the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champagne and mice were briefly starved of oxygen,
causing them to lose the ability to form memories. Half
(22:21):
of the mice received a dose of caffeine that was
equivalent to several cups of coffee. So that's on par
with what we would consume, right, and then after they
were reoxygenated, the caffeinated mice regained their ability to form
new memories faster than the uncafeated And these were these
were again coffee for mice, right like tiny little cups,
(22:42):
not like and little cafe tables. UM. So close examination
of the the animals brain dies, you showed that the caffeine
disrupted the action of a tendency which we talked about. UM.
It can be destructive, it turns out if it leaks
out when the cells are injured or under stress. This
is something that we've seen in dementia. So the escaped
(23:03):
adnazine can jump sir, a biochemical cascade leading to inflammation,
and that can disrupt the function of neurons and the
neuronal connections right and contribute to neurodegeneration. So we're talking
about dementia here, and we're talking about again that caffeine
binding to those adnazine receptors in stopping that in potentially dementia.
(23:24):
So in a set of humans, researchers from the University
of South Florida and the University of Miami tested the
blood levels of caffeine and older adults with mild cognitive
impairment or perhaps even the first glimmer of some serious forgetfulness,
which is usually a precursor of Alzheimer's, and then they
re evaluated reevaluated them two to four years later. So,
(23:47):
of course, what it was with the big deal with
all this, the participants with little or no caffeine circulating
their blood streams were far more likely to have progressed
to full blown Alzheimer's rather than those who blood indicated
that they had about three cups worth of coffee a day,
so in a sense that the use of coffee was
able to slow down the study approach of dementia and
(24:10):
or Alzheimer's. Yeah, so, I mean that's that's a great thing, right,
And like I said, there's a whole raft of studies
that we'll talk about the benefits of coffee, but these
are a couple of things that are very promising. And
I still feel though that coffee is emerging from its
shadow self. And that's really the studies that came out
in the early seventies and the eighties saying, oh, coffee
is awful. And the reason for this is because those
(24:34):
studies in the seventies, uh, they were talking. They were
looking at people who were both smoking and consuming coffee,
and at that time they didn't realize the implications of
smoking as much as we do now. And the coffee
and cigarettes went together great there. It's like PB and
J coffee and cigarettes. So they didn't take out those
(24:54):
participants who were smokers, and that definitely skewed some of
the results of the studies that they were looking at.
And edition they had the one very famous study in
which rats were giving something like a crazy amount of
milligrams of caffeine, which caused their offspring to have birth defects. Well,
the problem with that is that the amount of caffeine
they were given was not nearly on par with what
(25:16):
we consume as adults, or certainly like we're talking about them,
we're having the equivalent of so many cups exactly other experiment.
In this experiment, the rats were having, uh, the equivalent
of many, many, many many cups. Like just now toxic
level talked to the amount of caffeine. So they went back,
actually and they redid the study with the appropriate amount
of caffeine, and they found that their offspring were completely fine.
(25:40):
So I just wanted to mention that because I still
feel like coffee has that a bit of that around it.
Not to say that coffee can't be bad for you
if consumed in massive quantities, because it can be. Well,
I feel like coffee and red wine are both substances
that so many studies are done on their about their effects,
uh and you know, doing large part because they are
(26:02):
both consumed in such large quantities. And then when with
red wine you have the you know, the verious antioxidants
that that's sort of up the game for in your
research related to them. You kind of get blinders after
a while. You if you hear enough studies about why
you shoul drink coffee and why it's okay to drink
quite red wine, you just sort of, you know, check
it off in your mind where it's like, Okay, these
(26:22):
are good, I'll just keep doing these. But what happens
when you drink too much coffee, Well, you certainly become
addicted to it. Now, some people get caffeine headaches if
they have too much coffee. I've never suffered from this. Yeah, yeah, apparently,
And this is according to the American Psychiatric Association's UH
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The Bible um Psychology,
(26:46):
some people can experience caffeine intoxication symptoms including restlessness, nervousness, excitement, zomnia,
flesh face, and gastro intestinal complaints. Well, to me, that's
kind of a noda, right, and specifically because of the
coffee monk that we recently saw. Oh yes, what did
that coffee monks today? Julie? I think that it just
it's a brown coffee mug. And I think it said
(27:08):
coffee makes me poop. Yes, And this is the true
statement it's backed up by scientific research because, uh, there's
a nineties study titled Effect of Coffee on distal Colon function,
and the results suggests that drinking coffee can stimulate a
motor response of the distal colon in some normal people. So, um,
(27:29):
I think most people can attest to this. And uh
and actually a stand up comedian, Hannibal Burris had a
great bit about this in his act. He was talking
about how he started, um, he you know, stantic me,
and then he gets a job riding for thirty Rock
and he'd never consume coffee before. And then he starts
drinking coffe because he's there in the office all the
other writers are drinking and he starts drinking it. And
(27:49):
then he's he's like freaking out. He's like, nobody told
me about all the pooping that was going to happen.
That suddenly I drink the coffee and I have to
run to the toilet. Um. And it's think most people
can at test that, Yes, you drink some coffee, and
it can it can really jump start the system. Your
mind gets excited, but so do the do other parts
(28:10):
of the anatomy. And uh, so you've got to run
for shelter. Well, and it's a diuretic, right, so you
also have to urinate a lot more. In fact, another
thirty Rock thread here, I don't know if you've read
Bossy Pants. Yes, do you recall in the part that
said that that Tina fe is talking about being a
writer in the culture of writing comedy for TV that
(28:33):
she noticed that a lot of her male co workers
had jars Oh yeah, you're in in their office, which
ended up inspiring a little bit at one point in
the show where one of the writers, Frank has the
sun tea and the urine on the test. Well, I know,
I'm I feel like it's a it's a it's a
net benefit. It's net net actually, uh if not net
net net for me because I drink a lot of
(28:55):
coffee when I'm in the workplace or working, and even
in a coffee shop of course, and so I end
up having to urinate a lot. So that means I'm
I'm getting out of my seat a lot, I'm walking around,
so I'm getting extra exercise. Uh. So that's at least
two nets. I don't know what the third one is.
So I guess what you're saying is that if we
didn't have an open office concept here at work, and
(29:16):
we had walls that you might have jars in your office.
I don't know. I don't think I would do that,
but I certainly think we have some coworkers who might
do it. Absolutely. Yeah. All right, um, so what else
about caffeine and coffee can we say? Well? The creativity
element I thought was particularly interesting, And this comes in
(29:37):
large part from a recent New Yorker article titled how
Caffeine short circuits creativity, And it's it's really really interesting.
The idea puts this article looks forward because we generally
come to accept this idea that coffee is good for creativity.
We talked about the you know, the idea that when
we stopped drinking beer and we started drinking coffee, then
suddenly all this creativity is bounding about and things are
(29:58):
getting done with the culture we're talking about. You'd have
that cup of coffee and suddenly you have ideas for
the day about what's going to happen. Um. And we've
discussed the things that it does, you know, increase youral firing,
increased focus. But is this the article points out one
of the real one of the hallmarks of creativity is
of course, to have a wandering, unfocused mind. To take
(30:23):
this concept and pair it with this one, to be
able to stare out the window and think, think, you know,
what have what have? What have dinosaurs had for? Or
what if a pirate had a loose sight leg and
used it as an aquarium. Yes, it's exactly so we
we have all these random ideas that might pop up.
(30:45):
And this is a lot of what it is to
be creative. But if you were caffeinated to the gills
and you're you're focused on one task, then you're focused
on one task and you're not gonna have all these
random inspirations that are coming to you. Yeah, this novel
association sens that happen when we daydream. And I recall
that we did an episode in which we saw a
(31:05):
study in which, uh, something like our waking hours are
dedicated to daydreaming. So that obviously helps us tease out
a lot of problems and comment things in a different
angle and be extremely creative because again we're making those
novel associations. But if you are caffeinated all day long,
then the writer of this article, Maria Kunakova, says, hey,
(31:27):
you could be actually stripping yourself of creativity. Yeah, and
don't have that mind wander time. Not, your mind's not wandering.
And it can also have an effect on sleep, and
studies have shown that that sleep is important for creative thinking.
Two thousand nine study in fact, show that people who
experienced REM sleep performed better on two tests of creative
thinking than those who simply rested or napped without entering
(31:50):
the REM cycle. So I found this. Of course, this
made me sort of think a lot about my own
creative processes, in my own consumption of daffine. I had
that that sort of panic moment where I was like,
oh goodness, maybe I've got to stop drinking coffee if
it's gonna interfer with my creativity. But I think what
the difference here is, And maybe you know, it's gonna
vary with each individual mind, But I feel like I
(32:11):
definitely have the type of mind that can make those
those connections, Like I can you know, wonder about a
pirate with a loose sight leg or a hairy dinosaur.
But then but it's one thing anybody can sent around
and just dream off a whole bunch of crazy stuff.
But but can you then focus on it and do
something with it. So I feel like that's where I
(32:32):
need the caffeine. It's it's one thing for me to think,
what have I blogged about the possible science behind this,
like weird worm monster I read about, You know, it's
one thing to think about that, but I need the
coffee to focus on it and to actually do it.
So your natural state is to mind flander. Yeah, I
think if I think caffeine, I'm not. You know, I
don't want to give caffeine too much credit because it's
not like if I quit drinking coffee, I would just
(32:54):
be a complete disaster. I mean I would because for
a little bit, because I'd get a headache that would
make me want to curse God and die. But beyond that,
and I'm not saying it's vital to my existence, but
I do feel like it helps me focus on realizing
some of the ideas that I get with my wandering mind. Well,
I put this idea um in front of Holly Fry
(33:16):
of history stuff, and Holly Fry, if you guys don't know,
she's extremely creative and she is doing things at all
hours of creativity like she's just I mean, she's stitching
together things, she's making I don't know, thumb cozies. If
she has two minutes, you know, to spare a thumb cozy,
just all of a sudden poof, it's there. Um, she's
(33:36):
extremely productive, and so she drinks a ton of coffee,
and so I put this idea forward to her, and
then she looked at me, like, what are you talking about? Like,
I drink coffee at eleven o'clock at night helps me
to continue with all the projects that I have buzzing
around in my mind. And then I looked at her fitbit,
this bracelet that tracks her sleep and in all the
(33:57):
steps that she takes a cyborg, she's cyborg in addition
to all this, and I noticed that she had made
um this rhymestone sleeve for it, because the fitbit itself
wasn't pretty enough, and the fit that is sitting there
sparkling underneath the rhyme stones. And I thought, no, I
don't think that caffeine is taking away from her creativity. Yeah, well,
(34:21):
I think it ultimately that the the message from this
study maybe that it's going to vary with the individual,
and that you should maybe consider not drinking coffee all
the time. You try to try see what it's like
without it, it's it's kind of like in the same
way that coffee has has some similarities to other um,
psychoactive chemicals and and and drugs and things that alter
(34:44):
our perception of reality or interface with reality. It's sometimes
good to treat them, or often I guess you could
say it's generally good to see those things as like
a telescope or a microscope, something that adds new perspective
to life. But isn't the only way that you interact
with it or glimpse it, right, And you have to
remember to you that coffee is going to increase your
(35:04):
performance and thinks and sort of like wrote things that
you do over and over again. It's not necessarily going
to make you master a new skill. Um. It might
give you a little bit more energy for that skill,
but that doesn't mean that you're going to become the
conqueror of that UM. So it was really good for
for bringing everything together, as you say, to a point, UM,
I should add there's another thing that I do that
(35:26):
I have found that coffee is not good for me,
and that is sometimes to relax. I enjoy painting miniatures,
and I've found that if I do it while drinking
coffee or right after I drink coffee. I'm just my
my my hands are too unsteady. I don't have really
steady hands anyway. And if I have the coffee, then
it's it's it's not good. Well see And and that
(35:46):
ought to be a zen like activity anyway, right where
you don't need to be in the coffee realm exactly
because you're just doing the one thing. Um. I would
be very interested to hear from people about how coffee
affects them. Is I feel like some people are really
sensitive to caffeine while others can just you know, drink
it by the gallons. Yeah, And I've known people like
(36:09):
my my friend Becky uh once claimed that she had
some espresso chocolate at night and was up all night afterwards. See.
And then you know as some of the psychosomatic or
is that really like, is your system that sensitive? I
believe that some people really are that sensitive to it.
All right, Well, on that note, let's call over the
robot and see what kind of listener mail we have.
(36:33):
Believe this one is another one has to do with
the sensory deprivation tanks. We've received a lot of cool
comments on this episode so far these episodes. By the way, UH,
just a little tip if you are going to go
into a sensory deprivation tank, do not drink caffeine beforehand. Yes, yeah,
that's not a good idea. Yeah, for a few different reasons.
So this one comes to us from Seth. Seth writes,
(36:53):
since says Hi, Julian Robert, I recently finished it your
episode on sensory deprivation tanks and wanted to write in
with my story. During my sen year at year at college,
I UH interned at a neurofeedback clinic specializing in a
d h D behavior modification therapy. One of the benefits
of working at the clinic was the on site sensory
deprivation chamber that we call the float tank. I got
(37:13):
in the float tank as much as I could during
that year, somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty to sixty times.
It was fascinating. Um my experience with it was quite positive.
The first time I got in, I was nervous and
did not really relax or have any experiences. Apparently this
was normal. However, each subsequent visit resulted in more intense
experiences and increased time spent in the tank. I've tried
(37:33):
to describe my experiences to others and have always fallen short.
The closest that I come can come to describe it
is that it feels like deep meditation with the benefits
of a power cat nap. I would emerge from the
float tank after an hour and feel as if I
had slept for three or four hours. I never had
out of body experiences, but I did feel an overwhelming
sense of calm and understanding. As a side note, the
(37:54):
chief clinician at the clinic would sleep for only five
hours a day, and he would do so in the
float tank. He stated that he felt yes, he stated
that he felt as if he had slept twelve hours afterwards.
So some advice on your future visits or visits to
the float tank. Visited several times to get a good
real sense of it. Anxiety about it is normal as
(38:17):
it is abnormal constructed is it is an abnormal constructed experience,
and it is not found in nature that we evolved in.
But it is very enlightening. Thank you for the awesome show.
Seth Wow. Five hours in the tank. That was that
was really impressive. Whenever at that because I'm also trying
to picture this dude, he only sleeps in a in
(38:39):
a sensory deprivation tank and only does so like five
to six hours a night. Been going to put this
out there that he must not have a close significant
other unless well maybe maybe they sleep together, or maybe
they exist solely in the astral plane. That's how beautiful.
That's beautiful. But well, I can see now know why
(39:00):
those five hours would would bear out something that felt
like twelve hours, because it is the most relaxing thing
that I've ever done in my life. So I can't
imagine sleeping through the evening in one of those cool
All right, Steth, Well, thanks for right man. Uh for
As for the rest of you, yet, we would love
to hear your thoughts on scencessory deprivation tanks, on Harry dinosaurs,
(39:22):
on pirates with blue site peg legs, and generally about creativity,
About coffee, About your coffee consumption, Um, if you've recently
started drinking coffee, what kind of changes have you noticed
in your physiology and in your thought process? Have you
recently stopped drinking coffee? Tell us about that nightmare. We
would love to hear from you. How can you get
in touch with this, how can you find as well?
(39:43):
The mother ship as always is Stuff to Bow Your
Mind dot com. You're stuffed to bow your Mind on
Facebook and tumbler are, twitter feed is blow the Mind
and over on YouTube our channel is Mind Stuff Show
and you can always drop us a line at blow
the Mind at discovery dot com. Um For more on
(40:05):
this and thousands of other topics, visit how Stuff Works
dot com
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