Is Coffee Can Reduce Stress?

If you are one of the 56 percent of adults who drink coffee every day, you may wish to increase your energy, not relaxation. But scientists found that coffee may have the potential to reduce emotional and physical stress. In the same way that coffee affects the brain to keep you alert, it affects neurotransmitters that can help your body fight the symptoms of stress and stress-related illnesses.

Research in animals
A Japanese study examined the coffee and also other components, caffeine and chlorogenic acid - a type of plant-based antioxidants - useful for reducing stress in the hippocampus region of the brain of mice. The researchers looked at the coffee interaction with the brain chemical serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters associated with emotion. The result, published in "Neuroscience Letters" issue of 2002 found that coffee reduces the stress chemical response of mice when they were tested when the condition is stress.

Stress and Blood Pressure
Researchers in Switzerland found that coffee affects the stress-induced high blood pressure differently in people who frequently drink compared with those who rarely drank coffee. Research shows that coffee causes an increase in blood pressure under stress situations for which no / rarely drink coffee, but in those who drank coffee regularly, their blood pressure is not affected by stress. However, a previous study in 1992, published in "Psychosomatic Medicine," found that six cups of caffeinated coffee a day increases the heart rate response to mental stress.


Stress Associated With Pregnancy
The third trimester of pregnancy is stressful for many women because of physical changes of the body weight, the pressure on the internal organs, back pain, frequent urination and heartburn. A team in Japan studied the effects of coffee consumption on stress in pregnancy, is determined by the level of cortisol, or "stress hormone." The study results were published in 2006 in the "International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics," found that cortisol levels in pregnant women significantly reduced after consuming coffee. However, as MayoClinic.com notes, because caffeine can affect your baby's heartbeat and may be associated with a slightly increased risk of miscarriage, you should consume no more than two cups of coffee (each cup = 8-ounce) a day while pregnant.

Work Related Stress
Coffee is a 'friend compulsory' at work for most people, but one study published in 2007 in the journal "Psychoneuroendocrinology" shows that coffee is not a good thing when present at the work-related stress. Health-care workers who drank the most coffee had the greatest level of the stress hormone cortisol in the evening after a day of work. A second unpublished study at the University of Bristol in England found that caffeinated coffee consumption in the workplace makes men feel more depressed, although it tends to reduce stress for women.

Stress Related to Lack of Sleep
Staying up all night to prepare for the exam tomorrow and accompanied by a cup of coffee is not unusual for students, but if you lack of sleep can be stressful to your body. A study published in 2008 in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" found that the coffee aroma can help combat the stress of sleep deprivation. When the researchers tested the aroma of roasted coffee beans on mice in the laboratory, some of the genes in mice can be activated, including some that produce proteins with healthful antioxidant activity and reduce cortisol

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