10 Ways too much coffee can ruin your health & beauty

Bad Brew: 10 Ways too much coffee can ruin your health & beauty

Angela Goh

03 Aug 2016

1/10
It can increase your heart rate
In as little as 15 minutes after consuming coffee, the caffeine can stimulate your central nervous system and send your heart rate into overdrive. This stimulation can also cause major anxiety in certain sensitive individuals. It might not be the wisest decision to drink coffee just before that important meeting or presentation.
2/10
It can lead to a leaky bladder
The University of Alabama conducted a study that showed coffee consumption can further exacerbate bladder problems in some men and women. Caffeine can also cause a mild diuretic effect, which will cause you to lose fluids at a higher rate.
3/10
It can make you hear things
We all know that coffee is a psychoactive drug that can make us more highly strung than usual, but too much of it can actually make you hear things you shouldn’t be hearing, especially if you are very stressed and are running on high levels of caffeine. A study done by the University of Melbourne found that subjects who’d been given plenty of caffeine and were told to listen to white noise thought they heard parts of a Christmas song being played through the white noise.
4/10
It can lead to a damaged liver
While studies have indicated that small amounts of coffee can detoxify the liver, too much of it can do the opposite. As with any substance taken in high dosage - from medication to alcohol - your liver can be overworked and its ability to function normally can be hindered if it has to process too much caffeine. The key is to moderate your consumption, and always drink plenty of water to keep your liver in top shape.
5/10
It can make you moody and irritable
Too much caffeine can affect your breathing pattern by destabilising oxygen flow to your brain, which in turn makes you breathe much shallower. This can impact on your decision-making processes and also cause you to become more lethargic and irrational.
6/10
Withdrawals can hinder your everyday routine
Of course, if you’ve got an addiction to coffee, skipping on your regular dose of the stuff might lead to raging headaches and unstable moods. Withdrawals can cause anything from depression to stomach discomfort. Unfortunately, once most people start to show symptoms of withdrawal, they try to fix it by going back to coffee.
7/10
It can cause sleeplessness and insomnia
Is your beauty sleep being interrupted? Caffeine in coffee is a lot stronger than in most other beverages, and while the effects of caffeine can vary from person to person (sometimes not affecting certain individuals at all), those with a high sensitivity to the chemical will not be able to sleep if they’ve had some coffee just before bedtime. While this is good for those trying to pull an all-nighter, it might not be so good if you’re trying to get some quality REM slumber.
8/10
It can stain your teeth horribly
A little coffee is okay, but drink it every day and you might end up with extremely discoloured teeth, which will probably ruin your self-confidence. And those teeth whitening products aren’t exactly cheap, so you might want to limit your coffee to a cup or two a week.
9/10
It can cause a bad case of the jitters
Ever feel restless after a large mug of coffee? Caffeine is the culprit, as it stimulates adrenaline levels, sending tremors and shivers through your body. This is the same reason why you can be kept awake all night if you have a high sensitivity to caffeine. If you are aware of your body’s intolerance to coffee, try to stay away from the beverage.
10/10
It can dehydrate you
As caffeine can act as a laxative and diuretic, it can greatly upset the body’s fluid balance and cause you to require more liquid than usual. Many people report getting headaches and feeling tired and lethargic at the end of the day after several coffees, and this could be the lack of water in your system.

Don’t go overboard with your caffeine consumption or you might have more than just a pesky headache on your plate at the end of the day.

We all love the gorgeous aroma of a freshly brewed cup of coffee, that’s why we frequent all those popular hipster cafes in the heart of town to get our fix. But if you’re the type to chug down more than the usual couple of cups a day, you might want to hold your horses and slow down a bit. From unsightly stained teeth to uncontrollable muscle tremors, there are many ways too much coffee can affect your body.

As with everything from exercise to getting enough sunshine, moderation is the key to staying healthy. If you’ve got an addiction to coffee, we invite you to head up to the gallery to check out the reasons why you really shouldn’t be pumping yourself full of the stuff. And if you’ve got a friend who’s been drinking way too much of it lately, do them a favour and share this article with them – they’ll probably end up thanking you later.

Angela Goh

Photos: Getty Images

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