Caffeine
Episodes
Dr. Rhonda Patrick covers lithium microdosing, reducing homocysteine, aluminum's link to cancer, and beta-alanine and alpha-lipoic acid supplements.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses her supplement stack, avoiding microplastics, creatine for brain health, and mRNA vaccine autoimmunity risks.
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Exercise Biomarkers Vitamin E Genetics Eyes Caffeine Folate Sulforaphane Sauna Antioxidant Dairy Polyphenol Supplements Wearable TechnologyDr. Rhonda Patrick covers lithium microdosing, reducing homocysteine, aluminum's link to cancer, and beta-alanine and alpha-lipoic acid supplements.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses her supplement stack, avoiding microplastics, creatine for brain health, and mRNA vaccine autoimmunity risks.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick answers audience questions on various health, nutrition, and science topics in this Q&A session.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick answers audience questions on various health, nutrition, and science topics in this Q&A session.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes how circadian rhythms regulate processes including eating behaviors, problem-solving ability, and mood.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes the factors determining the best time for exercise according to our circadian clocks.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes his habits and addresses questions surrounding the issue of whether time-restricted eating is suitable for everyone.
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In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick goes over harmful substances that can get into breastmilk and negatively affect an infant’s health.
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Comprehensive overview: Breast milk's nutritional and non-nutritional components, and health benefits for mother and infant through breastfeeding
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In this clip, Dr. David Sinclair describes his personal resveratrol and nicotinamide mononucleotide supplementation habits.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses the pros and cons of consuming black coffee and amino acids during fasting.
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Dr. Guido Kroemer discusses the autophagy-inducing qualities of coffee.
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Dr. Satchin Panda discusses the controversy surrounding consumption of black coffee or tea while practicing time-restricted eating.
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Dr. Matthew Walker describes how sound and smell cues played during learning and subsequent sleep can enhance memory formation and retrieval.
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Dr. Matthew Walker describes the role that sleep plays in learning and new memory formation.
Topic Pages
News & Publications
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Consuming the caffeine equivalent of four cups of coffee up to 12 hours before bedtime reduces deep sleep by 21 minutes—undetectable by the consumer. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Caffeine is the world’s most popular psychoactive drug. Often considered harmless, its influence on sleep can be more disruptive than many realize. A recent study found that while a modest amount of caffeine had little effect on sleep, large amounts of caffeine—roughly the amount in four cups of coffee—reduced deep sleep by 21 minutes when consumed within 12 hours of bedtime.
The study involved 23 healthy young men who typically consumed less than 300 milligrams of caffeine daily. Each participant consumed either a placebo or 100 or 400 milligrams of caffeine, taken twelve, eight, or four hours before bedtime, with 48-hour “washout” periods between each condition. The researchers monitored the participants' sleep using sleep diaries and in-home polysomnography and applied statistical models to examine how dose and timing affected subjective and objective sleep quality.
The 100-milligram dose didn’t meaningfully disrupt sleep. However, the 400-milligram dose caused measurable changes when taken up to 12 hours before bedtime, including: - Deep sleep decreased by 21 minutes - Light sleep increased by 6% - Time to reach stable sleep increased by 15 minutes Notably, the participants didn’t notice any difference in their sleep quality.
These findings suggest that while smaller doses of caffeine may be sleep-friendly even late in the day, a large dose can interfere with the structure and quality of sleep, even if taken in the morning. Because caffeine consumers might not perceive the disruption, they may be more likely to repeat the cycle, unknowingly trading long-term rest for short-term alertness. Learn about other factors that influence sleep quality in this clip featuring Dr. Matt Walker.
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That morning cup of coffee might do more than boost alertness—it might promote longevity. While many studies link moderate coffee drinking to better health, the timing of those effects is less clear. However, a recent study found that morning-only coffee drinkers were more than 30% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 40,000 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 1,400 adults in the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study. They searched for patterns in the timing of coffee consumption and tracked participants for an average of nearly 10 years to monitor deaths from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
Two coffee-drinking patterns emerged: a morning-only pattern (4 a.m. to noon) and an all-day pattern. Compared with people who didn’t drink coffee at all, those who drank coffee only in the morning had a 16% lower risk of dying from any cause and a 31% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, indicating that the health benefits of drinking more coffee were strongest among morning-only drinkers. Surprisingly, caffeine didn’t explain the difference. When the researchers adjusted for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake, the timing of coffee drinking still mattered.
These findings suggest that drinking coffee earlier in the day offers more health benefits than drinking it over the course of the day. Coffee induces autophagy–a critical process that helps reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. Learn more in this clip featuring Dr. Guido Kroemer.
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A daily cup of coffee could reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes by half. academic.oup.com
Drinking your daily cup of coffee or tea might do more than give you a boost—it could lower your risk of developing multiple serious cardiometabolic conditions simultaneously, like diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. A recent study found that moderate coffee or caffeine consumption may cut your risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity by as much as 50%.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 172,000 participants enrolled in the UK Biobank who had no cardiometabolic diseases at the start. Participants reported their coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption; about half provided blood samples for metabolic marker analysis.
They found that people who drank about three cups of coffee daily (or consumed 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine daily) were 40% to 50% less likely to develop multiple cardiometabolic diseases than those who drank little or no caffeine. They also discovered that specific blood markers, such as certain lipid components, were linked to coffee and caffeine consumption and a lower risk of cardiometabolic conditions.
These findings suggest that moderate coffee or caffeine intake reduces the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases but also slows their progression if they occur. Other evidence points to the many health benefits associated with coffee and caffeine, but it’s crucial to remember their effects on sleep. Learn more in this Aliquot featuring Drs. Guido Kroemer, Satchin Panda, Elissa Epel, Matthew Walker, and Rhonda Patrick
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Exercising, drinking coffee and having sex are triggers that raise rupture risks for brain aneurysm, retrospective study finds. (2011) www.sciencedaily.com
From the article:
Calculating population attributable risk – the fraction of subarachnoid hemorrhages that can be attributed to a particular trigger factor – the researchers identified the eight factors and their contribution to the risk as:
-Coffee consumption (10.6 percent)
-Vigorous physical exercise (7.9 percent)
-Nose blowing (5.4 percent)
-Sexual intercourse (4.3 percent)
-Straining to defecate (3.6 percent)
-Cola consumption (3.5 percent)
-Being startled (2.7 percent)
-Being angry (1.3 percent)
“All of the triggers induce a sudden and short increase in blood pressure, which seems a possible common cause for aneurysmal rupture,” said Monique H.M. Vlak, M.D., lead author of the study and a neurologist at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Risk was higher shortly after drinking alcohol, but decreased quickly, researchers said.
[…]
Although physical activity had triggering potential, researchers don’t advise refraining from it because it’s also an important factor in lowering risk of other cardiovascular diseases.
“Reducing caffeine consumption or treating constipated patients with unruptured IAs with laxatives may lower the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage,” Vlak said. “Whether prescribing antihypertensive drugs to patients with unruptured IAs is beneficial in terms of preventing aneurysmal rupture still needs to be further investigated.”