Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Caffeine and Mental Health

Coffee by Gene Sasse
" A new study finds that well-caffeinated women have a key health advantage over their more abstemious sisters: They're less likely to become depressed.
 -Melissa Healy

Chambord coffee maker, double walled image from Bodum

A very good  Southern California morning to you.  Outside it is 64 ° F. Fog obscures the distant view, forcing focus on the close- in details of the garden.  As the sun pierces the  filmy pewter veil, the temperature will percolate upwards. Today should reach the mid 80's.  As the blue sky seeps forward, what we see will change, but be no less glorious.

Illy espresso image courtesy of Sur La Table
This month I started spiking the morning pot of java with a half scoop of espresso.  The study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine and publicized in Jewish World Review by Melissa here explains why I have felt so good despite an onslaught of reasons to feel otherwise.


Flowering coffee plant as seen on Wikipedia
 When life seems out of control; when you do not recognize where you are headed- STOP. Re-evaluate. Not everything is best left  in our personal control. Asking for help is honorable.

Understand that not every road is repairable. Sometimes we need to take a different fork in the road. 

Focus on where you are, not where you planned to be. Cherish good memories. Pick new goals and move on. To allow malaise to mire your path is never productive.

Praise God for every breath, even when you don't feel like it; for you will.  

On the eve of Rosh Hashana- the Jewish New Year- may this Christian woman share a Jewish toast

“Leshanah tovah tikateiv v’teichateim"—May you be inscribed for a good year!”

7 comments:

  1. Lydia,

    I am chuckling here because that coffee you showed "Illy" is the name of the place in the JW Marriott where Edda and I stayed for the CRP Convention and bought that coffee. The gal working in there reminded me of an orchestra conductor. It was amazing to watch as she didn't miss a beat in making all those wonderful coffee drinks.
    I wish you good mental health and happiness but let me say that I hope you can get to sleep tonight after putting that strong stuff in your coffee now.
    I had to wait an hour to have my coffee this morning because of a med I take once a week and it's pure torture! Thankfully I am enjoying it right now.

    Hugs, Trisha

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  2. Thank you for the Good Wishes, on this High Holy Day, dear Lydia....

    Those statistics about Coffee may be right and then again, they may not. I think it is so individual.....
    I gave up Real Coffee back in the 1960's and I gave up De-Caf about twenty years ago---with an occassional cup, here and there, every two months or so.....
    Coffee made me jittery--it certainly wasn't calming, and weather I was less depressed drinking it, I can't say, because the 'jitters' part was pretty overwhelming.....
    On the other hand, I know people who swear by their morning coffee....!
    I say, if it makes you feel better---Enjoy It!

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  3. Lydia, I'll second T's comment about the illy coffee concession at the LA First Marriott. I had no interest in leaving hotel and crossing the pedestrian walkway to buy "a cuppa" at the "Star" not.

    Enjoyed your thoughtful post.

    Edda

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  4. Oh- to watch someone performing a job they love. A singer, a traffic cop, a barrista...

    LOL. A staffer when I was a Parks and Rec Commissioner looked at me one day and said

    "Lydia, you are the only person I know who gets calmer drinking coffee."

    As Naomi (OOLH) advises, it is best we listen to our body's individual voice when it comes to everything we put in our body.

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  5. Yet another reason to enjoy my late-morning and late-afternoon coffee. (First thing in the morning wakes me up far too quickly.)

    Thanks, Lydia, for the extra validation!

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  6. Hello, Joan! People can get up without the aroma of coffee brewing nudging them awake?

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  7. "Understand that not every road is repairable. Sometimes we need to take a different fork in the road." That is a beautiful truth, Lydia. There's a time to stick it out and a time to let it go and take the other path.

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