Coffee Story
Too much coffee?Legend holds that 'kaffa' was discovered in Ethiopia by a man who noticed that his goats were more active after nibbling coffee beans from the coffee plant. Today, caffeine is the most widely used brain stimulant (enhancer) in the world and a multi-billion dollar global industry.
Caffeine works by blocking a chemical ln the brain called adenosine from binding with receptors on the neurons.
Adenosine is an inhibitor that keeps many areas of the brain in check including one that bascially ramps up your brain! Caffeine shifts this region into hyper-drive and wakes up the rest of the brain. Is caffeine addictive? Probably. Because the brain learns to 'balance' the drug, going 'cold turkey' can cause a real headache. About 100 cups of coffee can be fatal, but some scientists think caffeine could protect against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.Risks? Yup! Benefits? Yup! The neurorevolution battleground!
Another Neuroseeds Story: The Power of Jamaican
Coffee
Most people in the highlands of Jamaica drink tea. Though I grew up in Jamaica, my mother always drank coffee. She said she liked coffee because it prevented her hands from shaking. Every morning she would make a cup of very strong coffee. First she would grind the coffee with a heavy mahogany mortar and pestle blackened from years of use. Next she would light the stove to boil the water and I could smell the kerosene from my bed. The smell signaled to me it was almost time to get up. Using her tin measuring can, she placed the ground coffee into a homemade, muslin coffee bag, placed the bag in a pot and poured the boiling water into the bag. This made a really strong coffee that you could smell from a mile away! My mother said she needed the strong coffee to prevent her hands from shaking. I often wonder why the coffee stopped her hands from shaking and why other people say “I am shaking because I drank too much coffee.”~Phyllis Harvey-Buschel
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