• 12 Posts
  • 381 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • * Not a doctor or professional, just rambling as a lay person *

    Brains are complex, but seem to boil down to input in, output out. The inputs are sensory stimuli (sights, smells, etc) as well as various hormone and other chemical levels in your body and brain. The outputs are things you think and do.

    The brain will use chemicals like dopamine and serotonin to encourage behaviors. Dopamine acts like the “remember that thing? ohh that would be really good right now” messenger chemical, and serotonin is the feel good reward messenger chemical when the task completes.

    Those chemicals have to actually attach to receivers in cells to work, and other chemicals can take their spot under certain conditions (this is why caffeine keeps most people from getting sleepier — it takes up the space that the “we’re getting tired” messenger chemical would otherwise attach to).

    * Again, not a doctor or professional, just rambling. *

    But If I had to guess, some part of that process is not working as expected in your brain. Dopamine not being produced when it should be, or serotonin not attaching when it should be, or something like that. If you also experience symptoms of ADHD or depression and/or your symptoms impede your life or otherwise bother you, you should consider seeing a psychiatrist to narrow down what’s actually happening and find possible solutions.


  • Tldr the author of this article isn’t drawing a distinction between caffeine and coffee, even though she should be, and the data is less cut and dry than the headline suggests.

    Most adults can safely consume up to 400 mg of caffeine each day—the amount found in up to five eight-ounce cups of coffee—and doing so may have cardiovascular benefits, according to a July 20 American Heart Association (AHA) statement published in Circulation.

    Here’s the abstract for what’s being cited (emphasis mine):

    Caffeine is one of the most commonly consumed drugs in the world. It is found in various naturally occurring substances and can be ingested in a synthetically derived pure form. The majority of human subject–based research is observational and has focused on beverages and foods that contain caffeine. The relationships between caffeine and cardiovascular risk factors and diseases are complex, exhibiting heterogeneity depending on the nature of the caffeine consumed and individual-level propensities. Acute versus chronic caffeine-associated cardiovascular effects are often different. Most studies suggest an inverse J-shaped relationship between consumption of naturally occurring caffeinated products and blood pressure. Data on relationships between caffeine and diabetes are not consistent, but habitual coffee consumption has been associated with a lower risk of incident type 2 diabetes. Whereas no clear relationship between caffeine and blood lipids is evident, unfiltered coffee raises low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Caffeine, studied primarily in the context of coffee, has been shown either to have no relationship or to be associated with a lower risk of coronary artery disease and heart failure. Randomized controlled trial data among regular caffeinated coffee drinkers showed that caffeinated coffee decreases the risk of atrial fibrillation occurrence but increases the frequency of premature ventricular contractions. Data are fairly consistent that moderate caffeine consumption, again studied primarily in the setting of coffee consumption, was associated with a lower risk of stroke. Data on high doses of caffeine such as that found in energy drinks are limited and generally suggest cardiovascular harm.









  • You’ll find your conversations much less patronizing when you don’t begin them by being loudly wrong. Aside from being wrong about one of the two major parties in the US being “far left,” you’re also wrong that neither has been able to solve problems. You don’t see blue states lining up to make renewable energy illegal. It’s not Democrats making mandatory water breaks for construction workers during summer illegal. Republicans consistently make life worse for their constituents. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend the Dems are even remotely perfect, but you have to be genuinely delusional to look at red states and blue states side by side and say neither party is solving problems. Even at the city level, New York City is famously fixing lots of problems recently after electing an extremely popular Democratic Socialist.