» Coffee Beans, Health, and Stress

Coffee Beans, Health, and Stress

According to recent news, simply smelling the first warm cup of coffee in the morning might take away some of those harsh feelings of stress…according to a new South Korean study on rats. When the rats smelled the aroma, their bodies began producing certain types of proteins with powerful antioxidants and stress relievers.

It’s not really clear on the correlation between the rats and humans, but it does show that coffee smells affect even human brains to some degree and help ease the burdens of stress.

The experiment provides an example of how:

“for the first time, clues to the potential antioxidant or stress-relaxation activities of the coffee bean aroma,” according to researchers. They also said:

“These results indirectly explain why so many people use coffee for staying up all night, although the volatile compounds of coffee beans are not fully consistent with those of the coffee extracts. In other words, the stress caused by sleep loss via caffeine may be alleviated through smelling the coffee aroma.”

“They used the latest in technology to see how brain expression of RNA changed. This is just the beginning of a very interesting line of investigation.” Also:

“There are two ways to get things into your system, and the quickest way is to smell them. Caffeine gets into the brain via the blood stream. Here, aromatic molecules get into the brain through the olfactory system. The levels in the air are parts per million, so obviously these are minor components in the air. But they are doing something.”

Now, don’t go overboard with 16 cups of coffee each day…you’ll create a powerful addiction that will have you jumping and jittering to an early grave; however, we have explored the healthful effects of coffee before in previous posts and previous studies have shown that controlled consumption of coffee can provide a release from stress and cumulated depression.

Is it too early to suggest we participate in morning aromatherapy coffee rituals?

Does coffee have some mystical and magical qualities that renew our body and minds?

You decide on this one…I’m not a major coffee fan myself.