|
A FREE EXTRA DECADE OF LIFE #6
A DRUG IN YOUR MUG
In the sixties, they would have called it Picasso on
a bad acid trip. Fortunately there were no human beings involved, but
a scientist in a white coat took a bunch of spiders into the laboratory,
asked Igor to document the whole thing on a video camera, and then taped
the spiders - after having been fed a controlled substance - as they spun
their webs. And the spiders, who normally produced beautiful, symmetrical
works of art worthy of the genus Arachnid, instead spun out confusing,
contorted, aberrant webs with no pattern at all. They were junk. Now,
what illicit drug did Dr. Mervyn G. Hardinge inject into these guinea-pig
spiders? Were they floating on PCP or Ecstasy? Were they high on California
Gold marijuana? Nothing so glamorous as that - and I'm sure Loma Linda
University's School of Public Health wouldn't have wanted anything that
notorious even on their campus. No, all the mad scientist gave the spiders
was . . . caffeine. That's it. An equivalent dose to a 155-pound man drinking
two cups of coffee.
We're resuming a very interesting radio series with this title: A FREE
EXTRA DECADE OF LIFE. A wonderful new book came out recently from our
friends at Word Publishing, entitled Live 10 Healthy Years Longer, and
it spells out for us, in pretty plain English, how a test group of more
than 27,000 people have proved that you can reorder your life in something
called the "Live-Longer Lifestyle" . . . and add eight, ten,
even 13 extra years to your life expectancy.
That's all well and good, but what does it have to do with the drug-induced
works of art by these stoked-up spiders? Well, here's a little Monday
factoid for us to consider: A whopping 74% of the men and women in that
Live-Longer Lifestyle program were maintaining a caffeine-free diet. They
just don't use it - period. The healthiest people living on your block
are very likely not drinking coffee, tea, or Coca-Cola Classic.
We sometimes don't take very seriously the bad things that happen to the
white rats and the spiders in the laboratory, so let me tell you a human
side to the spider web story. Here's how authors Jan Kuzma and Cecil Murphey
describe what happened:
"Researchers tested a group of typists who had
used no caffeine for at least two weeks. Their typing was accurate, and
they correctly estimated their speed. In the second part of the test,
each participant drank two cups of coffee. The typists' accuracy decreased
considerably. However, in their self-evaluations, they thought they were
doing much better in speed and accuracy than when they had not used caffeine.
The apparent improvement they felt in performance after imbibing caffeine
was illusory."
Well, setting spiders to the side for the moment, let's
ask this question: what does caffeine really do to us? Many of us have
been to conventions, I'm sure, where all the blunky-eyed people attending
that 8:30 a.m. workshop in the Hilton Hotel Salon B simply wouldn't think
of starting the session without a jolt of coffee to keep them awake. Within
30 minutes of having that morning cup, the caffeine reaches its peak level
in our blood, and we're in business.
The bad thing is this. True, you do get an energy spike from a cup of
coffee. However, it's "borrowed" energy. It's not real. You
pay for the "up" now with a bigger "down" a little
later on. Yes, you can then have a second cup and go up the escalator
again, but you just keep piling up a debt that has to be paid off. Caffeine
energy simply is not real.
"When you ingest caffeine," write Jan and
Cecil, "it doubles the level of adrenaline in your bloodstream. That's
why it shocks your system. The adrenaline causes your liver to rapidly
dump glucose (blood sugar) into your system." Then they add this
warning: "Caffeine activates your body's self-preservation faculties.
The energy you get is the kind intended to protect you from danger in
emergencies. This stresses your whole body, especially your nervous system.
Adrenaline produces a high level of tension that you can normally relieve
only by physical action. If you don't take physical action, this tension
can last for hours and produce headache, nervousness, sleepnessness, and
other unpleasant symptoms of stress."
How many of us can say: "Been there, done that"
to at least part of that description?
But here is the longer downside, the full health list . . . and again,
this is verbatim from the new book: Live 10 Healthy Years Longer. Caffeine:
elevates blood sugar - that's what gives you the feeling of an energy
surge. It can aggravate hypoglycemia. It boosts your blood pressure. It
stimulates the central nervous system, which can override and block out
your body's natural need for rest. It can give you an irregular heartbeat.
Caffeine increases urinary calcium and magnesium losses - two contributing
factors to decreased bone health. Caffeine constricts blood vessels. It
increases stomach acid secretion - which can start you on the road toward
an ulcer. It can cause tremors, irritability, and nervousness. It disrupts
sleep patterns and causes insomnia. It increases anxiety and depression.
And one more, for at least half of you listening out there: it can heighten
symptoms of PMS.
By the way, here's yet another negative . . . but it's one that can be
easily fixed. "Heavy caffeine consumption," according to these
studies, "elevates your serum cholesterol and increases your risk
of heart disease." But in a good-news sidebar, Jan and Cecil immediately
respond by telling us that any average caffeine user who gives up the
habit can score an almost guaranteed 10% drop in their cholesterol level.
We've been mentioning all through this health series the test group involved
in what was called AHS - an Adventist Health Study - which documented
the habits of more than 27,000 men and women in the Seventh-day Adventist
Church, which tends to follow a very healthy lifestyle, including little
or no caffeine. In a related study, running a full 20 years, involving
just under 24,000 participants, Loma Linda University provided a definite
link - not white rats or spiders this time - between coffee consumption
and three kinds of cancer: colon, bladder, and bowel. And even just two
cups a day put people in the danger zone for increased fatalities. Ouch.
Again . . . a preventable ouch.
By the way, here's a caffeine connection for you moms and dads to consider,
because while our fifth-graders may not be drinking a gallon of Folgers
every day, they're getting more than their share of caffeine by way of
soda. And what researchers call "caffeinism syndrome," indistinguishable
from anxiety neurosis, happens when a person overloads. Especially children,
if they get a big dose, can demonstrate hyperactive behavior. Jan and
Cecil tell a story about a Christian boarding school where they had a
pretty stiff policy: "no caffeine-containing soda on bus trips."
An incoming principal, new to the school, came out of the starting gate
trying to enforce that no-caffeine rule on the first bus trip. Well, the
students did their usual complaining and moaning, with all the typical
remarks about concentration camps and Neanderthal principals and poor
persecuted us, etc., but they ended up having an orderly, quiet trip to
wherever they were going.
On the way home, though, the kids were dog-tired, and for some reason,
the principal decided to be a nice guy and relax the caffeine rule. Okay.
Next time they stopped, the kids all piled out and guzzled up on Coke,
Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. Guess what happened? They went crazy.
Bedlam broke out on the bus, and that caffeinism syndrome - in the form
of hyperactivity - took over the whole rest of the trip. Without realizing
it, the kids just got louder and louder and louder, and nobody could control
them.
Now, friend, let me say this. We don't come on the radio to tell you what
to do. Coffee is undeniably a part of the American experience, and we
all know what they say about something being as American as apple pie,
Chevrolet, and an ice-cold Coke. I know that. I know what a deeply ingrained
habit caffeine can be. At the same time, it's simply an undisputed fact
that the people in this Live-Longer Lifestyle, those who are adding eight,
ten, or even 13 years to their life . . . they're not putting caffeine
into their system. Or they're at least cutting way, way, way back. And
the more you cut back, the more fully you partake of the benefits of this
incredible lifestyle of wellness. It's just simply a case of "A"
always leading to "B." The link is there for all to see.
Cecil and Jan point out, correctly, that if you decide to go cold turkey
on a caffeine habit, you can pretty well expect a bad week ahead. The
worst symptoms - headaches, fatigue, apathy, anxiety - generally peak
after about 36 hours, but it can be a rough seven days. You can ease the
transition with a lot of water and fruit juice.
Well, friend, let's close with this, because there's a God in heaven who
wants you to have those extra years. And perhaps it sounds trite to suggest
that a good Bible verse can make up for what you've been getting from
that good-to-the-last-drop cup of Maxwell House. But here's Philippians
4:13, as rendered by the great Message paraphrase . . . and remember that
all 27,000 people in that Live-Longer Lifestyle study group were born-again
Christians who got their daily strength from these words:
"Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make
it through anything in the One who makes me what I am." In the King
James: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
|
