Have you ever discovered something disturbingly shocking about your partner, despite being together for over a decade?

I have…

Antonino (Toni), my beloved, shared with me what he used to have for breakky each morning as a small child growing up in Sicily..

…and what he told me shook me to my naturopathic core!!

Brace yourself….

It was warm milk… mixed with sweet, crumbled up biscuits…and……..ESPRESSO coffee!

I nearly spat out my herbal tea when he said that!

You went to school each day as a little kiddie with a belly full of coffee/biscuit/milk soup?!

My mind raced in horror…

“But your blood sugar levels!”

“No nutrients!”

“The crash!”

“Hmmm, what are the childhood ADHD rates like in Italy?!”

and

“Explains a lot …”

Bucket loads of coffee is just part of life in Italy, they throw back multiple espressos a day and like to finish off dinner at 11pm at night with another nice little caffeine-shot before bed…

And the crazy thing is, they actually doze off just fine afterwards!

The reason I’m sharing this with you today is because a lot of my anxiety patients also drink coffee (and caffeinated soft drinks etc) and have been doing it for so long that they also no longer get an energy-boost …and (often mistakenly) assume it’s therefore not impacting their anxiety either.

And while we all know that some people are a lot more susceptible to caffeine in general (often due to genetic polymorphisms), the truth is it’s more complicated than that when it comes to anxiety.

It’s not just the stimulant affects of caffeine that have been shown to worsen anxiety, caffeine can also lower serotonin. And low serotonin is not just linked to depression, but certain types of anxiety as well, especially the kind with a lot mental rumination and worried thoughts.

The continual release or cortisol and adrenalin eventually can help contribute to adrenal fatigue and a dysregulated nervous system, and it’s destabilising effect on blood-sugar levels worsens this effect.

Also, because of it’s acidic and diuretic nature, it leaches out calming minerals like calcium and magnesium which can trigger not only anxiety but fatigue and painful or cramping muscles. (And caffeinated soft-drinks are even worse for this!)

If you want to know for sure if coffee is worsening your anxiety (or sleep!), the best thing to do is slowly wean yourself off over a week or 2 and keep a symptom journal. (And be sure to track other sneaky sources of caffeine like chocolate, tea – including green, some soft-drinks, energy drinks and certain medications and supplements).

And if you decide you do want to have a cup of coffee each day, it can have less of a disruptive effect on your nervous system if you have it after a solid protein-rich breakfast rather than a sweet/carb-heavy one or an empty stomach.

In short, DON’T do like the Italian kids and have an espresso-biscuit soup (still shaking my head lol).

Now I’d love to hear from you:

Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to share this post with an anxious friend, it might really help 🙂