How caffeine, sugar, and alcohol affect mood

  Mood swings. Things they can trap you in an endless rotation of anxiety, the blues and a big old energy crash. But how do you break out of the cycle and stabilize your mood? Stay tuned.

   I'm Dr. Vickie Petz Kasper. I practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 20 years until I landed on the other side of the sheets as a very sick patient. When my own body betrayed me, I took a handful of pills to manage my disease and another handful to counteract the side effects. My health was out of control.

Through surgery, medications, and lots of prayers, I regained my strength only to face another diagnosis.  My doctor challenged me to make radical changes through lifestyle medicine. Now I feel great and I want to help you make changes that make a difference. Healthy Looks Great On You podcast takes you to mini medical school so you can learn the power of lifestyle medicine.

If you're ready to take control of your health, you're in the right place. Whether you're focused on prevention or you're trying to manage a condition, I'll give you practical steps to start your own journey toward better health. Because healthy looks great on you. 

 This is episode 1 44. How caffeine, alcohol and sugar affect mood.   

The problem with mood swings is that they trick you into turning to things that feed them instead of helping you get out of the cycle.  Ah, I guess you could say that moodiness is hungry and greedy.  When we feel down or anxious, we "need" something to feel good or heck even feel close to normal. Think about it. 

Do you ever grab an extra dose of caffeine to feel more energized. A glass of wine to feel more relaxed. Or do you just treat yourself to a little dessert or a snack to boost your spirits.  Today in mini medical school, let's do some dissection. Except there won't be. Any nasty formaldehyde involved.

Do kids even still do that in school? I remember getting that little kit with a dull scalpel, some forceps that wouldn't grab tissue and scissors fit for kindergartener.

We had all get a white mouse stiff and stinky. I don't know about you, but that sure brings back some memories. And I'm sure of one thing you either loved it or hated it. Ah, I'll give you one guess about me. Yeah, it was fascinating to peel back the layers of skin and muscle and fascia. Okay, enough review of history. 

Let start peeling back the layers of how caffeine, sugar and alcohol affect mood.  I'm going to start with my drug of choice. Caffeine. And this one is really pretty complex because here's the deal. There are a lot of studies that show that coffee and tea have significant health benefits.  So please hear me. 

I am not telling you to avoid them. Today, we're just discussing the role that caffeine plays to influence mood.  And like many relationships. Caffeine's relationship with mood and mental health is complicated.  We all know that caffeine can boost our energy, help us focus and motivate us to tackle that to do list. And if you're like me, you can't even function until you've drained a couple of cups of coffee in the morning. And listen. That's not a problem, unless you're stuck somewhere in a coffee desert. Once I went on a mission trip and the women stayed in a bunk house on one side and the men stayed on the other. And here's the part that's really unfair. The kitchen and therefore the coffee pot, were on the men's side and it was absolutely off limits until the lights came on. Now we were two times zones away, so my early bird self was wide eyed and bushy tailed at 3:00 AM.  I managed to lay there for a couple of hours, but by five am, which was two hours past my normal waking time, I was desperate. And when I say desperate, I mean, desperate. Fortunately, I never travel without a little sleeve of instant coffee.  Yeah, I know. The problem is all I  had was a bottle of room temperature water that I had sipped out of the day before.   

 Yes I did. I emptied those glorious grounds into that plastic bottle and started shaking it.  One of the ladies literally opened one eye and said,  You have a problem, don't you.  Maybe.  But as a general rule, regularly consuming coffee or tea is not a problem. Unless you start using caffeine reactively for energy dips, deadlines, or excessive fatigue. 

  The truth is. Is 90% of all adults in the entire world consume caffeine daily.  Before we move on, let's go to the classroom and study caffeine.

The benefits come from polyphenols, catechins and flavonoids

here's how it works. It amps up the nervous system, both the central and peripheral nervous system, by blocking the adenosine receptors and that in turn causes the release of neurotransmitters that excite the nervous system. 

And individuals who regularly drink coffee and tea, actually perform better

on cognitive performance test. They can have a better reaction time. 

And they can have better processing of what they see. 

Caffeine makes you more alert, gives you mental energy, helps you concentrate.   And yeah, it helps when you're fatigued and your're sleep deprived. 

And it can eliminate headache. And that's why it's actually included in some headache medications, but that can be a vicious cycle and you can get a withdrawal headache. 

When you drink caffeine, it can also make you more nervous, more sweaty. It can interfere with your sleep. It can make you irritable.  And sometimes it can even elicit a panic attack.  Especially in people who already have some anxiety or are susceptible to the effects of caffeine. 

Now safe levels are considered to be 400 milligrams a day. Heavy coffee use is considered to be more than five cups of coffee a day.  It can increase your heart rate. And it can aggravate symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease because of its acidity.  And timing matters too.

The half-life of a cup of coffee is about five to six hours. Meaning that if you drink coffee at three o'clock in the afternoon, it will affect you at 9:00 PM.  

 And also you can develop some tolerance, so that it takes more and more to get the same effect. You know,  too much of a good thing always is a bad thing. Normally I drink two cups of coffee every morning, black, by the way, that's  a total of 280 milligrams. My husband makes it the night before. 

So it's at my fingertips as soon as I slip my feet into my house shoes and walk into the kitchen. But the other day, he forgot to make the coffee.  When I woke up the pot was dry.  Instead of making a pot of coffee, I popped in K cup so I could instantly get my fix, then I did it again because it was five 20 in the morning and he didn't have to go to work until late that day. But when he got up and brewed a pot it's smelled so inviting. I thought.  I'll just have one more cup. 

Now, normally I don't consider myself prone to anxiety, but my life has been invaded. By termites. Yes termites. Apparently they'd been chewing on my house for awhile. I'm talking through the window frame downstairs, the window frame upstairs and all the way to the studs. The front of my house  has been boarded up. 

My dining room table has been in the entryway. And there have been people inside my house, sawing hammering and vacuuming for more than a week.  Oh, on top of that, my neighbor has a big project going on and they decided to repave my street. The smell of fresh asphalt, the fact  that the garbage trucks couldn't get through to pick up my trash and the sound of beeping trucks and people working was enough to drive anyone nuts.  But you want to know what the final straw was for me?  That third cup of coffee. I sweated. 

I snapped. Even at my sweet mother.  Maybe you haven't noticed that dramatic of an effect. But maybe you just haven't made the connection. And there is no doubt that caffeine can trigger anxiety. And make existing anxiety worse.  And it affects sleep 100% of the time. You may fall asleep, but studies show that the quality of your sleep is undeniably affected by caffeine.  And speaking of sleep,

if this is something you are interested in, or if you struggle with it you're going to want to make sure you're on my email list because I have some exciting things coming soon about sleep. There is a link in the show notes to sign up to get the emails, or you can go to my website, www healthy looks great on you dot. Com.

 Lack of sleep has a profound impact on your health. In fact the risk of dementia and stroke are markedly increased if you don't get seven hours a night. 

 And here's another thing, if you're exhausted, what you need is rest, not something that masks your fatigue and pushes you to do the opposite of what your body needs. 

Occasionally it doesn't hurt to get a little extra boost from a cup of coffee or tea. And I'm addicted to caffeine without it, my head hurts, my brain shuts down. And I will hurt you.  Like many substances, there is a dependency cycle. Now I have no desire to cut back on coffee, but. I do recognize that two cups is enough. No more. No less, because if I indulge in more, you might not want to be around me.  I know that my circadian rhythm is in sync with this consumption between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM.  It's important for everyone to have a cutoff time and it should be no later than 2:00 PM, because if you think you can drink a cup of coffee and go straight to bed and sleep.  You're fooling yourself because the quality of your sleep is affected even when you don't realize it.  

And to be clear, although there are health benefits to black coffee and unsweet tea, there are no benefits to sugar sweetened, caffeinated beverages.  

 I'm talking about mountain Dew, Coke, Dr. Pepper, and. I guess if you live somewhere where it's socially acceptable, Pepsi.

And listen. The biggest. The source of added sugar in the U.S. Diet is drinking it.  I'm talking

soft drinks, energy drinks sports drinks, even things like vitamin water. They have a lot of sugar in them and it's a lot of unnecessary calories and that can cause weight gain and type two diabetes, which increases your risk for heart. Disease and stroke. 

And the connection is really very strong. 

There's a, there's an increased risk of dying early, especially. Specially from heart disease. How much more? Well, if you drink. Two or more a day it's actually over 30% higher. And it's worse if you're a woman.   Energy drinks usually contain around 200. Milligrams. So a couple of those is pushing the limits. 

If you're drinking too much caffeine or sugar sweetened beverages. You may have to wean slowly to avoid withdrawal.  Start by switching to half caff

or drinking only half of your soda. 

It's important to make mindful adjustments and try not to use caffeine to medicate fatigue. Be aware of how caffeine affects your mood and sleep. And be sure to hydrate with water.  Food helps too, especially getting some protein in your stomach because coffee on an empty stomach can be very acidic. It can also. Interact with medications affecting absorption. 

So be sure and talk to your pharmacist or doctor about that.  So, what do you do when you get that afternoon slump.  Well,  it up and move. Often people feel fatigued in the afternoon because they're sitting or maybe they're just bored. So try getting your blood pumping to give you a boost of energy. And make sure and get sunlight in the morning to ensure that your circadian rhythm is optimized.  That means having good sleep hygiene.  And remember if your body is screaming for rest, rather than overriding your body's signals with caffeine learn to work with your natural energy rhythms. 

  Before we move on to sugar's impact on mood, let's talk about alcohol.

And adult beverage can make you relax and give you relief from feeling tense. It can even make you feel happy. But then it turns on you making anxiety and depression worse. It even depletes your serotonin levels. And it has a huge impact on your circadian rhythm disrupting sleep, which only makes matters worse. It's a double-edged sword. 

You have to drink to relax then you need to drink to relax. Alcohol is a temporary escape from stress. And it tricks you into thinking it will help you unwind and sleep better. But it doesn't.  Using alcohol as a coping tool for stress, anxiety,

or social situations. Can lead to dependence.  Now in the short term, it boosts gaba, which is a calming neurotransmitter. That's why you feel relaxed and it increases dopamine, which is that reward hormone that makes you feel temporary pleasure.   It reduces activity in the part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex. That's where the worry cycle spins and spins. So it settles that down.  And then it disrupts glutamate which impairs your judgment. And then it has a rebound effect. 

GABA levels, drop anxiety increases.  And cortisol goes up. 

There's an inflammatory response in the body that affects mood. And it has a long-term impact on mental health, depleting serotonin which increases the risk of depression. And the natural stress response system is disrupted. 

Overall, it weakens your resilience to life stressors by changing the brain's reward circuitry. And creating a dependency cycle for emotional regulation.  So, what do you do? Well, it might help to keep a diary. Like see what your mood is in relation to your intake of alcohol. Awareness is key. And note the three R's. What is the reason you're drinking? 

What is the response to drinking and what is the result to drinking. And maybe track your sleep quality too.  Practical steps would be established some drink free times. 

And see if that makes a difference.  And sometimes you have to create a new ritual. Instead of responding to those triggers by fixing a drink.

 Here's the scary thing.

Excessive alcohol use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States now.

And yet it's the most common substance used among people aged 12 and over in the United States, in fact, 85% of all adults drink alcohol. And the effects are worse in women.  You have to learn radical acceptance and radical honesty  and learn to sit with uncomfortable emotions.  And don't forget those natural endorphin boosters, like exercise and laughter and music.  And learn stress management techniques like breathing and meditation and prayer.  Building your emotional regulation skills  will keep you from using alcohol.  to control your mood. Because, you know, it doesn't work. Alcohol actually borrows happiness from tomorrow. So building natural resilience, let's you.  own your joy today.  Okay, now let's talk about sugar.  Who hasn't felt blah, and reached for a sweet treat t to reward yourself.  Honestly, this gets ingrained in kids at an early age. I mean. What did you hand out to the trick-or-treaters at your door? And worse than once a year, we send our kids to church on Sunday and they feed them donuts, goldfish and apple juice. 

And then we wonder why they have a meltdown in the car on the way home. It's a great way to ruin a Sunday, whether you're a kid or a grown-up.  Sugar puts you on an emotional rollercoaster. You get the thrill of a quick release of dopamine. And followed by a drop in blood sugar, which causes a sugar crash: irritability, fatigue and mood swings. And it's not just external. 

There is a lot of research on sugar and inflammation and what it does to the brain, not just for short term mental health, but for long-term cognitive function.  Here's what happens. There's a rapid spike in blood sugar and you get an immediate lift in your mood and energy. Then there's an insulin surge, which causes blood sugar to crash.  That triggers the dopamine reward system in the same way that any addictive substance does. It causes that inflammation and affects brain chemistry. 

It can cause a craving cycle.  And then you can get into an emotional eating pattern that gets reinforced by all of this.  The long-term effect can be an increased risk of depression and anxiety. Not to mention disrupting the gut microbiome because of all the effects of neurotransmitter production. 

And when you eat food, that's not good for you, it takes the place of food that is good for you. So you can get nutrient depletion and that certainly affects mental health. 

So what's a person to do. Number one -understand your triggers. 

Know what triggers you to reach for caffeine or alcohol or sugar to treat your mood.  And really be aware of emotional eating patterns. Or drinking patterns. There are certain times of the day when we're more vulnerable to these things than others. So rather than reaching for a drink or going to the pantry to treat your mood,  develop other habits that are better, like exercise, social connectedness and even just laughter.

In the end, you'll be happier and you'll probably live longer. 

 Recognize the connection that alcohol, and sugar and caffeine have on your mood and look for hidden sugar sources because this one can really sneak up on you. 

Make sure you're getting a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, so that you have a healthy gut microbiome. There are some other episodes you may want to listen to, to get a more detailed review of this. 

Make sure that you have tools to regulate your emotions and to manage your stress. You might need to make gradual adjustments to find alternatives and establish new routines and sustainable habits. But in the end, your energy levels will be stable, you will be genuinely relaxed and you'll have emotional balance. 

It's better to regulate your mood.  naturally, so you feel healthy.  And healthy looks great on you. 

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