Coffee Has Unique Cognitive Benefits

Scientists testing coffee against plain caffeine found that plain caffeine only partially reproduces the effects of drinking a cup of coffee, activating areas of the brain that make you feel more alert but not the areas of the brain that affect working memory and goal-directed behavior.

For many people, the day doesn’t start until their coffee mug is empty. Coffee is often thought to make you feel more alert, so people drink it to wake themselves up and improve their efficiency. Portuguese scientists studied coffee-drinkers to understand whether that wakefulness effect is dependent on the properties of caffeine, or whether it’s about the experience of drinking coffee.

“There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning,” said Prof Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho, corresponding author of the study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience and Field Chief Editor of the journal. “When you get to understand better the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon, you open pathways for exploring the factors that may modulate it and even the potential benefits of that mechanism.”

A caffeine kickstart
The scientists recruited people who drank a minimum of one cup of coffee per day and asked them to refrain from eating or drinking caffeinated beverages for at least three hours before the study. They interviewed the participants to collect sociodemographic data, and then did two brief functional MRI scans: one before and one 30 minutes after either taking caffeine or drinking a standardized cup of coffee. During the functional MRI scans, the participants were asked to relax and let their minds wander.

Because of the known neurochemical effects of drinking coffee, the scientists expected that the functional MRI scans would show that the people who drank coffee had higher integration of networks that are linked to the prefrontal cortex, associated with executive memory, and the default mode network, involved in introspection and self-reflection processes. They found that the connectivity of the default mode network was decreased both after drinking coffee and after taking caffeine, which indicates that consuming either caffeine or coffee made people more prepared to move from resting to working on tasks.  READ MORE...

Nuclear Stress Test

ACCORDING TO THE MAYO CLINIC...

A nuclear stress test uses a small amount of radioactive material (tracer) and an imaging machine to create pictures showing the blood flow to your heart. The test measures blood flow while you are at rest and during activity, showing areas with poor blood flow or damage in your heart.

A nuclear stress test is one of several types of stress tests. The radiotracer used during a nuclear stress test helps your doctor determine your risk of a heart attack or other cardiac event if you have coronary artery disease. A nuclear stress test may be done after a regular exercise stress test to get more information about your heart, or it may be the first stress test used.

The test is done using a positron emission technology (PET) scanner or single photo emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanner. A nuclear stress test may also be called a myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) study, cardiac PET study or cardiac SPECT study.


Tomorrow I will be arriving at UT Medical Center, Heart and Lung Building for a nuclear stress test at 6:45 am and the test will last approximately 3 hours.  Today, I cannot have any caffeine and nothing to eat 4 hours before...  

Commode Sitting

Sitting on the commode can, for most of us, be both a refreshing as well as a humiliating experience, not to mention a religious experience as we wait for our normal biological functions to take place or kick in with the assistance of other substances that have by themselves have created a multi million dollar industry.

Fortunately, some of us or quite possibly many of us, have discovered that being as natural as we can be, is the best source to achieve daily satisfaction....  and, over the years, I have discovered that this process is best facilitated by the consumption of grains and vegetables but not necessarily fruits as some would contend...  unless those fruits fall into the PRUNE category.

I have also discovered to my personal satisfaction that coffee works remarkably well which is why my first course of action each morning is to consume at least two YETI mugs of coffee each morning although I hardly get through the second mug before nature comes a callin' and I fast-walk to the nearest water closet.

My current source of caffeine comes from McCafe Coffee Pods that I usually buy in the decaf variety but if none are available then I water-down regular coffee and am able to achieve the same results.  so.............

HAPPY COMMODE SITTING...