I don’t wake up and then drink coffee. I wake up to drink coffee. Sound familiar?
The magic brown elixir that wakes us up, makes us warm, helps us procrastinate for 5 more minutes… Coffee has been around for over 500 years. It’s part of pop culture, our daily rituals, our habits, and our lifestyle.
The coffee market is estimated at 100 billion dollars per annum. And coffee is strategically positioned as “part” of our lives. We need our beloved cup of coffee to start our day, to comfort us on our lunch break, it’s a part of our lunches and dinners with friends and family. Coffee makes us alert. It makes us feel good!
Or not.
Most people don’t know that your ability to metabolize caffeine is a genetic trait. Your genes will determine whether coffee gives you a buzz, or gives you a “foggy brain” and low energy levels.
It is a medical fact that caffeine is not good for some people.
Let’s look at how coffee works – as we know it. Of course, the magic happens because coffee contains caffeine. Caffeine is naturally found in the leaves and beans of the coffee plant, with different cultivars having different strengths of caffeine.
First, caffeine produces an alert feeling in the brain.
Second, caffeine also increases our “feel-good hormones” – Serotonin and Dopamine – levels in the brain.
Taking both these effects into account, it makes sense that many people get “addicted” to caffeine.
Caffeine is absorbed through the small intestine and quickly released into the bloodstream. After coffee has “done its job”, it needs to be detoxed by the liver. This simply means it gets broken down into smaller particles so that the body can excrete it/”get rid of it”.
It is estimated that up to 30% of the general population have a “spelling error” on the caffeine sensitivity gene (in genetics we refer to a “spelling error” as an SNP on the gene).
The caffeine sensitivity gene (CYP1A2) forms part of the Phase 1 Liver Detoxification Gene Panel. If you have this gene, your body will struggle to metabolize caffeine.
This “spelling error” slows down the metabolizing of caffeine in the body. This means that your body struggles to get rid of caffeine, which in turn significantly increases the risk of getting some or all of the nasty side effects of caffeine.
If your body struggles to metabolize caffeine, you will experience some of the following side effects:
You will not get the “feel good” effect of caffeine and in the long run, you are putting your liver under strain. This can increase the risk for chronic diseases including risk for pain and inflammation.
The other great risk of this is the trending coffee diets that can be found all over the internet. If your body struggles to metabolize caffeine due to this gene, you will WRECK yourself on a diet like that (and that’s the honest truth).
The good news is that there is genetic testing available to test how your body metabolizes caffeine – what is your body’s response to caffeine? South Africa has world-class genetic testing laboratories that can easily determine your genetic layout and traits, allowing you to stop the “trial and error” when it comes to your diet and work on the facts of your genes.
In my practice over the years, I have seen a turnaround in especially symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, and dips in energy levels in clients who have cut out caffeine, after testing positive for the caffeine sensitivity gene.
As an example: I do not have the caffeine sensitivity gene “spelling error”, so I can enjoy a good strong cup of coffee before bedtime without affecting my sleep. However, my husband (a carrier of the SNP on the caffeine gene) gets serious heartburn, heart palpitations, and insomnia from coffee.
What makes the genetic approach to your diet so appealing is that is life-long – your genes don’t change, so you get a single answer to many of your health questions that you can trust to be true for the rest of your life. If you are wondering whether to do it – my best advice is to do it. Not only will it give you definitive answers to existing questions, but you will also get results on other interesting genes, including the lactose intolerance gene and a screen for the gluten sensitivity gene.
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