The 1st of October is International Coffee Day. What better an excuse to get your buzz on.

Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. It raises the blood pressure and metabolic rate, which causes more oxygen to get to the brain. It’s well known for reducing fatigue and increasing alertness of course, so it can help in certain tasks – for example it’s been found to improve driving performance and reflexes. However tests have shown that it can have a negative impact on motor skill learning and perceptual memory, and can also cause anxiety and panic attacks. Not so great. If you’re properly caffeine-addicted and put away more than seven cups of joe (>300mg of caffeine) in a day, you might even end up hallucinating. If you manage to avoid hearing coffee overdose-induced voices, you could still end up being affected by irritability, muscle-twitching, insomnia, headaches and palpitations. Then good luck trying to give it up, as withdrawal can cause tiredness, depression and more of that anxiety.

So enjoy your brew! In moderation.