How to know how much caffeine is right for you? On this episode, we help you learn the side effects of caffeine, how it impacts those with PCOS, and what you can do to avoid the negative effects of caffeine!
What does caffeine do? We help you learn the the impact caffeine has on the production of stress hormones and how this can de-prioritize the production of essential hormones for ovulation!
Can caffeine cause adrenal fatigue? We discuss how consistent coffee intake can overwork the adrenal glands and cause you to be tired all the time! You’ll also learn how to gradually cut out caffeine as well as find a level that could be right for you!
Definitely tune in to the episode if you love the audio format, and for those of you that prefer to read, have tons of info below for you too!
This isn’t a straightforward answer as your ability to break down caffeine is individual to you. Some people are more sensitive, some people aren’t as sensitive. It just depends on your ability to withstand high stress hormones. Which depends on the person.
We know that women with PCOS struggle with cortisol, dysregulation, stress, hormone dysregulation. “Caffeine causes neural excitation in the brain, which the pituitary gland perceives as an emergency and stimulates the adrenal glands to release adrenaline” ( source ). In addition to that, caffeine can interrupt your sleep cycles, especially if you’re consuming caffeine later in the day. Sleep is imperative for balancing hormones and stress regulation.
So as women with PCOS, limiting caffeine is probably a good idea. We won’t recommend cutting it out all together if caffeine works for you, but maybe try limiting, only drinking it in the morning, or trying different options like green tea or black tea.
At the end of the day, caffeine is a stimulant. It impacts your circulatory system, respiratory system, brain chemistry, sex hormones, you get the gist. Caffeine consumption can have both positive and negative affects. Coffee is a powerful antioxidant, can increase alertness, help you feel more accomplished, it increases dopamine which can improve your mood, etc.
However on the flip side, it increases blood pressure which can increase anxiety, puts a strain on your adrenal glands, it can be addictive both physically and mentally, it can impact your hormones and natural sleep and wake cycles. It also depends on the amount of caffeine your drinking and what type.
Caffeine in energy drinks for example, has less benefits than say coffee or tea. For more detailed information on the effects of caffeine on the body, we highly recommend you check out this post.
This is a complicated question. Many scientific studies state that caffeine unfortunately reduces insulin sensitivity and raises blood glucose levels, which negatively impact PCOS. However, if you have good gut health, are still able to get quality sleep, and generally have low stress levels, some scientific studies claim that biological properties of coffee and caffeine might be helpful.
One of the well documented negative impacts of caffeine on PCOS is that PCOS is associated with low levels of SHBG, or sex hormone binding globulin. Caffeine seems to increase these levels of SHBG is a protein that binds to sex hormones and inactivates them. However there is still much research to be done in the space and much is unknown.
So, the long answer is that everyone is different and metabolizes caffeine differently. Plus, you all have different physical and mental states. So while the statistics and studies would tell you to avoid caffeine, it’s important to take your personal health and body into account and come to a decision that works for you with your doctor.
As we stated above, this is really an individualized question based on your body and mind. There are studies that suggest caffeine can be both good and bad depending on the environment. We would definitely recommend limiting your caffeine if you are having trouble sleeping or experiencing a period of stress. If you sleep like a baby or feel exhausted in the morning, a little bit of caffeine is okay. Again, this is our opinion but you should always consult your doctor.
Caffeine alone will not cause adrenal fatigue. However it can impact it or make it worse. So if you’re experiencing adrenal fatigue or suspect you might be, it’s better to avoid caffeine ESPECIALLY if you have PCOS. More on the impacts of caffeine on adrenal fatigue HERE.
Adding mushroom elixir powders to your coffee or drinking mushroom coffee directly, can limit the amount of caffeine you consume per cup. Plus, mushrooms have tons of medicinal properties that are great for PCOS including hormone balancing, insulin regulation improvement, mood improvement, and more.
Teas are a great option if you want additional health benefits with a little bit of caffeine. It varies by tea, some even have no caffeine, but typically even caffeinated teas have far less caffeine than coffee per serving.
This is a great option if you love the taste of coffee but want to limit the caffeine content. The caffeine content varies depending on brand and methods, but overall you’re reducing your caffeine intake big time, sometimes even by 95% when you drink decaf.
Chicory coffee is made from the roots of the chicory plant. It can be used to dilute your coffee or as a coffee substitute. It is caffeine free, great for hormone balancing, & contains prebiotic fiber.
For more on this topic, we highly recommend you tune in to our episode on coffee and PCOS. We hope you enjoy it and hope this article is helpful for you to make a decision on whether coffee is right for you.
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I use the vitamin D also, it doesn’t have any expensive ingredients that you don’t need until you’re pregnant. Their logics is prenatal. Their natal core is especially for women with PCOS who are in the process of baby-making check the link in the description for our 15% off code. Let’s take a moment to correct our posture. Take a deep breath and have some pure spectrum CBD.
Sure. Hey sisters CBD can help with acne inflammation, anxiety asleep, and so many other PCs symptoms. I personally take it throughout the day to help keep my stress hormones nice and low. Not to mention I sleep like a baby every night and I don’t wake up fatigued at all. Now open your mouth, please. So I can give you a serving.
Now, hold it for 60 seconds. Head over to pure spectrum cbd.com and use the code, the sisterhood one word for 10% off. Can I stop now? Nope. You got 30 more seconds. my own hands and All right. Three, two oh one. Let’s go welcome sisters to another episode of the podcast. And today you might be seeing us record for the last time in our living room.
Yes. So welcome ladies. That’s right. I mean, we’re not stopping a podcast. Don’t worry. We’ll be continuing to podcast forever, but we are changing where we regularly regularly record the podcasts. We’ve been thinking for a while. Now we need to expand our space a little bit, make recording a bit easier, you know, so that we don’t have to take out all the equipment for like half an hour to 45 minutes to set it up in the living room.
So we are thinking of exchanging our office and bedroom. So we’re going to basically put everything that’s in the office, into our bedroom and everything. That’s in the bedroom into our office. I’m so excited. It’s going to look So cool. I already know what I’m getting for the wall and the backdrop and like how it’s going to look. Yeah. Tallinn and her mom and her sister had been like looking into different,
like greenery to put around the neon sign, neon sign, neon sign that you always see in our videos. They’re thinking of how to like, make it look nicer with like green vines around it, I guess. Yes. Michael’s you know, that store Michael’s with the craft. We’re going to get like a bar table with like some stool. So we can like sit up on a table.
We’re Not sinking into this couch and blending in with it. I mean, look at my sweater. It’s literally like the color of the couch and it’s so bad. So yeah, like it’s, it’s kind Of hard to record on the couch because like, it’s like a couch and it sucks you in, so like your throat, like your do way,
your head is like, it’s like your throat closes up. So when you’re talking, it just doesn’t feel like a show. You know, it feels like you’re just sitting on the couch, talking with some friends, kind of like mumbling to yourself sometimes. But like, if you were to have like a nice table to sit, look at a camera,
I think physically would be more energized. Like, you know, And we can make more content too. Like if the lights are already set up and the studio is ready to go, I can just hop in there recording YouTube, video, whatever. And it’s not like a huge task to like get everything together. Exactly. So hopefully this is the last time we record on this couch.
Ladies, If you see us back here, that means our plan, The bed didn’t fit in the office. Oh yeah. We’ll see though. We’ll see it. Yeah. It’ll all be done over this weekend. I’m very excited. We’ll see how it goes. Yes. All right. So today’s topic though, will be about caffeine specifically. We’ll talk about coffee because of course coffee has the highest amount of caffeine for most people.
And then we’ll talk about how caffeine affects women with PCOS and much more. Maybe I should give my own experience. Tell us about your coffee experience. Yeah, like honestly, I don’t think in time would agree with me here. I think that caffeine would or can affect almost everybody in a negative way, especially if you’re having too much. I’ll give you guys an example.
So for 10 years, since I was like the age of 20, until I was 29, I was driving three hours total a day. So I would drive an hour and a half, one way an hour and a half the other way to basically go to work. And at the same time I was studying as a mechanical engineer. So I was working at an engineering place driving at the same time,
going to school at the same time. So as you can tell, I needed a lot of stimulation with coffee. So I was drinking. I would say I average three to four on bad days, I would be drinking like five, six. And these weren’t like regular coffees. Like I was making my own coffee, like pour over, grinding the coffee at the same time,
pouring it over. And then doing things like espresso shots. Like I would add a special shot into my coffee, into my regular coffee. Does I think it’s called like a, red-eye like, that’s like the nickname for, cause it’s has so much caffeine what would happen to me? So I would get so jittery. I would get shaky. I would be working in and I would have like panic attacks.
I would get super nervous about certain if I’m like working. And if it’s a high stress situation out, my heart rate will be off the charts. Like it was really weird for me because it’s like, I’m in a situation that I’m used to, but the coffee is making me really panicky, you know? And then at nights I wouldn’t be able to sleep cause I had to wake up at 5:30 AM or five,
oh my God. I’m getting like PTSD. My alarm was everyday at 5:15 AM. And I would snooze it until like five 25. But anyways, I would be waking up really early. So at night it was very important for me to fall asleep, but I couldn’t like I would try to go to sleep by 11 and I would stay awake until 1130,
12, 12, 15. And it was the coffee. Like imagine having that much amount of caffeine. We’ll talk about this later, but it takes about six hours for one cup of coffee to basically be out of your system. You know, out of your bloodstream, we’ll go more into details. But basically I was going through a cycle of needing coffee constantly,
but to not getting the actual energy I wanted, like I would drink a cup of coffee half an hour later, I would be crashing again. I will be tired. And it wasn’t really that the coffee that I needed, the coffee was ruining my, you know, my, my body, like my S my rhythm. It was ruining my energy levels the way I would know rhythm back then.
Yeah. Like I would be, I was like a zombie that was just barely lasting on that last cup. And it wasn’t really sustainable. So I mean, w that’s my experience. I hope you guys can kind of see the, some of the negative aspects of it right there, but yeah, maybe some of you can relate and we’ll talk about it.
Now, Let me start. The moral of the story is if you are struggling with a lot of stress, a lot of tasks, a lot of different things going on in your life. There is no solution like coffee, a cup of coffee to fix it all. You have to take a look at your life, take a look at what you can do to resolve it.
Or how long is it going to last? Is it temporary? Is it long-term, you know, cause if it’s temporary, it’s temporary. But if it’s long-term, I mean, this was like a 10 year thing, you know, and coffee was certainly not the solution. I could feel like my stress levels over the years becoming a bit worse. I could feel my adrenal glands not being able to basically control my body’s hormones as well.
I could just feel Mike, it wasn’t just a coffee. To be honest, it was also a lack of sleep, which also, which made me want to have coffee. And we’ll talk about that later. So it was like a whole, like, I’ll be honest. It wasn’t just coffee. It was like my lack of sleep. Me constantly driving,
having so many responsibilities and the coffee, what I thought the coffee would help me do all those things better. It was actually the opposite. Exactly. But, and some so to talk about some research, there are some studies that I’m sure many of you have heard that coffee can be good for you. There are a lot of studies showing that it has beneficial antioxidant.
There’s also studies showing that it can help cognitive cognitively, you know, like help you give a brain boost kind of a thing. But many of these things are very individual and it depends person to person. So for some, while it may have those antioxidant effects for others, it can increase stress, cortisol levels and have a worse impact than the antioxidant positivity.
Yeah. Yeah. So your ability to break down coffee is individual to you. Some people are more sensitive, some people aren’t as sensitive. It just depends on your ability to withstand high stress hormones. And so that depends on the person. And we know that women with PCOS, we struggle many of us with cortisol, dysregulation, stress, hormone dysregulation.
So maybe regularly drinking caffeine, isn’t gonna work out for us. So how do you know if coffee is good for you? Well, you have to ask yourself a few questions. How do you feel when you drink it? Are you focused and clear or anxious and jittery? Like You’re having a panic attack. Like you’re looking at the screen and for some reason you’re having a panic attack about reading your paper.
Maybe The smallest thing is turning into the biggest deal. You, you can’t handle anything. So if you’re focused and clear, okay, how long does it take for you to go to sleep? 15 minutes. That’s good. Okay. Do you stay asleep? Yes. Okay. Do you get up naturally or with an alarm? If you’re waking up naturally,
that’s great. Do depend on it on coffee for energy every day. Yes or no. So these are all signs to figure out if it’s working for you. So if all of these are good and okay for you, then I guess a cup of coffee, it won’t do any harm, but if you’re not checking off these boxes going to sleep in 15 minutes,
staying asleep, waking up naturally and not being ripped out of bed, you know, do you depend on it for energy? If these are all no. Then it’s not for you. Yeah, I think that’s a great, those are great bullet points to consider, like especially the sleep, because we’ve talked about in the past and especially Dr. Fields Gersh talks about it in her book,
PCOS SOS, where she says our body’s circadian rhythm is so important to the balancing of our hormones and everything, basically in our body, the way our pancreas works, the way our liver works and the way for women, your ovaries work and so much more. So you’re secrete, you’re sick, circadian rhythm. If it’s affected by coffee, it’s going to have a big impact on everything else.
So that’s why it’s really important to consider. Like, are you able to sleep at night is a coffee, coffee keeping you awake because studies show that a cup of coffee will last in your bloodstream for six hours. When I say coffee, I mean the caffeine, the caffeine will last in your bloodstream for six hours. From the last time you drank that cup.
So if you drank the cup at three o’clock, it’s still going to be in your system until nine. And who knows even by 10, 11, how much, if it’s completely out and the same thing, or like if you’re drinking in the morning, that’s that might be better because if you drink it at 9:00 AM, it should be completely out of your system.
By the time you go to sleep. So these are, these are some things to consider. Like if you’re having late night cups of coffee or sorry, late days, maybe like 3:00 PM, maybe cut that one out and keep the one that you’re drinking at 9:00 AM. See how everything changes. Right? So you might be thinking T is a better option.
As it turns out, I looked up, you know, how much caffeine is in tea versus coffee and black tea has 46 milligrams. Whereas in a cup of instinct, coffee has 20 to 30 milligrams. So instant coffee is less than black tea. Of course it also matters how much instant coffee you put. Cause like, it just, it’s just a bottle you can put as much as you want.
So yeah. I’m sure. Yeah. One serving and it might depend on the brand too, but yeah, But when you look at a shot of espresso, that’s way more, so it’s shot up, especially like 180 to 250 milligrams of caffeine or, you know, you see people like walking out of Starbucks with like a venti cup of coffee. That’s 475 milligrams.
Oh my God. Starbucks is the worst. When it comes to the caffeine levels, not to mention the sugars. So like Starbucks, I think they like add caffeine into their coffees because they did like a test comparing different coffees and they show that Starbucks had the most caffeine. So like they like boost, they put like caffeine steroids into their coffee. I don’t know.
Like, it seems like they have a lot of caffeine in their coffee, which is, I mean, that’s their consumer base. They’re obviously going to want to give as much as they can to their consumer base. Cause I mean, it’s interesting too, like caffeine is like a drug, right? So, I mean, I don’t know. The more you give the more they’re going to come back.
I don’t know. And then the other thing is Starbucks also has so much sugary coffee, drinks of cappuccino, all man, when I was a kid, a caramel frappuccino was like ice cream, right? Yeah. It was just like the best thing to eat when you’re a kid, You don’t know that it’s ice cream because that’s what the stress. So you’re like,
oh Yeah. You’re like, well, I’m an adult, I’m just drinking coffee. And you realize it has like, like 30, 40 grams of sugar with the caramel, with the added syrups, all that stuff. It’s not something I would recommend. It’s a PCs disaster. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. I, I love this episodes.
I can go on and on about every single thing you talk about, babe, by the way, just to talk about espresso, I think you are right about the caffeine levels. But I think like a shot of espresso has like set 70 milligrams of caffeine around dance. Where if you do have a double shot, it be a lot more than a cup of coffee.
But yeah. So what is caffeine really doing like physiologically? You know, you’re probably wondering like caffeine, caffeine, but like let’s get down to it. What is it actually doing? It’s a stimulate stimulant and it stimulates your body to produce more stress hormones by blocking the receptor site for adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that’s important for sleep. And I mean,
here’s the problem. Like if you just block this, neuro-transmitter obviously something else is going to go wrong. So, you know, you’re blocking this neurotransmitter and now you’ve raised cortisol, adrenaline epinephrin or epinephrin levels all these stress hormones. And it can have a really damaging effect because adenosine is calming. It helps us sleep. It really, it makes us a little drowsy.
So that’s why, so now you have this overproduction of stress hormones. And when you have a chronic overproduction of stress hormones, you can eventually develop adrenal fatigue. We’ve talked about this in other podcast episodes, but this is one of the PCs types where stress goes unmanaged for a really long time. And it can come from physiological stress, psychological stress. It can come from foods that are inflammatory,
that are triggering stress. It can come from too much caffeine, you know, and an imbalance in lifestyle and depending on caffeine for energy. So eventually you pump out so much of your stress hormones that your body isn’t able to produce the right amount at the right times. And now we have dysregulation and you’re constantly fatigued. You’re waking up fatigued, you’re going to sleep or you’re not able to go to sleep because your cortisol is high when it should be low.
Yeah. And the melatonin isn’t produced enough. Cause there’s that hormone disorder. It was always high. And now you Can’t sleep. Now you really depend on coffee. So w I mean, you want to like, look, take a good look at that before, before just drinking caffeine to, to just like substitute this problem. You’re just like, okay,
well I’m so tired. Coffee will think like, why are we tired? What’s going on hormonally. Yeah. And just, just to go back to the circadian rhythm, to, to two hormones that are super important for your circadian rhythm or melatonin and cortisol. So if these two things are dysregulated and especially if caffeine is our mantra, I’m going to try to say this word.
If coffee is AXA exacerbated, exacerbating sounds like I’m saying something else, exacerbating the issue. Then that district, this regulation is only going to get worse. Exactly. So when cortisol is too high, you know, it’s going to deprioritize the production of essential hormones for oblation because your body thinks you’re under stress. So like, why would you produce the hormones necessary to ovulate and bring a baby into this world?
That’s stressful. Right? So that’s why when people say, oh, just relax, we’ll get pregnant. Like, okay. I don’t like that response. But the point is like, you want to lower that cortisol because too much cortisol is going to deprioritize progesterone, all the hormones necessary to ovulate. And it’ll also deprioritize your immune system. So you’ll get holds more.
You’ll get sick more and you’ll be more prone to injuries. I mean, you’re just, you’re not nourishing your body. If your cortisol is high all the time and drinking that coffee every day is just going to keep it high. So it’s a mess. Yeah. And not just that it’s going to impact your blood sugar. And don’t get me started on that and insulin resistance,
because that’s like a whole other episode, cortisol is going to make your blood sugar over P your body overproduced, blood glucose, and then you’re going to make high insulin levels. And here we go with the insulin resistance. So it goes hand in hand, ladies. Yeah. All of this, I love the immune system point too, because again, if you’re not getting the proper regulation of these hormones with your sleep and everything,
your immune system is going to be weaker as a result. So if you’re getting constant colds, they can literally be related to the PA to the fact that maybe you’re not getting enough sleep to the, to the SI to the caffeine. That’s adding to the issue and so much more so. Yeah. Great points rib. Yeah. And you know, many of women with PCs are struggling with like acne and hair loss as well.
And actually making high stress hormones like adrenaline can make us overproduced. D H E a, which I talk about a lot because this acts the same way as testosterone. It gets in those oil glands, it causes acne, cystic acne. You know, it gets in the hair follicles. It causes the hair to fall out or fuzzy hair to turn into dark hair,
facial hair. This is D H yeah. So you know, whether you have high testosterone or high DGA, it’s going to look the same. The pathways are different. So it could be because of high stress, you have the high DGA, it could be because of insulin resistance, you have high testosterone either way. It’s going to give you the same results of not ideal.
I, I don’t love what you said. I love the way you explained it. I Like to break it down so that you can really see, like what’s happening. breaking down is one of the best in the industry. One might say, and I am the best at regurgitating. What regurgitate, regurgitate, what is up with my vocabulary today?
It’s the couch were playing me the couch, everything. But yeah, I am a master Regurgitator of what Tallinn says. I agree. I don’t care. I’m going to say it the way I say it. And you’re the best. What was I saying? So sisters who slowly metabolized caffeine will have these problems, including blood sugar problems. So, you know,
if you have like a combination of insulin resistance and like stress problems, then caffeine is not a good idea. Yep. And of course, everyone can individually break down caffeine in a different weight. So we all have different genes that produce the enzyme to break down caffeine, caffeine. Some people have more of that gene and some don’t. So caffeine would stay in their body longer and contribute to chronically high stress hormones.
So if you’re, if you’re one of those people who maybe is realizing that, Hey, when I drink coffee, the effects, the side effects, aren’t going away for a long period of time. And it’s possible. You may be one of those people that doesn’t have the proper enzymes to break down coffee as easily. So this is one thing we’re a important point to consider.
And 80% of the population has that problem. Okay. That was the next point. Yeah. 50%. So if there’s two people in the room, maybe you’re the one that doesn’t have that. That’s the, that, Yeah. It’s that simple. Yeah. So, I mean, of course some people can handle a little bit, but we suggest just skipping right.
Past it because of already having insulin and cortisol problems. Yeah. And, or like just gradually decreasing it and seeing how it’s impacting you and this counting. Yeah. And it’s not just like one day and see how you feel is going to be like a series of like days and weeks to see how it’s cause like this dysregulation that we’re talking about, you can’t do a complete 180 in one day.
If you quit caffeine, you have to give a time for the body to sink back. You know, what the proper sleep with cutting out the caffeine and things like that. So Remember when you cut out caffeine. Oh my God. When I cut, I cut out caffeine, like a cold Turkey one time. And I had like some sort of body systemic body shock or something.
I was stuck in bed. I think I also got a fever at the time. So I don’t know if this, these two are connected, but I basically, like, my bones were shaking. Like I could feel my bones aching, like your hips. Yeah. I have my hips specifically. Like I couldn’t get out of bed. And this is around the time when I was drinking like four or five cups of coffee a day to go along with my schedule,
cold brews and pour over, you know? And I don’t know, like I didn’t drink it for one day and my body was in a complete state of shock. So, and like, to be honest, like now I drink maximum two cups of coffee a day. So like personally, I, when I wake up in the morning, I have one cup of coffee after breakfast.
And then usually like around 12:00 PM after lunch, if I feel the need, I’ll make myself a weaker cup of coffee. So like my, our coffee machine has a setting, you know, one through 10, let’s just say my first cup of coffee, I put it to like the seven strength. And then my second cup of coffee, I put it to like four or five.
So the second cup of coffee is a bit less. And so for me, it’s two max a day, but of course everyone’s different too personally. I, I feel I should be totally okay with one cup of coffee, but to be completely honest, I love the taste of coffee. And you know, maybe I am still a little bit addicted,
you know, Me. I mean, I don’t drink it at all. I should say something. I don’t drink any coffee, everything decaf. I used to not be such a stickler about it, but now I am, because I know the effects that it can have on my body. Yeah. And, you know, I don’t feel any reason to like,
have to drink coffee. Like of course it’s a great little boost, but so is a walk or like taking a little break, you know, for me. So I can just, yeah. The substitute for that. No, that’s Great. And if you’re drinking a cup of coffee, if you’re drinking coffee, let’s say you’re drinking three cups of coffee,
you know, try crank that down to two for a couple of days, maybe a week, see how you feel. Cut it down to one, see how you feel. Maybe cut the strength of that one cup of coffee in half, and then gradually see if you can get off of it or just stick to that one cup of coffee. If you’re feeling a lot better.
If you’re, if you’re seeing everything is working good. Now maybe that one cup of coffee is a perfect amount for you. It just takes time and you know, experimenting to see how much is exactly right for you by, and then me turn our last point. Birth control, birth control. So we’ve talked about how insulin resistance can affect our ability to regulate our blood sugar while drinking coffee.
At the same time, we’ve talked about stress hormones, and now birth control. So many sisters are put on birth control and it makes us less able to metabolize caffeine. One study looked at two groups. One was on birth control and one wasn’t and they saw it almost a double in the time it took to metabolize caffeine in the group that was on birth control.
The group that took birth control took double the time to actually metabolize the caffeine. Yeah. 10 hours. Whereas the other normal group six hours, there we Go. So that’s what I was talking about. It takes about six hours to get out of your system, but if You’re on birth control 10 hours, that’s insane. So if you’re on birth control and genetically you slowly metabolize caffeine,
you know, coffee is not ideal. Like, let’s say you have a 9:00 AM cup of coffee. It could still be affecting you when you’re trying to sleep at night, 10, 12 hours later. Yeah. So think about that. Yeah, Absolutely. And I want to make one note too, like we hate to come on the podcast and say,
don’t do this or don’t do that because we feel sometimes maybe we’re the, it’s a blanket statement. Like there’s so much there. Like maybe we’re the party poopers, you know, we’re just the messengers. We’re just the messengers of the information that’s available online. The research has available online. So we hope that you don’t take it the wrong way that we’re coming onto the podcast to tell you what not to do.
All we want to do is give you the, to research. And honestly, in many cases, the truth that’s out there that maybe you have not heard. So that’s the whole point of this episode is not to scare you. If you’re drinking a cup of coffee, we don’t want you to spit it up, get it out. You’re fine. You know,
this is just inform you and make you more aware of coffee and its impact so that maybe you can make some changes in your lifestyle that could benefit you further. Yeah, There’s so much, oh, sorry. There’s so much you can do instead to give you energy. For example, having a high protein breakfast, 35 to 40 grams of protein in the morning,
low sugar, you know, get a smoothie going with John, a lot of fruit in it, mostly protein powder and you know, high protein, dairy free milk. That’s great for giving you energy in the morning, making sure that you’re exercising. That’s not pumping cortisol all over the place, doing your slow weighted workouts, going gluten and dairy free.
So your stress, hormones and inflammation, insulin resistance, aren’t dysregulated because that can also affect your mood and fatigue and energy level. If your blood sugar is super low or super high, you can get tired. You know, you you’re, you have to learn like how to eat for your body and what to do, and not just rely on caffeine to solve the problem of fatigue.
You know? So we’re not trying to be a party pooper, just swap out the coffee with the cup of obesity, all have a high protein breakfast, and we’re good to Go. And really, if you’re with caffeine, just try as time mentioned, like look at the underlying issues, see the root causes. Maybe it’s your breakfast. You know,
like tie-ins set right now, high protein to carb ratio for breakfast can give you a lot more sustainable energy. So it maybe if you’re, if you’re making a certain breakfast that could be, what’s impacting you to have low energy levels throughout the day. So look into those kinds of things, your diet, your lifestyle, and then, and just like gradually reduce your caffeine intake.
You know, like, let’s start, let’s remember that caffeine is a drug. It’s not, not like a drug drug, but you know, it’s not found in our bodies. It’s, it’s, what’s the word, not synthetic, but it’s not found naturally in our bodies. It’s something that we introduce it into our bodies, so our bodies don’t need it.
So w what happens is we just get addicted to caffeine. So w would that being said, try to gradually reduce your intake. You know, if you’re having three cups, reduce the two for one week and then to one next week, see how you feel and then, you know, modify based on that. Yes. All right. That concludes our coffee Almost,
almost cause we do, we did ask you sisters in on Instagram. If you don’t follow us on Instagram, it’s weight loss. We do daily stories and poster about PCOS, of course. But we asked you sisters on Instagram direct message. How does caffeine affect your PCLs? And these are some of the responses that we got A, it gives me more energy.
Okay. Wait, hold on. Let me try explain this was pole. Oh, I’m sorry. This is a pole. Yeah. Please explain the pole, babe. Basically I put three answers and you guys voted which one? So how does caffeine affect your PCLs? The first answer was it gives me more energy and I feel better. 810 people voted.
Yes. Nice. The next one, it gives me energy, but then I crash and at night I can’t sleep 802 people said that this is what happens to them. Almost the same amount. It gives me anxiety 1,097. Wow. So majority says, yeah. And the interesting thing actually is if you, if you look at it logically there’s three answers.
Two of them being kind of negative, right? Because it gives me energy, but then I crash. And then, so, so then dominantly, the answers were kind of negative because 1,097 people said it gives them anxiety. 802 people said they crash and then can’t sleep. While only 810 said, gives me more energy and I feel better. So that’s like the minority there.
It just goes to show that so many people that have PCs that are following us that took this poll are having problems, metabolizing caffeine, because it’s giving them anxiety. It’s saying in their body, they can’t sleep as well. I mean, that could be anyone you really have to figure out if this is you so that you can, you know, think about cutting caffeine and improving your lifestyle.
Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. We hope you enjoyed this topic about peace cos and caffeine. We’re not done yet. We’re going to play a voicemail left by a fellow sister on our hotline. If you’re not aware, we do have a hotline that you can call and leave your messages on. You can even just text us there if you have a question as well,
but we love hearing your voice. The phone number is one eight three three, ask a S K P C O S. So one eight three three, ask P C O S. And our question our next or our next caller is here. My name is Ken. Hi. My name is Kim and I suffer from hair loss. What I believe is due to having PCLs,
but I’ve had the hair loss way before I was diagnosed. So along with the hair loss, especially like in the thoughts where it’s thin and even like bald, I have like a store in it and sometimes it gets inflamed and itchy. I’m just wondering, is that normal, you know, a normal thing to happen with someone who has hair loss through the PCLs or is it more of like a unique experience that I’m having with my,
thank you very much Question. I’m sure many sisters struggle with this because peace U S has an inflammatory component to it. Right. You know, a lot of us have a lot of inflammation. And with that, we can see that inflammation come out in and on our skin, not just our digestion, our mood, things like that, but we can visibly see it sometimes.
So sometimes going gluten and dairy free can really help with skin conditions. But that being said, you should definitely consult a doctor. It can be a multitude of different things. You know, it could be, I don’t know what it could be, but it could be anything you should definitely consult a doctor about if you’re having like a skin condition, but also keep in the back of your mind that gluten and dairy and inflammatory foods like this can affect the health of your skin and your hair and your scalp and dandruff and oil production too.
You know? So when you think about oil production, we always talk about how inflammatory foods can cause inflammation, the oil glands, which overproduce oil and cause cystic acne, not just that it can cause, you know, overproduction of oil in our hair and irritation, things like this. So consider going gluten and dairy free and definitely consult a doctor. And also can’t like testosterone buildup on the,
on the root of the heritage, which can maybe be contributing to her. Exactly. C H, T. And yeah, it can make your hair fall out. It can cause irritation where the hair is falling out. Yes. Yeah. And if you want to hear our episode about hair loss and reversing hair loss with PCs, we just recorded one a few weeks ago.
So please go ahead and check out that episode for the full details on how to reverse PSUs hair loss and more. And yeah, we hope that answer was helpful. Yes. And to the last part of the episode, our favorite part one might say the wins of the week. This is where we share a fellow sisters success with PCs and let your sisters know that there’s,
there are absolutely, there’s absolutely a way to reverse your symptoms and basically be a take control of your Body. Yes. Also with the first one, this one’s from Instagram, Stephanie or Tayka she says, thank you so much. I have been trying seriously on my gluten free and dairy free diets since January 1st, 2021, I have been incorporating slow weighted workouts and light cardio,
mostly on the elliptical. I am proud to say I lost five pounds since January 1st and more importantly, I feel good. I’m not tired anymore when I wake up. Thank you so much. I love your podcast. Tell Cedric. I said hello? Hello Stephanie. Hey girl. Hey, Hey. Hey, well, congrats to you. So happy for you.
I mean, you’ve only started January 1st and already seeing all these great results And like two weeks, cause this was sent a few Weeks ago. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. That’s right. This episode could be listen later on. Yeah. When we’re recording it, it’s only the 17th of January. So this is Great. So exciting. She also shares a picture of her own facet tall,
Actually it’s the 21st. I can’t believe I just skipped four days, but yeah. Great job, Stephanie. I love how she’s already better. Like she even said most importantly, I feel good And I love that. They’re like, I lost five pounds, but I feel so good. You know, like it’s not just like I lost five pounds and I’m starving,
you know? And I’m miserable. Yeah. And that’s like the again, here we go. See, like with another word here, that’s like the most defibrillating debilitating. Okay. Whatever is that like, you don’t feel good. A lot of times the, the systemic inflammation stress. And even when you’re trying to lose weight, you feeling all this it’s so overwhelming tornado.
Yeah. So, so happy for your stuff. We’re doing a great job. All right. And then the next sister is Samantha Marie. She says I lost four pounds in and it hasn’t even been a full week. Gluten dairy free. I’ve been struggling to lose one for months. I feel amazing and energized. Normally I wake up sluggish, achy,
bloated, and tired. I’m so excited for this journey. Woo. So excited to hear that. I love hearing when someone says I’ve been struggling to lose one pound, but I just lost four in a week. You know, that just shows the impact that inflammation and high insulin levels are causing. And it’s not just not just how many carbs you’re eating.
It’s not just, you know, all of that. It’s what you’re eating and how it’s affecting your blood sugar and how much insulin you’re is spiking when you eat dairy and how inflammation is being caused by gluten, like look at the effect that it has when you cut it out. Oh, amazing wins. Love wins. This is a great episode. We hope that when you hear us next time,
that we’ll be in our new office. AKA our old bedroom. Yes. How about we just get rid of a bedroom, babe. And we just make a second office and then we’ll just sleep in the living room. That’s what living is for blow Out the wall in between the office bedroom. Yeah. It’s like, it’s not like we’re renting this place,
you know, I’m sure the homeowners will be okay with it. Yeah. There’s two bedroom until one. Hopefully the next time you see us though, we’ll be in the new office, recording our podcast episode there. But until then, thank you so much for listening and we’ll be back next time. See you soon sisters. Bye bye. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast,
you have to come check out the sisterhood. It’s my monthly membership site, where sisters just like you are learning how to move through the stages of PCO S from stage one, cold and alone at the doctor’s office to stage five, nailing the PCs lifestyle, gluten and dairy free. Get ready to finally feel in control of your body. Again. Ah,
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