I’ve been told by multiple people that I’m a coffee addict and probably should cut back. While that may be true, it’s definitely a part of me now. I started drinking coffee heavily my senior year of highschool, and visited Starbucks daily and by freshmen year of college, I was hooked.

Coffee or any type of caffeine is an essential part of our lives, especially when you're a stressed college student. It’s need for those late night study sessions or those long boring morning classes. Coffee helps me get through it all.

Most of you know that caffeine has kept you up all night for almost anything and there are negative effects to that, but you should know despite caffeine having negative effects to your health, there are definitely positive side effects. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 80 percent of people in the U.S. consume caffeine every day and it changes the way your brain and body work. I probably consume caffeine at least once (...or three times) a day. Like I’ve said already, believe it or not, certain amount of caffeine consumption can be beneficial. For example, some studies say, caffeine is the most active ingredient in diet pills because it increases metabolism by breaking down fat, freeing fatty acids and forcing them to be burned. Other researchers have shown that caffeine improves memory as well as research at John Hopkin’s University so, caffeine helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. Also caffeine improves reaction time and logical reasoning when sleep is not possible or restricted, for example, people usually consume caffeine before or during taking an exam because it keeps them awake and alert, and studies have shown that brain responses are more beneficial to caffeine takers.

Now if you’re anything like me, and can’t go a day without coffee, then congratulations, you are addicted too! Sometimes there are days where I think I should decrease my intake of caffeine or at least get decaf but instead I went and looked into some negative effects too. Drinking coffee on the daily can raise your blood pressure and even throw off your sleep patterns and it also causes dehydration, if consumed too much.

Everyone has different amounts of consumption and everything just depends on the person's ability of tolerance and everyone has different reactions to the advantages or disadvantages. So is caffeine good for you or bad for you? That’s for you to decide.

So before you start your coffee maker at home to take a visit to your local coffee shop, keep this in mind and if you think you’re taking in too much caffeine, cut back slowly and be in control of your caffeine consumption.