As a constant coffee drinker, I always wondered what the effects were, if there were instant or even long lasting effects, and how positive the effects can be. This research question affects me in many ways, in that learning how drinking my morning coffee can in fact have a very positive effect on my health and my daily life. My personal experience with this issue is a little connected because I enjoy drinking coffee and I tend to drink it in every opportunity I get, but I do not drink more than only one cup a day. The effects of drinking coffee, whether it is black or mixed with a bunch of creamer and sugar, could possibly not even concern me and the issues could only be with people who tend to drink three or more cups a day. I would say I am qualified enough to write about this because I have done my research and I am an avid coffee drinker so I experience the effects firsthand. I have also taken statistics on people who drink at least two or more cups of coffee a day and witnessed what effects drinking coffee that heavily has had on them. 

To best answer my research question, I will start off with these few sources. My first source, written by the Mayo Clinic Staff, is an article titled "Caffeine: How much is too much?" They first start of stating "Up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults." That is about four cups of coffee a day. Heavy caffeine use can cause unpleasant side effects, and caffeine may not be a good choice for people who are highly sensitive to its effects or who take certain medications. "Drinking more than four cups could cause effects like: Insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, upset stomach, or fast heartbeat." (Staff, Caffeine: How much is too much?). How you react to caffeine may be determined in part by how much caffeine you are used to drinking. People who do not regularly drink caffeine tend to be more sensitive to its negative effects. The major values and interests here are that if you tend to drink more than four cups of coffee you could have major health problems, but if not you should be fine and have to little no harmful effects. Caffeine isn't strong enough to give you instant effects so you will be fine after one cup, but after you reach three or four the caffeine is so strong it starts acting and speeding up different processes in your body (Staff, Caffeine: How much is too much?). Since this is a team of scientists who wrote the article, the credibility is valid and unbiased. They gathered facts and conducted experiments. 

My second source is an internet article written by Donald Hensrud, who is a Doctor of Medicine, and is titled "Is coffee good or bad for me?" In the article, Donald Hensrud starts of by stating that coffee has had a long history of being blamed for many ills, like stunting your growth, to claims that it causes heart disease or cancer. But he states that recent research indicates that coffee may not be so bad after all. So which is it, good or bad? Recent studies have generally found no connection between coffee and an increased risk of cancer or heart disease (Hensrud, Is coffee good or bad for me?). In fact, most studies find an association between coffee consumption and decreased overall mortality and possibly cardiovascular mortality. Donald also states that studies have also shown that coffee may have help protecting against Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease (Hensrud, Is coffee good or bad for me?). The major values and interests at stake here for the author is that coffee is in fact not bad for you. The author seems quite credible as he is a Doctor of Medicine and hopefully all of his facts have been researched from credibly sources or he has done his own experiments. 

My third article is sponsored by the AARP. Candy Sagon's article, titled "Caffeine for Your Health  --  Too Good to Be true?", starts off by listing negative effects like increase in anxiety, disrupt sleep patterns, increase in blood sugar, and even saying that caffeine can lead to spinal bone loss (Sagon, Caffeine for Your Health  --  Too Good to Be True?). But, she quickly states that this is only for people who consume high amounts of caffeine and for the standard person it is actually healthy. A 2013 study by Harvard's School of Public Health found that those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day cut their suicide risk by 45 percent because caffeine's stimulant effect helps boost people's moods. It also lowers the risk of oral cancers, stroke and Alzheimer's (Sagon, Caffeine for Your Health  --  Too Good to Be True?). The major values at work here is that there are very low risks in drinking coffee and it can be very healthy and have positive effects. Considering the author is a health writer for the AARP, you can assume she is a pretty credible author in that she does her research before she writes her article.

My research question has been argued, researched, and discussed numerous times throughout the years. Most of my sources have provided facts on both the positive, and negative, effects but most articles state that it relies very heavily on how much a person drinks, how old they are, and how fast they can metabolize the caffeine. Their perspectives on whether coffee is good or bad for you has led me to believe that because I only drink one cup a day, coffee is actually good for me and it makes my body healthier. Because most of the research has already been conducted on the benefits of coffee my research would not necessarily add anything new in. Because of this, I could possibly change my research question to more narrow effects that coffee could have on someone. 

