Coffee been shown over and again to be good for your insides, with some study or another showing a positive effect on just about every organ in your body. But the same cannot necessarily be said for your outsides—your face, in particular. Now a new article in the Daily Mail outlines some of the ways coffee can affect your face, from eye problems to blotchiness to dry, wrinkly skin.
In the article, Dr. Ahmed El Muntasar of The Aesthetics Clinic in London discusses how too much caffeine “can affect the face and make you look older.” Now, the first of Dr. El Muntasar’s claims is in my own scientific opinion dubious. He claims that too much coffee can lead to dry skin, the basis for this assertion being that coffee is a diuretic and thus causes you to dehydrate more quickly via urination. And while it is true that coffee is a diuretic, it is also 98% water, and studies have previously shown that the amount of water lost due to caffeine-induced urination doesn’t eclipse the amount consumed via the coffee that caused it.
But this isn’t the only means proffered through which coffee affects your skin. Dr. El Muntasar notes that caffeine causes vasoconstriction, the shrinking of blood vessels in the body that can cause skin to dry out. Excessive caffeination can also cause open sores and inflammation to take longer to heal.
Indirectly, excessive caffeine intake can negatively impact your complexion due to additional stress it may cause. Per the article, caffeine causes adrenaline to be released in our bodies, which can increase stress. This also causes the release cortisol in the kidneys, a stress hormone. Cortisol’s affect on the skin includes increased oil production “causing blocked pores and acne” and breaking down collagen, “which could also accelerate sagging.”
Likewise, much of caffeine’s effects on the eyes is derived indirectly. For instance, the article states that too much coffee can lead to dry eyes because excessive caffeine could cause insomnia, which could in turn dry out the eyes. More directly, Dr. El Muntasar states that caffeine “can affect the blood vessels in the eyes,” which can lead to double vision, tunnel vision, and blurriness.
Personally, I’ll live with a little wizening if it means I get to keep my coffee. And besides, a blocked pore or two is nothing a nice coffee scrub can’t take care of. Sunrise, sunset.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
