Most people love their cup of tea or coffee, however, in this week's papers you may have read that people who drink too much coffee could start seeing ghosts or hearing strange voices. The research, conducted by Durham University (funded by Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council) and published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, points to the fact that coffee boosts levels of cortisol.
The research was undertaken with 200 students who were drinking nothing other than coffee. ‘ High caffeine users’ – those who consumed more than the equivalent of seven cups of instant coffee a day – were three times more likely to have heard a person’s voice when there was no one there compared with ‘low caffeine users’ who consumed less than the equivalent of one cup of instant coffee a day.
The NHS website 'Behind the headlines' notes that ’ this is preliminary research only, and as the authors state, the effect was only weak, and therefore it should not be a cause for alarm in people who drink coffee or other beverages containing caffeine’. Moderate caffeine intake is safe for the general population. Our advice to pregnant women is that they need to watch how much coffee they drink. It's important not to have too much caffeine because high levels of caffeine can result in babies having a low birth weight. When you're pregnant, it’s best not to have more than 200mg of caffeine a day. Visit our eatwell website to find out a rough guide to how much this is. Research in this area continues and if you're interested or want to take part in these studies visit the Durham University website.