A wildly popular health & wellbeing influencer recently published a podcast episode titled Coffee Causes Wrinkles and Thins Lips (you will know if you follow him). And not just coffee, the entire caffeine family (green tea, chocolate, etc.) is apparently a beauty killer. Ouch.

As a coffee lover, after hearing this my emotions went from outrage to fear and denial. Saying to myself: “If I can't have coffee, I don't want to look young.” Wait, this was my coffee addiction speaking. Of course I don't want to trade taut skin for coffee.

But I have to admit, my coffee abstinent periods always rewarded me with better sleep, more Zen, and indeed plumper lips until I was pulled back again into the vortex of liquid ambition.

Because I like scientific explanations to claims, I dug a little into the modern research and here I am spilling the beans...

The Downsides

Coffee Dehydrates and Thins Lips

Starting with the first claim about coffee dehydrates and thins the lips. You may have noticed that you need to pee more often after drinking coffee? Also, lips tend to get dry? The urge to empty the bladder more often and dry lips are indicators of dehydration and here is why:

Caffeine increases urine production and the urgency to empty the bladder comes earlier than if you would just drink water. This happens because caffeine is blocking adenosine receptors , meaning it stops the cells natural function to respond to adenosine. Adenosine receptors are in the brain, blood vessels and kidneys. The kidneys—a pair of bean-shaped organs— are our water filtration system, keeping the salt and water household balanced and produce pee.

When caffeine blocks adenosine, the blood vessels in the superficial area of the kidneys dilate and the filtration rate of water and salt from the blood is increased. In other words, caffeine makes you lose water and salt faster than normal. This is one theory why coffee is dehydrating but there is another one.

Another theory is that caffeine inhibits the salt reuptake in the kidneys. This causes an imbalance in the salt and water ratio. Water always wants to follow salt. Wherever salt goes, water follows. Many people skimp on salty foods to avoid puffiness. But when we lack salt, we dry out because H2O isn't streaming into the cells.

The sad thing about caffeine is that blocking adenosine means, the cell's request for water is ignored. Cells release adenosine to tell blood vessels when they need water and nutrients. When we drink coffee, we disturb the natural cell signaling and hydration system.

We have sound proof that coffee dehydrates but an important factor is the caffeine amount. What stood out to me was the high caffeine amounts given to the volunteering peers in the studies, ranging from 400–800 mg/d, which is equivalent to 3–6+ cups of coffee a day (one cup brewed with 2 tbsp of ground coffee has a bout 120 mg of caffeine ).

It seems that dehydration of our skin and lips depends on the number of cups we drink. My personal observation is that one cup of coffee brewed with 1 1/2 tbsp of ground coffee doesn't make my lips dry but when I increase the dose, they shrivel. If you also notice this, play with the ratios and observe how you feel and how your lips feel.

Coffee Is a Wrinkle Maker

And here to the next claim. Is coffee a wrinkle maker? Kind of and it may contribute in four different ways.

Number One

Caffeine leaches calcium from the bones and this stripping can thin the face skeleton. Skin sagging and wrinkle formation have a lot more to do with the facial bone than we are aware of. Bones, including teeth are the scaffolding of the face that keeps the soft tissues in place and the cheekbones high. For example nasolabial folds deepen simultaneously with the slow and steady flattening of the cheekbones .

How does caffeine do that? Caffeine increases the calcium clearance by 77% . A domino effect initiated by the salt water imbalance. Calcium needs water and sodium to be reabsorbed. If water and salt is low (which it is as mentioned in the part about dehydration), calcium is low. However, the amount of caffeine that was given to the study volunteers was 800 mg of caffeine. Again, a pretty hefty dose that equals about 13 tablespoons of ground coffee a day. To make a good tasting cup of coffee, you need about 2 tablespoons per cup. This means it would take 6 cups of coffee or more a day to imitate the same conditions from the study. If 6 cups is what you have a day but you don't want to lose previous facial bone, you know what I am going to say (I say it quietly and softly, cuuuut baaaack).

Number Two

Caffeine manipulates GABA pathways and receptors. GABA is a neurotransmitter that keeps our nervous system calm. When coffee inhibits normal GABA function, neurons get more excited, which evokes tiny muscle contractions. GABA helps to keep dynamic wrinkles smooth and has received a reputation as a natural Botox alternative and even called “Slow Botox”. 

Number Three

Caffeine is known to supercharge athletic performance, which is accredited to the boost in the skeletal muscles. The scientific explanation for this extra kick is the calcium release from cell storages, which aids stronger and more frequent muscle contractions. While this is helpful for competitive sport enthusiasts, for us who are trying to retain a wrinkle-free face, it's not good news. Because the truth is, frown lines and crow's feet (among other dynamic wrinkles) are a consequence of muscle contractions and a reason why Botox is so popular.

The facial skin is directly connected to the face muscles to ensure face expressions—a survival mechanism to communicate non-verbally. The more muscle contractions we have in our face, the sooner these movements carve permanent lines.

Number Four

Another downside of caffeine worth to mention is that excessive use keeps your sympathetic nervous system alert and your cortisol levels high. This causes inflammation and reduces skin elasticity from collagen breakdown.

Coffee Disrupts Beauty Sleep

Sometimes coffee's competence to keep us wake is the whole point for drinking it, for example to get more done or to meet deadlines. But gaining the extra focus needed to get to the finish line can leave us with dark circles and an overall tired look. Coffee too late in the day or excessive amounts disrupt our sleep and research shows that sleep deprived people are perceived as less attractive.

When your coffee intake disturbs your sleep, you are more likely waking up with dark circles. There are different types of dark circles, but the ones that creep in from a lack of sleep are stagnant blood shining through the thin eye area, because a lack of sleep disturbs the blood circulation and removal of waste products.

Also, the blood flow is increased during sleep , which delivers nutrients, oxygen and rejuvenating growth hormones to the skin, needed for collagen production and skin renewal. If your beauty snooze it interrupted, this repair comes to a halt.

Sleep regulates our hormones, and hormones determine largely how well we look (and feel).

And lastly but not less important, the hormone melatonin has a double role as internal snooze button and highly potent antioxidants. Antioxidants are longevity molecules and a lack of them send cells into retirement. Since caffeine decreases the melatonin production at night , cell retirement can come earlier than expected.

There is no better beauty product than the nutrient cocktail you get from proper beauty sleep and I really wouldn't trade it for drug-induced productivity.

Coffee & Inflammaging

Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, which increases cortisol release. While short-term cortisol reduces inflammation, chronically high cortisol causes inflammation. Inflammation is accepted as a major ager in science because of its destructive nature on cells. Inflammaging has therefore become a buzz word that unites a problem and its cause into one word.

However, elevated cortisol levels from coffee seem to affects sporadic coffee drinkers more than their habitual counterparts as regular caffeine consumption leads to a desensitization over time. At least in the research lab.

A sign that coffee keeps your cortisol too high is restlessness, jitter, and anxiety.

Coffee can cause inflammation via another route. The increase in stress hormones moves glucose from the liver, which can spike the blood sugar and cause inflammation. A pinch of cinnamon in coffee helps to move the sugar out of the blood into the cells , where it belongs (and it tastes good too). True Ceylon cinnamon is easier on the liver than the cassia variety. More solutions are coming further down.

The Upsides 

Antioxidants in Coffee Kills Brown Spots

Coffee has more than 1000 compounds in each bean and a lot more to offer than just caffeine. Coffee is the main source of polyphenols, a group of specific antioxidants whose beauty benefits are inflammation reduction and collagen protection, just to name a couple. Catechins for example, high in coffee and green tea reduce oxidative stress and activate mitochondria, very important factors for cellular youth.

According to research, drinking coffee reduces skin aging. Even though there are plenty of plausible and researched reasons how coffee's caffeine causes wrinkles, the anti-inflammatory power of coffee's polyphenols on skin, could outweigh the downsides. Skin aging has a lot more to do with discoloration than wrinkles and overall it seems, the more coffee and green tea a woman drinks, the less age spots she has.

Coffee is also effective in recovering collagen type I from UV-damage by protecting stem cells.

Can Coffee Replace Fasting?

Some mind-blowing news I came across is that caffeine suppresses aging by activating autophagy, a rejuvenating cell process that rids cells of damaged proteins, fats and DNA. To achieve autophagy, you usually have to push through hunger pangs (fasting at least 17h) or need a high-intensity cardio exercise session. if you have done a fast, you know how rejuvenating autophagy is on the face. Even though the discovery was made on mouse skin, it is a start for more research.

Can You Elongate Telomeres? Yes, with Coffee

Scientists can determine aging based on the length of telomeres. Telomeres are the end caps of our chromosomes—the little x's and y's in our cell cores entangled in a triple string of genetic blueprint. With each cell division, a piece of telomers gets chopped off and the more cell divisions, the shorter the telomeres and the wrinklier our face. This shocking truth has fueled a lot of ambition to find a solution that keep telomeres long or even make them longer again. And, Tada, caffeine seems to do exactly that. Chinese scientists have discovered that caffeine stimulates telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) , the enzyme known to elongate telomers—despite the promising news, this was also only tested on rodents.

Coffee = Blood Flow Increase = More Youth

One of the signs of aging is a decreased blood flow and density of blood capillaries. This makes the transport of nutrients, oxygen, growth hormones and other rejuvenating molecules to our tissues difficult and ultimately leads to a downward spiral of more aging. Better blood flow gives a rosy glow and you look instantly refreshed. You can see this after a walk or exercising.

Nitric oxide is gas that is a key component for better blood flow as it dilates the blood vessels. Turns out coffee stimulates nitric oxide , and dilates blood vessels. You might have noticed an instant blood rush after a cup of coffee.

And drinking coffee is fun! Joys makes everyone look beautiful.

Below some actionable tweaks that make your morning cup of coffee even more beautifying.

How to Make Coffee More Beautifying 

Rehydrate

The most obvious remedy to counteract dehydration is to replenish with water. We obviously lose water and with it, electrolytes quicker. Liquids rich in electrolytes like spring water, juicy fruits or vegetable juices hydrate more effectively than tap water. Hydrate before you have your first coffee and if you have a second, rehydrate again before.

Take a Break

Caffeine lingers. When caffeine breaks down, paraxanthine is released. High and daily doses of caffeine, lead to an accumulation of paraxanthine in the cell plasma, which ironically inhibits caffeine clearance.

To break this cycle, and avoid disruptions of beauty sleep, I found that having coffee-free days help. Seeing coffee as a treat rather than a necessity to get through the day is something that works for me.

Coffee O'clock Is AM

Keeping coffee as a morning ritual is best to avoid disruptions in your night time sleep. Caffeine has a relatively long half-life of 3–7 h in adults, which means if you have your last coffee at 3 pm and your body metabolizes slowly, you still have half the caffeine in your system at 10 pm.

Although, experts recommend to wait with the first cup of coffee until 2 hours after waking. Our natural cortisol levels are at peak 45 minutes after waking. If we add extra cortisol with a cup of coffee during that time, it means a double spike of the stress hormone and a disruption in the cortisol flow, which can be very hard on the female hormone balance.

Organic coffee Is Better For Your Skin

Choosing organic coffee isn't just better for the lack of pesticides, it also has more antioxidants than conventionally grown coffee. 

Choosing a medium roast over light or dark roast increases the antioxidant capacity of your brew even more. And 3 minutes of brewing time extracts more antioxidants than 6 minutes.

Avoid Mold in Coffee

Coffee beans can harbor mold and their spores release some nasty toxins (mycotoxins ) that cause hormone imbalance, liver damage and oxidative stress , which means more aging. It's worth finding coffee tested for mycotoxins to avoid negative impacts not just for the love of your looks but for how you feel. Mycotoxins are hard on the nervous systems and can cause the jittery feeling, neck tension or a clenching jawline that is often mistaken as side effect of the caffeine itself. Neck tension also contributes to an aged appearance because stiff neck muscles can pull facial muscles down, making jowls more obvious.

My favorite mycotoxin-free coffees are 

Byron Bay Coffee & Co. and 

Zenbunni.

Take a Walk

Sitting down while having a coffee is a nice ritual but staying seated when the cortisol kicks in, could give you neck tension (and wrinkles) because the cortisol isn't used to move muscles. This also increases the risk of Inflammaging.

Keep your Liver Happy

A large portion of caffeine is metabolized by the liver , meaning that if the liver is burdened with alcohol, drugs, chemicals or a fatty diet, caffeine clearance slows down.

Medicinal Mushroom Add More Beauty to Your Coffee

Have your tried medicinal herbs or mushrooms in your coffee? This is something I learned from my favorite cafe/naturopathic clinic Orchard St when I lived in Bondi Beach (Sydney's watered-down version of Venice Beach). They may have been trailblazers by adding medicinal herbs to their hot beverages.

Here some examples:

Reishi is the 'longevity mushroom' in Traditional Chinese Medicine and has also received the reputation for being the queen among the healer mushrooms .

Tremella is hailed as the 'beauty mushroom' because of its hydrating properties.

Schisandra is called the 'beauty berry' for its revitalizing and detoxifying properties. It is liver strengthening and nourishing to the adrenals.

Stir a 1/4 tsp of powder to your hot coffee and you may get some beauty benefits from your coffee.

Herbal tea that activates GABA naturally can help you wind down and relax your dynamic wrinkles after a caffeine-filled productive phase.

· Valerian

· Hops

· Passionflower

· German Chamomile

· Californian Poppy

What Did We Learn from This?

Alchemist Paracelsus said: “The dose makes the poison”. This 700-year-old quote is as brilliant as timeless. By applying this to the findings, I conclude: The question if coffee kills our beauty is more nuanced and dependent on our behavior with it.

Coffee, black and green tea contain a powerful psychoactive drug that is not only addictive; it also desensitizes to the effect it has on us and needs steady increase of the dose to feel the same. The research shows that high doses and not the consumption itself is what harms us.

There is no magic potion or supplement that reverses any negative effects of caffeine. The best solution is dosing discipline and occasional abstinence to avoid the need for steady increase.

A good relationship to our body plays a big part of breaking coffee addiction. Listening attentively and acting accordingly is our best wellbeing tool and more meaningful than scientific data.

To this I raise my chipped, hand-glazed mug filled with reishi spiked, organic coffee and celebrate that my favorite morning ritual isn't making my face fall off after all.